Raytheon Marine weather articles- Written by Commanders' Weather's
meteorologists

60ft. Multihull 24-hour distance record- Set by Yvan Bourgnon and the crew of
Bayer En France

2002-2003 America's Cup - The pace is heating up

1999-2000 America's Cup - Nippon Challenge placed 4th in the Semifinals

1999 Admiral's Cup - The Netherlands Team Won !!

Bermuda Challenge - Powerboat Speed Record Broken

FONCIA Trans-Atlantic Record Attempt - The record was missed by 30 miles

Commanders' Weather is pleased to announce that weather articles, authored by our meteorologists, are featured on Raytheon Marine's website, www.raytechonline.com.

These articles discuss subjects ranging from the strong fall storms across Britain in 2000 to forecasting with the 500MB weather fax chart.

Raytheon Marine's products include the Ray Tech Navigator which is a grib data display software that can map your best route through multiple days of forecasted weather. To view the articles and more information on Raytheon Marine go to http://www.raytechonline.com.

Congratulations to Yvan Bourgnon and the crew of "Bayer En France" for setting the 60 ft. multihull 24-hour distance record in the Quebec City to St. Malo, France Transatlantic Race!!

Their record was 625.34 miles in 24 hours, with an average speed of 26 knots. The previous record was 540 miles set in 1994 by Laurent Bourgnon racing solo in the same boat.

This record is just short of the all time record for the longest distance in 24 hours set by any size boat. The record is 625.7 miles set in June 2000 by Club Med, a 110ft. maxi catamaran.

Commanders' Weather was available for Yvan and his crew 24 hours a day during the race. We received hourly position reports and discussed strategy via fax and phone conversations with Yvan. For further details visit http://www.weather-wise.com.

After breaking the record, Yvan described the experience. " When you know it's your turn to climb up to the top of the windward hull and take the helm, already the adrenalin starts pumping. I'm going into battle: my heart is thumping 140 to the minute and I am constatnly aware that anything could happen from one second to the next. I get into my ejector seat (the bolt which holds the mast is only 20 cm) and the see-saw motion begins: my bum lifts off and cracks down on each wave we surf. I feel the boat accelerating: 24, 25, 26 knots...! I use every ounce of strength to grip onto the helm as the vibrations are pushing the limit now. 27 knots and that's it, no more! The helm gives up...the rudders ineffective, no hold left. But the boat is hungry for more; it increases speed still all by itself: 28, 29 30 knots! My heart pounds as we virtually take off." - Mary Ambler

Commanders' Weather has signed with the One World Challenge team based in Seattle, Washington as weather forecasters for the next America's Cup Races.

The races in the Challenger Series for the Louis Vuitton Cup will begin in October 2002. The winner of the Challenger series will go on to race the current holders of the America's Cup, Team New Zealand, beginning in January 2003.

Many teams are already being formed and the competition should be fierce. Stay tuned for more details.

Updated 3/9/01 - "The Race" is in it's final leg. Club Med and Innovation Explorer have completed the course with Club Med winning "The Race". Congratulations!! Team Adventure has had some structural problems after hitting a very large wave west of South Africa and has had to pull into port twice during the race, in Cape Town, South Africa and in Wellington, New Zealand.

Begun on Dec. 31, 2000, "The Race" is an around-the-world sailing competition with no limits, no stopping and no assistance. The contestants started in Barcelona, Spain and will circumnavigate the globe via Cape Horn finishing in France approximately 60-70 days later.

"Team Adventure" is a 110 ft. catamaran skippered by Cam Lewis with Larry Rosenfeld, Jean-Yves Bernot and an outstanding crew. The boat was constructed in Cherbourg, France by Gilles Ollier with a beam of 60 ft. and a mast 150 ft. high.

The crews of Team Adventure and Commander' Weather are in contact daily to discuss weather and routing strategy.

To learn more about Team Adventure and "The Race" visit http://www.teamadventure.org and http://www.therace.org/asp/accueil.asp .

One of our meterologists, Ken Campbell, was on-site in Cowes, England for the 1999 Admiral's Cup. Commanders' Weather provided exclusive weather forecasting and strategy for the Netherlands team. The team won this year's Admiral's Cup!! The Dutch team has competed in every Admiral's Cup since 1959 but third place was the highest they had achieved. According to Hans Eekhof, team captain, this year's win was due to "preparation, preparation, preparation". For more details, visit http://mummadmiralscup.org.

CONGRATULATIONS ONE AND ALL!!

Del Lippert (Raytheon Marine), Forrest Munden (World Cat Boats) and Matt Connery (Adventure Marketing) have broken the powerboat speed record from New York City to Bermuda.

On Friday, July 16th, 1999, they left New York on a 26 foot World Cat Catamaran with twin 150hp outboards. They completed the 780 mile trip in the unofficial time of 29 hours, 19 minutes. The previous record for the outboard class, 40 feet and under, was 37 hours. The Bermuda Challenge trophy is a perpetual trophy awarded by Boating Magazine to the current record holder.

Beginning weeks in advance of the departure date, Commanders' Weather sent daily forecasts to the crew advising them of the wind direction, speed and sea state for the next 2-3 days. Once the boat departed New York City, Commanders' Weather provided 24 hour coverage to update the crew on any changes in the weather conditions. Everything proceeded as planned and the old record was handily broken.

CONGRATULATIONS DEL, FORREST AND MATT!!

Commanders' Weather teamed up with Nippon Challenge for the 1999-2000 America's Cup. Nippon Challenge was very competitive in the Round Robin and Semifinal races for the Louis Vuitton Cup . They finished 2nd in the Round Robin races and 4th in the Semifinals, losing three of their races by less than 20 seconds.

After an exciting series of Louis Vuitton Finals races, Prada (Italy) emerged the victor by beating America One 5-4 and went on to challenge New Zealand for the America's Cup.

The "Kiwis" of New Zealand have successfully defended their title winning the America's Cup in an impressive five race series, 5-0. Congratulations, New Zealand ! It was a job well done.

Relive the excitment of the 1999-2000 America's Cup by visiting Quokka Sport's official America's Cup web page: http://www.americascup.org or the Louis Vuitton Cup web page at http://www.louisvuittoncup.com.

Yvan and Laurent Bourgnon, Cam Lewis and three additional crew members set out Tuesday, June 30, 1999 to break the Trans-Atlantic speed record in the recently completed 60 foot multihull, FONCIA. They left New York City at 9:30AM EDT, needing to beat a 6 day-13 hour record set by Jet Services in June 1990.

Commanders' Weather supported the crew 24 hours a day for the 6+ days via satellite phone and fax from their office in Nashua, NH. The strategy remained the same during the record attempt with a possibility of a low pressure area getting in their path as they approached the SW English shore. After a number of 500+ mile days, they slowed to a stop with only 200 miles to go to the finish line at Lizard Point off the English coast. The light winds in the low pressure area near the finish caused the crew of FONCIA to miss the record by 30 miles!! They were disappointed but not discouraged. They will try again!!

Says Cam Lewis: "It was great to be part of this record attack team. The best boat, crew and weather support possible were together and all the friends, families and fans following and cheering us along were great. Let's do it again soon, and hopefully with a better final result. It can be done, and I want to do it."