Greetings Yachties

brainaid

Hamilton Island

Class 40

Waka Match Racing in Chicago

Mike Perham

Alinghi D35

TP52

J Boats

more later,

I talk to Christian “Eddie” Dost aka brainaid here

Marine Feuerstein

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Tactical Nightmare

The tropical wonderland of the Whitsunday Islands has become a tactical nightmare for the crews of 194 yachts competing for the prestigious Audi Hamilton Island Race Week class championships.

A high pressure ridge extending from the Tasman Sea has been responsible for the unseasonal light northerly winds and calm seas.

At dawn this morning a lazy 3-5 knot North West land breeze combined with a 20.1 degree temperature and 84% humidity suggests the sailors particularly those representing clubs from the colder latitudes including New Zealand, Tasmania, Victoria, South and West Australia will experience another warm day of testing light wind yacht racing under the tropical sun.

The sailing conditions will almost be a repeat of yesterday where Peter Harburg’s Brisbane pocket-maxi Black Jack expertly handled by skipper Mark Bradford, tactician Peter Merrington and crew blitzed the Grand Prix IRC class fleet to score a runaway line honours win in the 23 n/ml Lindeman Island race over Wild Oats X (Mark Richards) and Wild Joe (Stephen David).

However while Black Jack, Wild Oats X and Wild Joe were cleverly sailed in the frustrating light winds they failed to fill a top place on corrected handicap when Michael Hiatt’s Royal Yacht Club of Victoria sloop Living Doll cleverly guided around the course by tactician Ross Lloyd claimed an impressive 7 minute 49 second win over the Victorian rival Scarlet Runner (Robert Date) while Graeme Wood steering the Sydney sloop Wot Now claimed third another 2 minutes 41 seconds astern.

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Brady pushes the Limit

After finishing almost bottom of the pile in yesterday’s opening race, Alan Brierty’s RP63 Limit displayed some threatening form today, New Zealand America’s Cup import Gavin Brady showing plenty of grit on the wheel at the start of the second windward/leeward as he shaved the pin end smack bang on the starting signal and backed it up with the all important handicap win.

However in the pre-start Limit tangled with the pin mark, crewman Darren ‘Twirler’ Jones diving overboard to try and free the mark to the delight of the other race crews who cheered as they watched the spectacle unfold. Eventually the anchor rope was cut and the boat freed, the crew’s embarrassment left in the wake of Brady’s sizzling on-water form.

“After hooking the mark it was good to get off the start line in great shape,” admitted AC sailor Rodney Keenan, who is part of Limit’s impressive afterguard.

Black Jack’s blistering regatta debut yesterday was a distant memory in this morning’s first race with the Queensland RP66 finishing second last over the line after being caught short in a local glass-out on approach to the finish. Skipper Mark Bradford made amends in the second race, finishing ahead of the pack and second on the progressive pointscore in front of Ray Roberts’ Cookson 50 Evolution Racing.

In the first race this morning Bob Oatley’s Reichel Pugh 66 Wild Oats X packed its first regatta punch, scoring a runaway line and overall handicap honours win in the 8 knot northerly breeze.

Wild Oats led the fleet around the track to even the line honours tally with Peter Harburg’s Black Jack then in the second race were again out-classed by Black Jack and Limit from Sydney after their spinnaker tack blew out.

Second on handicap in the first race was Graeme Wood’s JV52 Wot Now with Rob Date’s new Victorian RP52 Scarlet Runner, helmed by Graeme ‘GT’ Taylor with Will Oxley navigating, claiming the final podium place.

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Chicago Match Cup, Day 1

Hi Supporters and friends,

Day 1 of the Chicago Match cup was a good one for Waka Racing. We started the day positively with a win against Dave Perry (USA), followed by victories against Canfield (USA) and one of the other two Kiwi teams, Laurie Jury. The breeze was straight off the Chicago waterfront making it awfully Shifty and puffs ranging from 5-20 kts. Much like a Southerly off the Westhaven wall. We sailed really well in the shifty and tricky conditions to take the victories in our first 3 races.

Our next opponent was Keith Swinton (AUS). We always have extremely exciting races against Keith and this one didn’t disappoint. We started well, tight in the leeward position to soon push him out right. The breeze then shifted right giving him the early advantage. We sailed well to stay in touch, taking two big shifts at the top to close it up and gain the right hand side. We came in on starboard lay and had a good piece of him. He proceeded to try and cross and we avoided him, clipping his back corner. This was what we thought was a clear cut penalty on him but it came our way?? The rest of the race was much the same with him slightly ahead. We gained once again and passed him right at the top. We had a great mark rounding to set him up to windward of us. He then threw a gybe at us and clipped us with his boom in the process. The penalty went on him so both slates were clear. Sailing to the finish line we were just behind him and with another big crash on the finish line and a broach from both boats he took the victory by half a boat length. We felt we sailed a great race again, to come from behind with a penalty and have a good crack at the victory.

The rest of the day was cracking. We had two more races and won them both against Nakamura(JPN) and the other Kiwi team Ruben Corbett. All in all we are very happy with the start of the regatta, sailing superbly to the conditions, changing gears in the puffs and taking the shifts like they were ours. We plan to carry this form through to tomorrow and keep the intensity and hunger up.

Cheers for the great support.

WAKA Racing

more here

results here

Chicago Day 2

Hi Guys,

Just a brief report as we are all off to bed.
Today we had a good day finishing the round robin equal top of the table but 2nd on count back to Keith Swinton. This meant we moved through to the quarter finals and had to race Takumi Nakamura. We sailed relly well beating him 3-1 to move through to the semi-finals tomorrow. We feel really good and are looking forward to tomorrow.

Cheers

Waka Boys

Between a Rock and a Hurricane – 22 08 09

Another box ticked! I’ve now sailed past the 1000mile to go mark and as I write this I’ve currently got 976nm to go! Although it may not be far now, it certainly looks as if the last week is hardly going to be a nice smooth one, thanks to the good old Bad Boy Low above me, and my good friend Hurricane Bill careering along to join me on Tuesday when I should be somewhere in between the Fastnet rock and Lands End.

A few people have asked me to comment on the approaching hurricane so here goes: The Weather Man hat is now on. Over the next four days, ‘Bill’ is going to probably grace Newfoundland with its presence, and then, as it moves into the Gulf Stream, it’ll head east towards the UK. Mike Broughton (my weather router) and I both reckon it is probably going to position itself just off the NW of Ireland and so in MB’s own words should ‘give us some fun and games’!

As it approaches the UK it will begin to dissipate. By the time I start experiencing it’s effects I shouldn’t see much more than a gale really. Although ‘Bill’ is the strongest hurricane so far this year, it still doesn’t come close in terms of nastiness to some of the systems that MB has seen trucking along in the Southern Ocean and which I’ve had to dodge.

It’s great having an Open 50 whereby I can actually position myself exactly in the best possible position to experience the best conditions. If I was in a slower normal boat, I probably wouldn’t be able to dodge the really bad weather.

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more Fastnet here

TP52 – Audi MedCup – Portimao

Paul Cayard
Saturday, August 22, 2009

No wind, no racing. Still on top of the heap with Artemis.

The forecast for tomorrow is only marginally better. One thing about sailboat racing; you need Mother Nature’s cooperation.

When you are in these waiting situations, it is nice to be in first place because sometime they end this way. It is like finishing a car race under the yellow flag.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

I am on my way to London now and onto San Francisco tomorrow, one day late to the 505 worlds. I had planned on the 505 Worlds long before I got involved with Artemis. But one is work and one is for pleasure so I made a compromise. As fate would have it, I could have left Portugal last night and made the first race tomorrow.

Anyway, it is what it is and Howard has a great crew in Ian Mitchell for Sunday. I will be on the wire from Monday on. Really looking forward to ripping around the bay next week in the men’s breeze on SF bay.

Richard Walch/Audi MedCup

Ernesto Bertarelli and his crew racing on Décision 35 Alinghi SUI1

(Photo credit: Chris Schmid/Eyemage Media)

Quote from the race boat: Nils Frei, trimmer onboard Alinghi SUI1 comments on what happened today on the first day of the Décision 35 regatta’s Open de Nyon on lake Geneva:

3 first positions out of 4 races with quite a strong wind today on lake Geneva, what happened?

“Today was a perfect day on the lake… It doesn’t get better than this! We had between 11 and 18 knots and then the wind decreased to 12 to 15 knots. We had blue skies and 26 degrees with a steady breeze, so it was perfect. We had a really good day today. We had good speed, good starts, so the results: one second and three firsts, are very good.”

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Hurricane Bill

Image by Tim Wright – Photoaction.

2009 J-Cup Royal Torbay YC Day 2 -

There ain’t no pary like a J-Cup party….

22 August 2009

You would have thought that things would be a little subdued at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club on Friday night because the five classes racing at the J-Cup 2009 completed four races, in a gusty and extremely shifty breeze from the west, which regularly topped the 24 knot marker. If tiredness prevailed, there wasn’t much evidence: the band played on, the crews of the 63 boats racing here danced the night away, and they were all back down on the dock on Saturday morning ready and raring to go for the final two races of this epic series which is sponsored by North Sails, Dubarry of Ireland and B&G.

In the J/109 UK National Championship fleet, after a tough day at the office, Kirsty and David Apthorp’s J-Dream still leads, albeit by a narrow two point margin (after the discard which clicks in at 6 races) from Brian Moreton’s Juke Box in second place and Ben Richards and Michael Ewart-Smith’s Zelda. This class in tough; there are 29 boats racing one-design and Friday was particularly tricky. Steven Tapper’s team on Stalker punched in a bullet in the final race and two seconds, and John Maybury’s squad on Joker, all the way from Ireland, won the first two races of the day, for which he was awarded the North Sails Boat of the Day Prize for this Class.

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Nick Thompson Hits The Front At Laser Worlds

Foggy conditions on day two in Halifax

©Matias Capizzano – www.capizzano.com

Laser World Championship 2009
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

ISAF Sailing World Cup leader Nick Thompson of Great Britain has moved into the overall lead after a tricky second day of racing at the Laser Worlds in Canada.
Day two of the Laser World Championships proved more exercise for volunteers hauling race marks than for the athletes. Fog hanging over the outer reaches of St. Margaret’s Bay had the race committee making numerous course changes in an effort to find clear water.

Only one race was completed, on a day the Race Committee hoped to get three races in. Two fleets managed to get in a quick race, but the third fleet proved anxious. There were numerous general recalls for sailors crossing the line early, more than 20 sailors black flagged (which took them out of the race) and still it took an hour and a half to get the fleet off, which prevented further starts.

After three race, remains in the lead, ISAF Sailing World Cup leader Nick Thompson (GBR) has taken over the overall lead, with Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia in second and Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison of Great Britain in third. Athens silver medallist Andreas Geritzer (AUT) and Poland’s Karol Porozynski complete the top five. Clayton Johnson (USA), Pavlos Kontides (CYP) and defending World Champion Tom Slingsby of Australia looked to have had strong finishes to move into the top-five overall, but were all amongst those sailors black flagged and subsequently have dropped down the leaderboard.

Bernard Luttmer of Canada is in 18th spot after three races. Team mate David Wright is in 20th and Chris Dold in 25th.

While the 169 athletes competing in the 2009 Nautel Laser World Championships were having a rough day on the water, on land, organizers were preparing a contingency plan for Hurricane Bill. It’s currently forecast to brush Nova Scotia on Sunday. Racing will continue as planned on Saturday, but if the hurricane continues on its current track, races will be cancelled on Sunday.

“After racing on Saturday, the athletes will help volunteers move the Laser hulls into the main clubhouse and race management centre,” says event co-chair Rod Millar. “Masts and rigging will be lashed down and secured in protected areas, as will the dollies used to wheel the boats around.”
“The athletes will bring their sails and foils [centerboards and rudders] to their residences so they don’t need to be stored on site.” Other equipment and tents used for the championship will be broken down and stored.

“The current plan is to get back on the water Monday,” says Millar. “It’s definitely a disruption to the Laser Worlds, but we’re sailors, this happens.”

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This post is tagged alinghi, Chicago Match Race, Hamilton Island Race Week, Hurricane Bill, mike perham, tp52, Waka Racing