Author: Liam

St Annes Beach situated in England was considered to be the spiritual home of the sport-sand yachting. But due to the unfortunate death of Carole Cruz who was hit by a sand yacht in the year 2002 at the beach, sand yachting was banned in this Lancashire beach.

However, the authorities are planning to remove the ban on the sport and reintroduce it in the area. On the 18^th and 19^th of October, 2014 test trial of sand yachting is going to be carried out and the sport will make its comeback after around twelve years if the officials of the Flyde Council are happy with all the basic arrangements.

Business leaders and traders belonging to the region are of the opinion that the return of sand yachting will give the necessary boost to not only the Flyde coast but also the tourism industry in Lancashire.

According to John Moxham (member of the St Annes Chamber of Trade) sand yachting’s initial impact would be considerably small but its impact would grow slowly and slowly. He thinks that sand yachting will take sometime to reach its fullest potentials. Moxham hopes that one day sand yachting at St Annes Beach would become an international event and people from all over the world would come to participate in it.

Trax Windsports’s owner- Eddie Sloane said that sand yachting will obviously have a positive impact as young people will get an opportunity to be involved in the sport. But he thinks sand yachting should be made sustainable and safe so that each and every person can get a chance to enjoy the beach and its beauty in the best possible way.

The sand yachting demonstration event that is going to take place in the month of October, 2014 is going to be organized by the York Landyacht Club.

In the past eleven times, the Morgan Cup Invitational Team Race was either won by Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club or host New York Yacht Club. Now, the Newport Harbor Yacht Club ensured that it would not happen in this year and New York Yacht Club got the Morgan Cup in a great manner.

The website of the New York Yacht Club boasted NHYC’s feat saying: “Newport Harbor Wins 2014 Morgan Cup: It’s a Cinderella Story.” A pinch to the regatta format got another life into the prospects of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club winning Morgan Cup at Harbour Court on Sunday, in Newport, R.I.  It was retweeted by hundreds, not least the PlainSailing.com twitter account.

Then, the whole team took full advantage of the scope, fighting through a handful of win-or-get-out games to claim one of team racing’s coveted honors. In doing that, the Newport Harbor became the 3rd yacht club to win Morgan Cup, as  Seawanhaka Corinthian and New York had won it since the year 2003.

In a press release, Newport Harbor Yacht Club captain Brian Bissell said: “We hold [the Morgan Cup] as probably the toughest event on the [yacht club team racing] circuit,”

“There’s a reason only two teams have ever won it; it’s because those two teams are really good. We’re happy to be the first non-New York or Seawanhaka team to win it.”

He added that they started off a bit slow, they lost their first 3 races of the event and they ended the 1st day below .500. On Saturday, they thought that they were eliminated. However, the next day with all boats being organized on the starting line, they timed it right and came in with a full head of steam in the light air races. The starts were very important.

Without any fanfare, they have come to Dennis Conner International Yacht Club Challenge; and at Opening Ceremony, they called themselves as the most humble squad at the regatta. They told the tale regarding how they skinned together funds for their thirty six hour flight to New York by wooing donations. They were really surprised at the generous sources whose given  amounts made their participation possible. Tonight at the regatta dinner, they are sponsored by a member of a local club.

In spite of all these, or probably because of it, they stay on the top of the standings after the first day. This dark horse squad is a bunch of sailors representing Royal Capt Yacht Club from South Africa. all of them have their dream about sailing in an international contest and today they are on the top with 5–2–1 finishes. Denmark’s The Royal Danish Yacht Club is in 2nd with a 4–4–2. In the 3rd, it was The Manhattan Yacht Club with a 1–9–3.

Dennis Conner passed the day seeing the races when entertaining different dignitaries. After sailing, all the squads gather ed on the 157 foot lovely yacht Arabella. The racing again starts tomorrow, but tonight is the Steak Dinner with Dennis Conner.

Meanwhile, athletes continue to take part in the “Ice Bucket Challenge” to assemble money and awareness for ALS research, and LeBron James has joined in. The Cleveland Cavaliers star completed the challenge on a yacht and he nominated his two kids and US President Barack Obama.

The New Zealand sailing team recently finished the ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres, in France successfully with 4 medals in their kitty, which included 2 gold medals, 2 silver medals, while two ace sailors finished just behind the 4th position in the competition. The overall race went quite well for them, which the victories for the kiwis came from Jo Aleh, Blair Tuke(49er), Polly Powrie (Women’s 470) and Peter Burling, who were medalists in the London Olympics for New Zealand. Both Polly Powrie and Jo Aleh have bagged gold medals back to back at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma during early april, followed by Hyeres. Powrie commented that as a team they have put up a great show and she is much happy that they are heading home after this.

The Silver medal was bagged by Andy Maloney in the Laser, post quite a close race for the medal with Australian Tom Burton. The other Kiwi crew who won the silver in Hyeres is Alexandra Maloney in the 49erFX class. Tuke and Burling were quite dominant throughout the week in the competition, a rounded off the race quite spectacularly is an emphatic way with 3 great races in the finale, including an opening gun. Strikingly, out of the top ten ones to finish in Hyeres, eight were from team New Zealand. This was another feather in the cap for the New Zealand sailing team.

Since the ISAF Sailing World Cup Palma Regatta, in April 2014, this year’s race was quite an improvement, since in the previous race the NZL Team hauled only 2 gold medals (49er and Women’s 470) while only 5 finished in the top 10. These spectacular results have made the New Zealand sailing team one of the top performers at the regatta, as they bagged the equal number of Medals as Poland and Australia.