Groupama III: Around the World in Less than 50 Days

As the bows of the mighty trimaran Groupama 3 passed an imaginary line off of the Créac’h lighthouse at 21:40 UTC on Saturday, the green lady became the fastest boat to circumnavigate the Earth non-stop, ever*. With an all-star crew, and a wind machine he has pushed to the edge and beyond, Franck Cammas has skippered his way around the world faster than any other, and earned one of the most important and coveted awards in sailing, the Jules Verne Trophy.

With a time of 48 days 7 hours and 44 minutes, Groupama 3 comfortably bested the previous record of 50d 16h 20m 4s, held by Bruno Peyron on the catamaran Orange 2 since 2005. This is the same Bruno Peyron who took the original Jules Verne Trophy in 1994 by rounding the world in less than 80 days (the award being based on the Jules Verne Book “Around the World in 80 Days”). This means that in a mere 16 years, the around the world sailing record has been cut nearly in half.

Simon Ammann – 233m – Planica 2009!

Fantastic and unbelievable jump by Simon Amman.12m high and 233m long !!!

Alpha Romeo Wins 2009 Sidney-Hobart Yacht Race

After sailing a near perfect tactical race in extremely difficult conditions, with extremes from a testing 25-knot southerly, with a bumpy seaway through the first night, to a calm in the notoriously rough and windy Bass Strait, Neville Crichton’s Alfa Romeo was first to finish in the 2009 Sydney Hobart Race, with an elapsed time of two days, 9hrs, 2mins, 10secs for the 628nm course.

Athlete’s Foot

Sprinters are different from other people:

Dr Lee and Dr Piazza already knew that sprinters tend to have a higher proportion of fast-twitching muscle fibres in their legs than more sedentary folk can muster. (These fibres, as their name suggests, provide instant anaerobic pulling power, rather than the sustained, oxygen-consuming effort that is needed by longer-distance runners.) They suspected, though, that they would find differences in the bone structure as well. And they did.

They looked at seven university sprinters who specialise in the 100-metre dash and five 200-metre specialists, and compared them with 12 non-athletic university students of the same height. In particular, they looked at the sizes of bones of the toes and heel. They also used ultrasonic scanning to measure the sliding motion of the Achilles tendons of their volunteers as their feet moved up and down. This allowed them to study the length of the lever created by the tendon as it pulls on the back of the heel to make the foot flex and push off the ground.

Jenson Button & Brawn GP Formula One World Champions

Alain Robert, The French Spiderman, Strikes Again

The Frenchman best known for scaling skyscrapers, pulled it off again on Thursday, climbing almost 800 feet on the face of Paris’s Ariane building.

40 Years Ago, Robin Knox-Johnston’s Golden Globe Victory

I am a little late on this one. On 14 June 1968 the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race started at Falmouth. Robin Knox-Johnston rounded Cape Horn on 17 January 1969, 20 days before his closest competitor Bernard Moitessier who abandoned the race. Thus, Knox-Johnston became the first man to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and single-handed on 22 April 1969, the day he returned to Falmouth. He donated his prize money to the family of Donald Crowhurst, who committed suicide during the race.

A short interview of Robin Knox-Johnston talking of his exploit and his ship Suhaili can be found here.

The Kiwis win the Audi MedCup

Emirates Team New Zealand won their fourth regatta on the trot and are Audi MedCup 2009 TP52 champions. Immaculate team work, consistently strong tactics and perfect reliability underpinned a comprehensive overall victory for Emirates Team New Zealand who lifted the 2009 Audi MedCup Circuit Trophy in Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Lead by skipper Dean Barker (NZL), the New Zealand team won four of this season’s five regattas culminating in their dominant performance at this Caja Mediterraneo Region of Murcia regatta. With a second place there, they won by 13 points over Portugal’s Bigamist 7, while Quantum Racing (USA), the outgoing champions, finished third in the regatta and secured the runners-up on the season standings 78 points behind the Kiwi team. Artemis (SWE)finished third in the season standings, six points behind Quantum.
Event website here.

IMOCA Open 60 – Istanbul-Europa-Race – Leg 3 – Barcelona ESP-Brest FRA

Yesterday, the six teams started in Barcelona to the 3rd and last leg of the newly created Istanbul-Europa-Race. Over a distance of 1900 miles, the Iberic peninsula has to be rounded. During the first day, variable winds influenced by passing thunderstorms prevailed. Michel Désjoyeaux FRA (‘Foncia’) has taken an 8 miles lead on ‘Veolia’ with Roland Jourdain FRA during the last night. The overall leader Guillermo Altadill ESP (‘Estrella Damm’) has already some difficulties being 30 miles behind. The race-viewer, the daily report and the videos of the day.

Federer: Out Of This World

In his semi-final against Djokovic at the US Open, the world’s top-ranked player punctuated the victory Sunday with a winner, hit backward between his legs, to set up match point.