NYC Sailing Team

Registration Day at Lake Como began this morning for the Mutli Hobie European Championship.

Far from ideal conditions to rig the boats as it has not stopped raining all day. A beautiful spot on the lake though. The locals tell me we are guaranteed wind for the regatta. Hope they are  right.

Racing starts at 13:00 local time tomorrow for the Open Spinaker Cup which will be sailed on the 1st and 2nd of August. A fleet of 40 Hobie 16′s with spinaker are expected to sail in this division including aussie compatriot Tim Shuwalow.

Open qualifying is on the 3rd and 4th with the finals commencing on the 5th and finishing on the 8th.

64 boats will be in the Gold Fleet with the remaining in the Silver Fleet after the qualifying. Emma and I will have to finish top 30 (out of  80 boats) in the qualifying to gain a spot in the Gold Fleet as 35 teams have already pre-qualified.

Phil and Jane King arrived yesterday afternoon and will also be contesting the Spi Cup and Opens.

More info can be found at www.hobieuropeans.com

Full results can be found here.

-3rd Australian team

-1st hobie tiger

-5th hobie cat

25-30 knots on the last day for the finals racing!!

Plenty of cool photos here aswell

We are on the road now heading towards Barcelona where we will spend a few days before driving over to Lake Como, Italy for our last regatta being the Hobie 16 European Championships.

2 races were held on day 3 bringing the total number of races for the series to 4.

The boats had to be sent back in after  the breeze was averaging 30knots. A completly opposite scenario from the day before where no races were held due to no wind.

The start was very difficult to judge due to the strong current trying to push you over the line. This resulted in many general recalls and black flags making it difficult for the race comittee to hold more racing.

The first race for us we were called BFD ( black flag disqualification ) which ment we were over the line early. This start was also a general recall so we had to sit out of the race and watch everyone else go around. Very frustrating!!!!!!!

The wind was building to well over 20 knots  for the start of the second race. We managed to get a fair start from the middle of the line without taking any risks.

Our position was around 15 at the top but worked our way up to 3rd by the end of the race. Favourable conditions for the hobie tiger!

The discard ( a boats worst score ) comes into play after 4 races which will leave us in 11th overall. Still a long way to go though.

Pictures of Day 3 racing can be found here

After many attempts by the race comittee to get some racing underway today, unfortunately the wind never filled in.

Results will stay the same until tomorrow with 4 qualifying races schedueled and 1 possible finals race after the cut.

Forecast for tomorrow is 14-21knots!!

Stay tuned…….

Day 1 of the worlds began on Monday in trying conditions with wind varying from 3-12knots.

A total of 173 boats were split into 4 groups where each group would race another group in a round robin qualifying series. Once everyone has completed 6 races then the whole fleet would be split in half to form a Gold Fleet and a Silver Fleet. This would be the finals series.

The first race was sailed in 8-12knots but from then on the breeze gradually died out. The next race was cancelled mid way through and everyone was sent back to the shore at 15:30 to wait for some wind.

About an hour later a very light onshore breeze filled in for a few hours and we all managed to get the second and final race in for the day.

Our results were a 4th in the first race and 12th in the second. Jacque and I are very pleased with getting off to a good start for the regatta. Full results can be found by clicking here

09:40 local time on the second day the wind is a mere 2 knots from the south. Hopefully it can build throughout the day.

Catch all the news, photos and results at www.f18worlds2009.com

Weather forecasts can be found at http://www.windguru.com/es/index.php?sc=48332

180 boats have registered so far.

Racing will start on Monday at 11:00am local time, 5:00pm perth time and 7:00pm sydney time.

Unfortunately Taylor and Emma had to pull out of kiel week. But they have found a suitable replacement. 

The second round of the Ishares cup starts this friday in Hyeres, France. A fleet of 10 extreme 40′s will compete in what has evolved as the ultimate grand prix sailing event in the world. Taylor sailed with team Holmatro yesterday, filling for a crew member who has not yet arrived.

Tay and em will be in Hyeres for the next few days to watch some racing before they head up to Knokke, Belgium for the f18 world championship.

Taylor will team up with Jacques Bernier from America on a Hobie. Competition will be tough with 180 boats entered with some of the best cat sailors in the world.

Emma will be the beach crew…… and team cook.

Well the strong reaching conditions we were hoping for never came on Saturday as the Round Texel started at 10am in a 2-3 knot breeze from the south. With minimal breeze, it proved quite difficult to make it off the beach for everyone, with 4ft waves crashing and banging into all the boats.

But if you did make it over the white water then the next challenge was to stay on the right side of the start line. This was due to a strong current travelling the same direction as the breeze.

160 boats failed to start the race with a further 40 or so BFD.

The decision was made the night before for us to carry a spinaker on the Hobie 16 based on all the forecasts we looked at showing a maximum of 5 knots for race day.

This proved to be a slight disadvantage as it was so light the spinaker on the boat wasn’t filling with any wind at all.

The 80km course took us a total of 7h 18m 33sec. A little bit slower than the fastest boat around the island. That went to an M20 boat which took 5h 15min 39sec.

So not really any action photos to post up from the round the island race but the link below has some nice pics of the F18 short track racing that was held in a beautiful 20knot breeze the day before.

http://www.roundtexel.com/medialib/index.asp?navid=ngal&ngalid=71

We are travelling back down to Barcelona, Spain where we will spend one week working at a sailing school teaching little kiddies how to sail. We hope they can speak a little english or it could be a bit hard for us!

We have also added another event to our campaign being Kiel Week in the North of Germany. Kiel Week is one of the largest regattas in the world attracting 2000+ boats from all classes including olympic. They are expecting a fleet of about 50 hobie 16′s.

This regatta will start on the 24th of June and go to the 27th.

finish box for round texel

Since 1978 the Round Texel Race has been the biggest catamaran race in the world with over 500 catamarans.  Participating in the event is possible for all catamarans under 27 feet.

This event attracts some of the best beach cats and sailors from all over the world to compete in the 80km dash around the island.

Texel always generates a great excitement in the lead up to the race and during, no matter what conditions it throws at you.

The start line is 2km long just off the beach between 2 massive tug boats. Because the start line is so big they use a helicopter to fly over the line with coloured flares to tell you how long until the start. If you are over the line with 10 minutes to go you will be disqualified as general recalls are not an option!

The race will start between 9:30-11:00 on Saturday morning depending on the wind and tide.

We are hoping for strong reaching conditions which will favour the Hobie 16.

Click here to view the event website.

Wind forecast for saturday can also be found at Windguru.

No wind on the last day meant there was no change in the results.  Quite the opposite conditions from the first day when it was 25+ knots. We are happy with the result considering it was a strong fleet with National and European Champions alike.

A very well run regatta by the organisers generating a great atmosphere throughout the regatta.
The German people were very nice to us, always offering to help in any way which made us feel really comfortable. 

Haven’t broken through for a win yet but we are confident that it is not too far away.

Next on the program is Round Texel which is on the 13th of June.  An 80km dash around an island north of Amsterdam. It is the largest catamaran race in the world with up to 600 boats on the start line. We are hoping for strong reaching conditions which will favour a Hobie 16.

More updates to come on our progress leading up to Texel.