Yachting-Live

Mean Machine Stops Their TP52 Campaign
The Mean Machine Team have decided to officially announce their decision to cease all activity in the TP52 class. Owner and Skipper of the Mean Machine TP52 Peter de Ridder has decided to terminate the TP52 campaign for this season.

Peter de Ridder says: “We’ve had some wonderful years in this class, but having lost our Mean Machine Mojo on the road to success, time has come to stop and take stock. I’ve considered the option to make changes to the team in order to get back on track, but that would not have done justice to the fantastic group of people we had for so many years.

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Qingdao Update
The flower artwork “Olympic triumphal arch” at Fuzhou road of Olympic co-host city Qingdao, in east China’s Shandong Province. Photo by Wang Song/Xinhua. Click on image to enlarge.

This afternoon, preparations for the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic sailing races in Qingdao were discussed in a press conference hosted by the assistant chairman of the Olympic Sailing Committee and vice-minister of the Qingdao Publicity Department Wang Haitao.

According to Qingdao Daily, at the press conference, journalists learned that during the Olympic sailing competition, an awards podium will be erected in the middle of the ocean and a spectator viewing area constructed on land. Both are firsts in Olympic sailing history, giving the set up of this year’s Olympic sailing competition the nickname of “Qingdao Style.”

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Dalton Calls For A Settlement
Team New Zealand yachting chief Grant Dalton has called for Alinghi and Oracle to negotiate a settlement to the seemingly endless America’s Cup courtroom dramas.

And while Dalton says Emirates Team New Zealand are contractually comfortable until 2011 - the date which a newly powerful Alinghi seems likely to settle on for the next regatta - that doesn’t mean he will not review expenditure and consider more cost-cutting measures if necessary.

The shock reversal of the original court decision, which allowed US syndicate BMW Oracle to set up a head-to-head regatta with Alinghi in huge, 90-foot trimarans, has caught many in the America’s Cup by surprise, including Dalton.

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