February 2009 Sailing Articles

Here they are!  The first rankings released this spring season.  The rankings are compiled by Sailing World Magazine and determined by the coaches of the ICSA.  In this new system, every coach gets 1 vote to rank all the teams.  See below for details.  Latest Rankings (February 26, 2008) Coed [#] = first-place votes received Total Points     01. St. Mary's [16] 576 11. MIT 260 02. Boston College [13] 550 12. Boston Univ. 252 03. Roger Williams 507 13. South Florida 245 04. Georgetown 452 14. Stanford 231 05. Harvard 410 15. SUNY Maritime 221 06. Yale [1] 396… more »

VIOLENT SQUALLS BRING BIG GAINS AND LOSSES   By VolvoOceanRace.org 2/25/09 1300 GMT All five boats racing down the South Pacific Ocean in leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race are engaged in a battle with nature.  The doldrums and the associated clouds and squalls are causing big gains and huge losses across the fleet as the boats get pushed further away from their optimum courses by the unstable weather.     “It’s all about your route through the cloud minefield,” says Guy Salter from Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) who is clinging onto first place.  “Often you just can’t avoid them… more »

By Martin Tasker for TVNZ.co.nz So how do we measure the success of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series? Well, given that it is the America's Cup in microcosm, maybe the best analysis would be via the mantra of Mr America's Cup Dennis Conner who always referred to the quest for the world's oldest international sporting trophy as "a game of life." What constitutes a game of life? It must surely have drama, intrigue, high emotion, low emotion, brain power, technology, personalities, controversy, back-stabbing, front-stabbing, creativity, courage, endurance, sporting excellence, pain, laughter, tears, outrage, theatre, the list is endless. Looking at… more »