News Release

1D48 Press Release:

illbruck-PINTA Breaks Rudder After
A Promising Beginning to the Kenwood Cup

HONOLULU, HI — AUGUST 3, 1998 — The One Design 48 illbruck-PINTA broke her rudder while challenging for first place in the opening race of One Design 48 Class competition at the Kenwood Cup.

A newcomer to the 1D48 Class, the G-SHOCK Nippon Challenge, campaigned by Japan's Nippon Ocean Racing Club challenger for the America's Cup, leads after the opening day, with a two-point margin over the class champion Abracadabra. Australian Peter Gilmour skippers the Japanese boat while John Kolius, who is challenging for the America's Cup from Hawa|'s Waikiki Yacht Club, is the skipper of Abracadabra.

Californian John Kostecki is skipper and tactician of illbruck-PINTA, the 1D48 raced by the illbruck Round the World Challenge preparing for the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-2. The illbruck group of companies is headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany. Whitbread Race winner and America's Cup challenger Paul Cayard is the helmsman of the German boat. Cayard's AmericaOne is challenging for the America's Cup with San Francisco's St. Francis Yacht Club.

Sailing conditions were superb off Honolulu as the tradewinds blasted in at 20-25 knots, with occasional puffs to 28 knots, building steep white-crested five-foot seas in the bright blue ocean. On the reaching legs, the boats were blasting through the big seas at speeds of 17-18 knots.

The rudder blade broke cleanly off the rudder shaft flush with the boat's hull as illbruck-PINTA was closing on Jay Ecklund's Starlight skippered by John Bertrand. The boats were approaching the leeward mark of a triangular course and were setting their jibs and preparing to lower their spinnakers when illbruck-PINTA abruptly rounded up. illbruck-PINTA had caught Starlight earlier only to broach and round-up out of control. Then it happened again.

"We heard a bang and suddenly we couldn't steer the boat," Kostecki said. "I thought it was a steering cable. I've never had a rudder break on me before this. We wanted to start this series with a bang but we had something else in mind!"

Ironically, although Starlight was leading and was the first 1D48 across the finish line, she was subsequently penalized for starting line infractions that would have left illbruck-PINTA the race winner, had she completed the course.

"Despite the rudder problem, it was a good day," Kostecki said. "We learned a lot about our competition. It will be tough now to win the regatta but it's not impossible. We know we have good boat speed and we know we can win some races in the days ahead.

For information from Hawa| during racing, contact

Andreas Kling or Keith Taylor
Cell Phone: (781) 248-0033
Email: 72077.43@compuserve.com

Read more about the Kenwood Cup.

Back to more AmericaOne Kenwood Releases

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For additional information on the illbruck-PINTA/1D48 series, contact:

Keith Taylor Taylor Associates	E-mail: 72077.43@compuserve.com
Phone:	781-837-8833

For additional information on AmericaOne, contact:

Gina Von Esmarch	E-mail: gvonesmarch@americaone.org
Phone:	415-474-3425
Fax:	415-474-3571

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