IRC BOATS

IRC YEARBOOK 2009

IRC Yearbook

Mills Design Sweeps Key West

Six Mills Design IRC yachts raced in IRC 2 at Acura Key West Race Week 2009, with San Francisco owner Dan Woolery driving his beautifully prepared new King 40 Soozal to take the top spot from Tony Buckingham’s Mills 40 Ngoni after a tough ten-race series in a wide range of conditions in the Florida Keys. In a competitive fleet the fight for top spot went down to the last day, with the very successful custom design Ngoni needing to make up 3 points over the last two races, but Soozal with Robbie Haines doing tactics looked rock solid and finished the day strongly for a series lead of seven points, counting a first or second in nine of the 10 races. “The racing was super hard all week. It was a dogfight every day and we were lucky to have Robbie, who is just a master at calling the shifts. You can have the fastest boat in the world, but it doesn’t matter if you’re on the wrong side of the course,” said Woolery.

Mark Mills 'Ambush' IRC 41

Ambush the custom IRC 41 by McConaghy's China has lit up Hong Kong with back to back wins in the BMW Autumn Regatta and China Coast Regatta.

Acura Key West 2009

IRC1

1. Ran, Niklas Zennström, TP52, 1.369 =18
2. Rosebud/Team DYT, Roger Sturgeon, STP 65, 1.515 =25
3. Rio, Charles Dunstone, TP52, 1.367 =28
4. Anema & Core, Ennio Staffini, J/V 52, 1.341 =31
5. Synergy, Sergey Pichugin, TP52, 1.357 =52
6. Pace, J. Vincent/S. Tate, Marten 49, 1.257 =63
7. Yeoman XXXII, Brian Benjamin, Rogers 46, 1.277 =65
8. Sjambok, Michael Brennan, RP 45, 1.304 =78

IRC2

1. Soozal, Daniel Woolery, King 40, 1.126 =18
2. Ngoni, Tony Buckingham, Mills 40, 1.153 =25
3. Act One, William Titus, King 40, 1.127 =42
4. Gold Digger, James Bishop, J/44, 1.109 =45
5. Teamwork, Robin Team, J/122, 1.095 =47.5
6. Ciao, Philippe Paturel, A40 RC, 1.095 =61
7. Cool Breeze, John Cooper, Mills 43, 1.192 =64.5
8. First Light, FK Day, DK 46, 1.214 =69.5
9. Hot Ticket, James Hightower, King 40, 1.125 =86.5
10. Santa Cruz One, Tim Kernan, SC 37, 1.139 =108
11. Hurrycane VI, Kenny Bruneflod, Elan 450, 1.061 =110
12. Solnes III, Herman Bergshaven, J/133, 1.128 =112
13. Tiburon, Stephen Stroub, SC 37, 1.144 =122

ERICSSON 3 STANDS DOWN

Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race

Ericsson 3, under the leadership of leg skipper Magnus Olsson, has turned downwind and is heading for Taiwan this morning. More details are expected shortly.

It's a heartbreaking turn of events for the Nordic crew, who were in second place, ahead of sistership Ericsson 4, when they turned off the race track. Conditions on the race course are very difficult again, with wind speeds approaching 30 knots and a confused sea state featuring waves of up to seven metres.

Bouwe Bekking, the skipper of leg leader Telefonica Blue, gives some insight to the current conditions in an email back to race headquarters last night: "It is worse out here than two days ago. it is not the windspeed, that is managable, but it is the crazy sea state," he reported.

"One wave washed our satellite dome off the back of the bus, so we can't call anymore and no weather info. Also the helmsman is getting washed off the wheel frequently. They are all wearing double harnesses..."

This, in addition to a hefty blow to the bow of the boat yesterday that resulted in damage to the 'crash-bow' a sacrificial section at the front of the boat that is designed for just this sort of eventuality.

Ericsson 4 media man Guy Salter offered his take on the weather from nearly 100 miles to the southeast: "In less than 40 minutes we had gone from code zero (an enormous light wind sail) to a triple-reefed mainsail and storm jib in 40+ knots of cold wind. It was very surreal."

In the heinous conditions, Telefonica Blue continues to excel, leading Ericsson 4 by 78 miles on the 04:00 GMT report. But the most impressive performance over the past 24 hours however must surely be from PUMA. Il Mostro has moved up to within just 15 miles of Ericsson 4, leveraging a strong position to windward of Torben Grael and his squad, by checking off 285 miles over the past 24 hours.

Behind this group, Delta Lloyd and Green Dragon keep up their battle up the east coast of Taiwan. Delta Lloyd is just over 50 miles directly north of Green Dragon as both prepare to get hit by the big weather coming.

This isn't good news for Green Dragon, who are operating at less than 100% having suffered structural damage earlier in the leg. But the team is determined to soldier on, motivated to finish under their own power in their 'home' port of Qingdao.

"We are absolutely determined to get to Qingdao," skipper Ian Walker said. "We don't want to retire, we want to finish this leg - every member of this crew - and we don't care how long it takes us...But we still have some tough times ahead."

Tough times indeed. It promises to be another interesting day in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Scuba Rock

IRC Boats are pleased to have been appointed to make the tooling and prototype for SeaLabs.

'Stefan Törnblom latest design is a ”Side Scan Sonar” for SeaLabs.se. The design was inspired from a rock. Specification from producer defined that it should be; stabile (as a rock), have short round circle, survive a bottom collision and finally designed to be “desired” by divers.   

The sonar is optimized for short range missions (30 m on each side and will help divers from Police, Military, Coastguard, Fire department etc for reconnaissance before diving.'

The product will be launched spring 2009  

Corby 2911e ready to go

Corby 29 hull #11 is ready

Inspection was carried out by John Hamilton last week, and after a few smaller things being sorted boat is planned to be heading back to the Scottish owner.

This is the lightest ever Corby 29. Infuse technology of hull, deck and interior will make this boat very stiff. We are looking forward to 2009 season and what results the owners will be able to post with this boat.

Boats from IRC BOATS can now be ordered with infuse technology, we would like to make a 26e or 33e next.

Above is from the infuse of Corby 2911e hull.