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In the Clipper 09-10 Team Finland has two reasons to celebrate today. Not only is it the 92nd anniversary of Finland's Declaration of Independence from Russia, but the team has also managed to take the lead from Spirit of Australia.
'Team Finland is now in tip top shape after a very busy night,' says watch leader Emil Vartiainen. 'All our evolutions went very well and the crew had the silhouette of Spirit of Australia in their minds the whole time. As we got them in our sights again this morning they were behind us - a brilliant extra kick for our celebrations of Finland's Independence Day!'
Ships Electronics Services (SES), one of the UK's leading suppliers and service agents for the commercial and leisure marine industry, has been appointed by SeaView Europe as the exclusive UK distributor of its Radar and Communications mounting brackets.
SeaView is the largest manufacturer of mounting brackets in the world.
The company provides a full range of mounts for all types and brands of antennas, domes and night vision cameras, which in turn supply the heart of a ships communication and navigation systems.
UK-based Genus Marine – Europe’s leading marina berth broker – has issued a stark warning to berth buyers about the proliferation of bogus operators in the marine real estate market and the potential cost of doing business with them
“It seems that the recent downturn in land-based real estate sales has had an unexpected impact in the marine berth market,” explains John Brewster, Director of Genus Marine & Leisure. “Displaced real estate agents from the once lucrative second home and holiday rental markets have had their commissions decimated and are looking for greener pastures – some of them have ended-up in the comparatively upbeat marine berth market.”
Barton Marine, one of the world's leading manufacturers of marine deck hardware has lent their support to the RNLI lifeboat station in Burnham-on-Crouch which is trying to raise money for their boathouse appeal.
The volunteer crew at the lifeboat station is restoring an abandoned sailboat which will be raffled off at the upcoming Tullet Prebon London International Boat Show, and Barton Marine has donated over £700 worth of products to help aid the team's project.
Don’t forget to place your bid! The online auction for Optimist sail number ‘6000’ opened at 7.00pm last night, Thursday 3 December. This special auction is being run by the International Optimist Association together with the RYA and all proceeds from the auction will go to the John Merricks Sailing Trust.
Join in the auction for your chance to own this much sought after Optimist sail number
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=130347762082
David Baddeley, International Optimist Association; “It’s great – the auction opened last night at 7pm and by the end of evening we had over 9 bids. I think there could be some fierce bidding over the coming week”.
The skipper of a British-crewed yacht detained by Iran has said they strayed into Iranian waters by "mistake". Oliver Smith added the crew were blindfolded while at sea, apart from him as he was at the helm. The crew were sailing from Bahrain to Dubai to take part in a race when they drifted into Iran's territorial waters. The group are now in Dubai - their original destination - and have held a brief news conference to give more details about the incident.
The Foreign Office says it is "actively investigating" reports that five UK yachtsmen held by Iran's Revolutionary Guard for a week have been freed. The crew were said to have mistakenly strayed into Iran waters as they sailed from Bahrain to Dubai for a race. Iranian radio said they had been freed at 0730 local time (0400 GMT). It is thought they were held on Siri island. The news comes hours after UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke by phone to his Iranian counterpart.
The entry list for the St.Maarten Heineken Regatta is steadily increasing. Owners and participants have started filling in their entry forms and so far the numbers look positive.
The event takes place March 4 to 7 2010 and will include the pre-event the Budget Marine Match Racing Cup on the 2nd of March as well as the GILL Commodores Cup on March 4th. Organizers are pleased with the commitments made thus far, online as well as verbal.
George Davids 90-foot Reichel/Pugh designed Rambler will bring an exciting mix to the 30th edition of this event, listing what some may call the stars of sailing from around the world as the crew.
The five Britons are being detained by the Iranian navy after the Volvo 60 yacht was stopped on 25 November.
The Foreign Office said Luke Porter, Oliver Smith, David Bloomer, Oliver Young and Sam Usher may have "strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters".
The Team Pindar-backed yacht was sailing from Bahrain to Dubai.
Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, President Ahmadinejad's head of staff, told Iran's Fars news agency: "Judiciary will decide about the five... naturally our measures will be hard and serious if we find out they had evil intentions."
Hull & Humber has resumed racing in Leg 3 of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race.
When the boat slipped from Royal Cape Yacht Club at 9.20am local time (0720 GMT) it was the moment the crew had been waiting for after being confined to port since their start day collision with Cork, Ireland which forced them to return to harbour to make repairs.
Teams of boat builders from Action Yachting at RCYC have been working around the clock, first to cut away the damaged section of the hull, then to replace it, building up the layers of fibre glass and high density foam that make up the shell of the boat.
Carpenters took over on Sunday to complete the work on the interior and to install a new toe rail along the edge of the deck before the final fixtures and fittings were put into place by the Clipper maintenance team.