Cool Runnings wins Tour Belle Ille in spectacular fashion

The Open 7.50 "Cool Runnings", skippered by Thorkild Juncker and with Jochem Visser on tactics, surprised friend and foe in the predominantly light Tour de belle Ille.
The French equivalent of the Round the Island Race attracts one of te most spectacular fleets ranging from the small, but fast and furious, Open 7.50 to the impressive MOD 70 trimaran’s. The race is held every year in May from the town of La Trinite Sur Mer, a village which has been connected with a long history of sailing.
Cool Runnings managed to make their race winning move when most of the fleet struggled to get through the narrow passage, which leads the Quiberon bay in to more open water. In adverse tide conditions the crew of Cool Runnings took a bolt move to use a rocky island, which forms the base for a lighthouse, to shelter from the strong currents.  Finding a rare back eddy they managed to slingshot themselves around the cardinal mark in 2^nd place on the water, well applauded and cheered on by the spectators,  in the primarily bigger fleet. Leaving all the MOD 70’s and the rest of the fleet behind. The tactics paid off well and propelled the British based team into a comfortable lead to win their class easily.

Xp 33 Bon eXemple wins Warsash Spring Series Championships with 9 point lead

The XP 33 on the hunt on the final run of the last race

The XP 33 won the Warsash Spring Series in IRC class 2 with a convincing lead of 9 points. Skipper Jochem Visser praised his team and crew and explained the final weekend performance:

 "On the Saturday we scored a 2,2,2,3 were we narrowly missed the 1st place by a few seconds. We did well but struggled to keep clear lanes on the 4 very short races which were challenged by short venomous shifts. The bigger 40' feet boats La Response and Premier Flair gained points on us. But on Sunday the XP 33 showed her pedigree and all roundness winning both races." Jochem recalls the last race in particular: “The final race was very short and lasted less than 30 minutes. In those short races the big boats can easily sail you back and put some time on you but……..in this case the rolls were nearly reversed as the XP 33 arrived literally bow to bow with them at the top mark”. On the final run the XP 33 excelled and trailed them close on their stern to secure victory in the last race as well.

When we asked Jochem how the XP 33 compared to his X-99, in which he won 2 World titles in the 90’s, he looked up at us like an exited teenager; “The X-99 has been very special to me as I won my 1^st ever World title in her, but she wasn’t an easy boat to sail and needed a lot of skills and a very dedicated crew to sail her fast. The XP 33 has really impressed me, I love to have a tiller again with finger tip control and I really like her clean simple set up and more importantly she sails and performs at a high level really easy. If I think back about my X-99 days and how much we improved season upon season I’m convinced there is much more my team can do with the XP 33. To put it simply; I've fallen in love with the XP 33 and I think she is a weapon”

Full results on the Warsash Spring series here: http://www.warsashspringseries.org.uk/

Xp 33 takes convincing lead in the Warsash spring series championships.

 With only a few hours on the water before the first start, the British Xp 33 BoneXemple, showed impressive performance with a 4,1,1,1,1 scoreline in the heavily contested IRC 2 class.

 Jochem Visser and his team admitted being slightly nervous and anxious taking her out with so little time on the water in a well establised and compettitive fleet. Jochem commented;" Coming of the start line we quickly realised that we could keep up with most of the substantially bigger boats in this fleet. The boat did not only perform extremely well up wind it did even better on the following run. With winds ranging between 6 and 18 kts over the two days we discovered the Xp 33 has quite an amazing array of "speed tools".

 With her high stability we could pick up speed easily upwind and with the use of the jib in-barber system could then convert this into a very high pointing mode or a fast lower mode. It always feels great if you can either point higher then your opponents or go faster." The new Xp33 is focussed on high stability and allround performance with the rudder more forward underneath the hull to improve efficiency. Jochem said " It feels really comfortable to drive. With some boats you struggle to find a balance between too much heel and the need to sail lower to pick up speed. The Xp33 has so much stability that a simple nudge on the tiller to bearaway instantly translates into more speed. With the rudder deep under the hull it creates very good "grip" and I was amazed that it took me less then a one beat to get to know her. I was very suprised how we quite quickly took it for granted that we were sailing boat for boat with those in the fleet 7 feet bigger!"

All in all he was very happy with the boat and his team's performance. " There is still a lot we can do to improve and I'm convinced there is still more untapped potential. I'm really looking forward to next weekend"

Full results here: http://www.warsashspringseries.org.uk/

Fun on Foils

Xp33 review Voile at the Paris boatshow

Middle Sea Race win

 Xp 44 places 3rd Overall and 1st in class In IRC as well ORC in Rolex Middle Sea Race 2012

A record entry of eighty-three yachts lined up in the historic Grand Harbour of Malta for the start of the 33rd edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race ( RMSR). This race has become the most prestigious long offshore race in the Mediterranean and at par with the Rolex Fastnet and Rolex Sydney Hobart races. Xp-act Banks Sails Racing finished 3rd overall in both IRC and ORCi and first in Class 3 in both categories.


 Timmy Camilleri (X-Yachts Malta) together with Josef Schultheis, organized the preparation of the boat and just managed to get her in the water the week before the race. The experienced crew sailed together a couple of times prior to start of the RMSR but immediately gelled and their potential was evident. After a very good start in 12 knots of SE wind Xp-act Banks Sails Racing (BSR) was soon in the lead of Class 3. The 50 Nm leg across to Sicily was quite straight forward but on reaching the Sicilian coast the wind dropped, as was forecast, and from then on it became crucial to keep the boat moving and in the breeze as much as possible. With Jochem Visser as navigator, Paolo Semeraro ( Co-Skipper - Banks Sails Italy) on tactics and with local knowledge provided by Timmy Camilleri (seventeen times a participant in RMSR and four times winner ) and Sebastian Ripard (Malta’s 49er crew and winner of one RMSR ), Xp-act BSR was always up with the front runners of the fleet and in the top three positions on corrected time. The passage through the dreaded Messina Straits went well.The first trying task was sailing round the active volcano Stromboli in very light down wind conditions. At this point, Xp-act BSR was in fifth place overall but from then on with a good strategy and hard work from all the crew, we managed to move up to second place at the next two check points, with Artie, a J122 (overall winner in 2011), ahead and Hi-Fidelity a Wellbourne 46 from South Africa just behind on corrected time. The penultimate 90 mile leg between the islands of Pantelleria and Lampedusa was crucial for Xp-act BSR and with some fantastic routing from Jochem Visser she managed to keep in the breeze for a changeover of weather fronts. Despite having to beat the final 40 miles in 10 knots of wind, Xp-act BSR was first on corrected time with a two hour “cushion” on Hi-Fidelity at Lampedusa. The last leg to Malta was expected to be a 100 mile fetch in 10 – 12 knots and easy for Xp-act BSR to keep her time. However, one can never be complacent in the Mediterranean in October and in fact that night Xp-act BSR was hit by a huge thunder storm with torrential rain and winds ranging from 40 to 45 knots for one hour. At the time Xp-act BSR had the Code zero up and a full main. Thanks to the skill and experience of the crew we managed to get the Code zero down with no damage but due to the ferocity of the wind had to keep running with the storm for about forty-five minutes at 13 knots in the wrong direction!

With the conditions at the time; lightening, gale force winds and torrential rain, everyone on board was glad to be on such a strong and safe boat! Eventually the storm passed but left Xp-act BSR 10 miles off course and with a light 80 mile beat in lumpy seas up to the finish! This essentially cost Xp-act BSR the race with the bigger boats riding in front of the storm reaching Malta much faster. Hi-Fidelity went on to become overall winner of the RMSR 2012 and Speedy , a Marten 49, placed second. Xp-act Banks Sails Racing crossed the finish line in Valletta on Thursday 26th October at 18.00 to a great welcome from everyone at the RMYC. Xp-act Banks Sails Racing finished 3rd overall in both IRC and Orci and first overall in Class 3 in both categories. Xp-act BSR owner and skipper Josef Schultheis was anyway very satisfied at the end of the race and said “… we managed to put together a great package of boat, sails and crew to seriously challenge for the top honours. We just missed it but will be back next year and complete our mission!”

Antwerp race

Short Video from Jamie Smith on the Antwerpen race