Galway has been named as the finish port for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race. (Photo by Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race)
NEWPORT R.I. – One week before St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland has been given another reason to celebrate.
Galway, which staged a hugely successful stopover in 2008-09, is back on the map again for the 2011-12 running of the Volvo Ocean Race. And this time, the city has been given the honor of being the finish port.
In announcing the news yesterday, organizers from the VOR, acknowledged that Galway withstood strong opposition from several rival cities in the official port bidding process, but ultimately won the right to host not only the finale but also the overall prize-giving ceremony.
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NEWPORT, R.I. – The route of the next Volvo Ocean Race continues to take shape as this week two more ports were added to the round-the-world sailing contest.
Earlier last week, Lorient, in Brittany on the northwest coast of France, was named as the penultimate stopover for the 2011-12 event. Its addition follows news that Lisbon, Portugal will host its first stopover, serving as the start port of the Lorient leg, a quick 700 nautical miles.
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NEWPORT, R.I. – The Providence Journal’s editorial board on Tuesday disputed concerns that a liquefied natural gas terminal in Mount Hope Bay would effectively put an end to the state’s bid to bring the America’s Cup home to Newport.
The unsigned editorial is the latest in a string of commentary lending support to the concept of siting an LNG facility up-bay from Newport Harbor and the famed racing grounds of Rhode Island Sound.
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A liquefied natural gas tanker arrives in Boston, Mass.
NEWPORT, R.I. – The developer of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in Mount Hope Bay has fired back at Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who earlier this week made headlines by warning that the project could put an end to the state’s quest to return the America’s Cup to Newport.
Labeling the recent claims made by the Attorney General as baseless and “wildly” speculative, Weaver’s Cove Energy, LLC has reiterated its commitment to conducting LNG shipping activities so as to avoid interfering with any America’s Cup race activities, or any other organized yachting activities in Narragansett Bay.
“Attorney General Lynch’s comments are the latest in a long history of misstatements he has made related to the Weaver’s Cove’s LNG Project,” the company said in a statement released through its online advocacy portal, LNGFactCheck.com.
But according to LNG opponents and Cup organizers, who quickly lined up to defend Lynch’s remarks, the presence of an LNG facility up-bay from the historical America’s Cup racing grounds in Rhode Island Sound, could indeed represent a major obstacle in the chase for the cup.
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BMW Oracle Racing's trimaran took back the America's Cup for the U.S. recently. Newport is on the short list of potential sites for the next Cup. (Photo Gilles Martin-Raget / BMW ORACLE Racing)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Recognizing the potential impact that the contest would have on the state and local economy, City Council members on Wednesday formally threw their weight behind efforts to bring the America’s Cup back home to Newport.
The resolution, put forth by Councilors Stephen C. Waluk, Stephen R. Coyne, and fully endorsed by the remainder of the council, puts the city on record congratulating the BMW Oracle Racing syndicate for their recent victory in Spain, and urges the Cup’s return home.
It’s time to “chase the cup,” said Councilor Waluk, referencing the phrase coined by one of our readers and embraced by our special coverage, Chasing The Cup.
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Attorney General Patrick Lynch is warning that a proposal to construct a liquefied natural gas terminal in Mount Hope Bay could derail efforts to bring the America's Cup back to Newport.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Gubernatorial candidate and current Attorney General, Patrick Lynch is raising the specter of LNG as a real threat to efforts to bring the America’s Cup back to the waters off of Newport.
In a press release issued earlier this week, Lynch said that unannounced shipments of LNG hauled on supertankers could shut Newport out of contention to host the America’s Cup races, if approval is granted to Weaver’s Cove LLC to build facilities in Mount Hope Bay and Fall River.
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Cape Town, South Africa is the first port to be announced for the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race. (Photo by Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race)
NEWPORT, R.I. – The route for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race has been set, organizers from the round-the-world competition announced on Monday. But in a tantalizing “You can’t go downstairs on Christmas morning until we say so” move, the full slate of host cities won’t be known until the end of March.
Newport, which learned last month that it was one of only two remaining ports being considered for the race’s North American stopover, will have to wait a touch longer to find out whether the race will being sailing into local waters.
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Halsey Herreshoff, who crewed aboard Columbia in the 1958 Cup, is seen here at the America's Cup Hall of Fame in Bristol. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Halsey Herreshoff, a yachting legend and president of the Bristol-based America’s Cup Hall of Fame, is traveling to San Francisco to hand deliver a letter to software tycoon Larry Ellison on behalf of Governor Donald Carcieri (R), urging the return of competition for the Auld Mug to Rhode Island Sound.
According to Hall of Fame Executive Director Lawrence Fisher, who appeared on Friday morning’s Helen Glover Show on 920AM WHJJ, Herreshoff is friendly with Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing syndicate, and was invited out to celebrate the return of the Cup to the United States for what’s being billed as a “victory tour.”
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Could the Volvo Ocean Race be coming to Newport? We should find out soon! (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – As state and civic leaders rush to secure the return of the America’s Cup in 2013, officials from the Volvo Ocean Race are planning to announce the 2011-12 VOR course on Monday.
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BMW Oracle Racing took back the America's Cup for the US on Sunday. (Photo America's Cup)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Larry Ellison, the maverick software tycoon who recently made headlines with his purchase of the storied Beechwood mansion on Bellevue, has taken back the America’s Cup after a two-race drubbing of defender Alinghi off the coast of Spain.
Now, speculation is mounting over where the next Cup will be held. According to published reports, Ellison, who raced on behalf of the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco is planning to return the Cup to its traditional format, featuring several teams vying for the right to take on the defender. But where exactly the contest will be held is still up in the air.
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Racing for the 33rd America's Cup was pushed back on Monday due to unstable winds. Here, Alinghi 5 and BMW Oracle's America await the call from the start.
[Update] Make that Friday. Racing for the 33rd America’s Cup was pushed back again on Wednesday after rough seas prompted organizers to delay the start of the anxiously awaited contest between Alinghi and BMW Oracle until Friday at 1000hrs.
VALENCIA, SPAIN – Heavy winds have prompted organizers to push back the start of the 33rd America’s Cup to Wednesday. Originally slated to begin Monday, unfavorable conditions greeted the best of three competition, which has been clouded by a protracted legal tussle between Cup holder Alinghi and challenger BMW Oracle.
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In this photo taken on Jan. 20, 2010, yachtsman and graphic designer Will Sofrin displays a drawing in his workshop at the Newport Shipyard, in Newport, R.I. Sofrin is using records owned by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create prints in 2010 of two dozen of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff's most heralded yacht designs. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Eric Tucker, of the Associated Press’ Providence bureau, has a good write up on local designer and licensed captain Will Sofrin, who has begun to create construction plans for two dozen of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff’s most heralded yacht designs, including a few that were commissioned for the America’s Cup.
As Tucker explains, “Sofrin is deciphering tables of boat measurements left with a museum at MIT, which Herreshoff attended, and using the numbers to create mathematically accurate ink drawings, including of seven yachts designed specifically for the America’s Cup.”
But some, including Herreshoff’s grandson, are objecting to the effort.
Halsey Herreshoff, a Bristol resident and the president of the Herreshoff Marine Museum and America’s Cup Hall of Fame Museum, fears that the plans could lead to replicas being produced and passed off as sanctioned Herreshoff designs, the rights to which are highly coveted and rarely approved.
For their part, Sofrin and MIT say that such concerns are unfounded.
Sofrin plans on creating 100 signed and numbers prints of each of the 24 yacht designs. Prints of the America’s Cup designs will sell for $2,300 a piece.
Plenty more here.
Puma's il mostro takes off from Narragansett Bay prior to setting sail in the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – It’s down to two. Bidding for the 2011-12 installment of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) has reached its final stage – with Newport left competing only against Miami for rights to the sole North American stopover of this epic round-the-world sailing competition.
In a posting on popular boating Web site RIYachting.com, Sail Newport Executive Director Brad Read said reported that Friday, Jan. 29 was the deadline for ports interested in hosting a stopover of the VOR to send a signed “Host Port Contract” to Volvo Event Management.
The Host Port Contract details the commitments expected of a host city, and does not secure a stopover. But it does get you closer to achieving that end.
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The 33rd America's Cup is set to begin Feb. 8.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Finally, it’s time to race. The 33rd running of the America’s Cup is set to begin next week off Valencia, Spain. But with over two years of legal wrangling between syndicates carrying on through the best of three series, it’s unclear whether anything will be resolved after the Auld Mug is hoisted.
That’s right, the legal manueverings that have thrown the cup into disarray over the past two years, will, fittingly continue straight through the competition. On Monday, a New York State Superior Court judge said that she wouldn’t have time to rule on the latest challenge between Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi team and challenger Larry Ellison, owner of the BMW Oracle trimaran.
That means, no matter the outcome of the races, the Cup may ultimately be decided in a court room.
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