I am in Athens now for the ISAF conference, my first visit to such a gathering and from all I have heard from experienced campaigners is that I may be a little frustrated with the process...
I see it as a pretty simple thing though: Either ISAF have the guts to make the right call for sailing (not individual classes) or sailing and the Olympics will part ways in the near future.
We, as sailors know that the time for old designs, old categories and substandard equipment are over, but the crazy thing is that we are not really able to influence the old boys and girls who have demonstrated that they like living in the past and if they continue down the current path they can remain in the past along with olympic sailing.
I hope to be proven wrong, but i'm not confident...
Friday, November 5, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Still busy
In the past few weeks I have been all over the place: First I was stuck in Dubai with the Volcanic Ash cloud issue... I managed to get myself into Hospital there, not the best way to spend your time in Dubai!
Then I flew to Vienna, where Roman picked me up and we drove the Golf (rabbit powered..) to Salzburg so we could do a couple of days work on the X40, I flew from there to London to pick up my new car, An Audi Allroad, very nice. I drove it back to Holland via the ferry at Harwich. The next day I drove to Carnac in Arijen's Tundra (I love these trucks!) we sailed our new Nacra there and broke it on a rock in the long distance race, so we drove home again on the Sunday. Boats all fixed now and ready for the next event.
Tuesday last week I flew to San Fran for one week, and tomorrow I drive to Sweden in the Black Tundra :) to sort out the Red M20..
Then next week I go to Vienna again to get the Red Bull boat to Sete for the first race of the season.
more miles for me...
Then I flew to Vienna, where Roman picked me up and we drove the Golf (rabbit powered..) to Salzburg so we could do a couple of days work on the X40, I flew from there to London to pick up my new car, An Audi Allroad, very nice. I drove it back to Holland via the ferry at Harwich. The next day I drove to Carnac in Arijen's Tundra (I love these trucks!) we sailed our new Nacra there and broke it on a rock in the long distance race, so we drove home again on the Sunday. Boats all fixed now and ready for the next event.
Tuesday last week I flew to San Fran for one week, and tomorrow I drive to Sweden in the Black Tundra :) to sort out the Red M20..
Then next week I go to Vienna again to get the Red Bull boat to Sete for the first race of the season.
more miles for me...
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Busy week ahead
Long time, no posts!
Summary of the situation: I am in Amsterdam again (was in Sydney for a few weeks) I sailed the new Nacra F20 last week, Amazing boat and you should all go and buy one!!
Full report is below, but I though I should give you an idea of my schedule for the next week...
Monday I am trying to fit in another sail on the 20, its just too much fun!! Then in the afternoon I fly to Southampton, maybe look at a car to buy and then off to Cowes for the OC Events Extreme 40 series team briefing on Tuesday.
Fly back to Amsterdam Tuesday evening. Then Thursday I fly to Dubai for a race on the good ship Yo!! (IRC 50') Its a long day race but I still fly back to the UK on Friday night so I can go sailing in Holland on the weekend!
Busy times, but all good stuff.
Here is my impression of the new Nacra F20:- Photos to come...
Holland in March is usually not the best place to go sailing, as an Aussie I have a natural dislike to any weather that requires the use of a drysuit!
John Forbes said it best: If you need a drysuit, we don't go! But as the years I spend in Euroland go by I find myself less reluctant to drysuit weather and was even tempted to sail the new Nacra F20 in February. but sanity prevailed when there was a good coverage of ice in the harbour.
So finally the weather came good, I arrived back Holland earlier this week and after a visit to Nacra HQ we arranged to go for a test sail on Wednesday. The forecast was great, Unseasonal warm weather and 12 kts breeze sounded pretty good for a first sail on the new creation.
You have all seen photos of the boat and discussed the boat at length so I won't bore you with any more detail stuff unless someone has a specific question, but suffice it to say that the boat is what you expect from Nacra, the layout is clean and simple just like the Infusion. The build quality and finishing (on this pre production boat) was excellent, a few extra bolt holes and fittings here and there but as you would expect from the first boat out of the moulds.
The breeze was a lot stronger than the forecast and as we sailed out of the harbour and as soon as we exited the sea wall it was clearly more than 20kts. So this would be an interesting session!
First up, Peter Vink and I sailed upwind for a couple of miles, just getting a feeling for the boat and trying a few different settings for mast rotation and board height (more on the board height later) essentially the boat sails like an Infusion, same systems and Nacra DNA helps with the familiar feeling and there are very few things anyone would want to change. You can feel the foils working to lift the leeward hull even as you go upwind. The boat feels fast as you come out of a tack but then as you both get on the wire and it winds up to full speed you get a funny feeling through the boat that it's all gone a bit light, essentially it has gone light! There is clearly less boat in the water..
Pete and I then cruised downwind (no trapezing so we could chat) getting a feel for the boat under kite and seeing what happens when you push the bows under a wave (not much, just pops out again). The breeze by now was solid mid 20's so we were giving it some loads to deal with, At the bottom of our run we parked up and had a chat about a few things we noticed and then Pete jumped on the coach boat to check it from a different point of view and Adam Beattie joined me on the 20.
Upwind again, this time Adam and I were pushing as hard as we could and tried the boards in different heights as well as different heel angles for the boat, both of these are related to the behaviour of the boat and both make a huge difference. If you have the boards fully down and fly the hull high you get a lot of lift from the foil, this is fun but not the fastest way to go upwind. We tried some silly things like big hull flying and then rounding up sharply.. The boat flies on the foil (leeward hull out of the water until the board case) then it settles back down in the water and carries on upwind. Its all very manageable and aside from the ability to make the foils lift the boat its pretty normal sailing.
Then we set the kite and left the boards fully down and Adam jumped on the wire, you feel instantly that the boat is lifting on the foils. Its very easy to get the whole boat out! We did this a few times and couldn't stop laughing! It's seriously the most fun you will ever have on a beach cat. For sure the full boards down option is not the fastest in the conditions we had (25kts by this stage) but it's a crazy amount of fun and very addictive..
Anyhow, sanity prevailed and we lifted the boards 30cm and tried again: This is the quickest I have ever been on a beach cat downwind. Pete was only just keeping up in the coach boat at full throttle. The slightly higher board setting still gives lift and the boat is semi foiling the whole time. You can feel that the steering becomes super sensitive and your speed increases as you keep the boat in the groove. It was around this time that I said to
Adam: "this is the future of catsailing" It's a whole new dimension to the sport, The added speed and feeling the boat gives you is something I want to do again and again. I would have stayed out all day if it was possible!
So, we could see some seriously bad weather coming in and as it was already 20kts plus we decided to call it a day, Here is the "funny" part. The heading back to the harbour was a square reach and being silly (bloody
Aussies!) we thought it would be interesting to see what happens with a full noise reach and full boards down. We started out pretty well, the boat was semi foiling and going quick. I think we would have been quicker with the boards up a bit more though. But we were still heading a bit high for the harbour entrance, so we tried to sail a bit lower angle and initially we were fine, then we had a huge line of breeze come through and we got it all a bit wrong.. With the full boards down the boat started to get out of the water and we were standing too far aft which then lifted the bows and then the boat really came out of the water, lost grip and took a big step to leeward, this would have been ok if I was still attached to the boat!
Suffice it to say that we did some swimming in the North Sea J
The good news is that the boat was super easy to get back upright again, the lesson for the day was: don't try to fly too high!! Its no problem upwind (the boat never fully flies upwind) and downwind is ok because the boat doesn't make the big sideways step as it come out, but reaching is where the side loads are big and the boat wants to go to leeward once it comes free of the water.
The boat is the most fun I have had on a small cat for a very long time and I can't wait for the next sail on it (maybe Monday..) I would happily swap my F18 for the 20 and for a lot of the bigger teams I think it's a great option. There are already solid orders that ensure there will be a class in Europe this year and as more people get to try the boat I am sure the momentum will increase.
Steal one if you have to, but make sure you get out there and try this boat!!
Summary of the situation: I am in Amsterdam again (was in Sydney for a few weeks) I sailed the new Nacra F20 last week, Amazing boat and you should all go and buy one!!
Full report is below, but I though I should give you an idea of my schedule for the next week...
Monday I am trying to fit in another sail on the 20, its just too much fun!! Then in the afternoon I fly to Southampton, maybe look at a car to buy and then off to Cowes for the OC Events Extreme 40 series team briefing on Tuesday.
Fly back to Amsterdam Tuesday evening. Then Thursday I fly to Dubai for a race on the good ship Yo!! (IRC 50') Its a long day race but I still fly back to the UK on Friday night so I can go sailing in Holland on the weekend!
Busy times, but all good stuff.
Here is my impression of the new Nacra F20:- Photos to come...
Holland in March is usually not the best place to go sailing, as an Aussie I have a natural dislike to any weather that requires the use of a drysuit!
John Forbes said it best: If you need a drysuit, we don't go! But as the years I spend in Euroland go by I find myself less reluctant to drysuit weather and was even tempted to sail the new Nacra F20 in February. but sanity prevailed when there was a good coverage of ice in the harbour.
So finally the weather came good, I arrived back Holland earlier this week and after a visit to Nacra HQ we arranged to go for a test sail on Wednesday. The forecast was great, Unseasonal warm weather and 12 kts breeze sounded pretty good for a first sail on the new creation.
You have all seen photos of the boat and discussed the boat at length so I won't bore you with any more detail stuff unless someone has a specific question, but suffice it to say that the boat is what you expect from Nacra, the layout is clean and simple just like the Infusion. The build quality and finishing (on this pre production boat) was excellent, a few extra bolt holes and fittings here and there but as you would expect from the first boat out of the moulds.
The breeze was a lot stronger than the forecast and as we sailed out of the harbour and as soon as we exited the sea wall it was clearly more than 20kts. So this would be an interesting session!
First up, Peter Vink and I sailed upwind for a couple of miles, just getting a feeling for the boat and trying a few different settings for mast rotation and board height (more on the board height later) essentially the boat sails like an Infusion, same systems and Nacra DNA helps with the familiar feeling and there are very few things anyone would want to change. You can feel the foils working to lift the leeward hull even as you go upwind. The boat feels fast as you come out of a tack but then as you both get on the wire and it winds up to full speed you get a funny feeling through the boat that it's all gone a bit light, essentially it has gone light! There is clearly less boat in the water..
Pete and I then cruised downwind (no trapezing so we could chat) getting a feel for the boat under kite and seeing what happens when you push the bows under a wave (not much, just pops out again). The breeze by now was solid mid 20's so we were giving it some loads to deal with, At the bottom of our run we parked up and had a chat about a few things we noticed and then Pete jumped on the coach boat to check it from a different point of view and Adam Beattie joined me on the 20.
Upwind again, this time Adam and I were pushing as hard as we could and tried the boards in different heights as well as different heel angles for the boat, both of these are related to the behaviour of the boat and both make a huge difference. If you have the boards fully down and fly the hull high you get a lot of lift from the foil, this is fun but not the fastest way to go upwind. We tried some silly things like big hull flying and then rounding up sharply.. The boat flies on the foil (leeward hull out of the water until the board case) then it settles back down in the water and carries on upwind. Its all very manageable and aside from the ability to make the foils lift the boat its pretty normal sailing.
Then we set the kite and left the boards fully down and Adam jumped on the wire, you feel instantly that the boat is lifting on the foils. Its very easy to get the whole boat out! We did this a few times and couldn't stop laughing! It's seriously the most fun you will ever have on a beach cat. For sure the full boards down option is not the fastest in the conditions we had (25kts by this stage) but it's a crazy amount of fun and very addictive..
Anyhow, sanity prevailed and we lifted the boards 30cm and tried again: This is the quickest I have ever been on a beach cat downwind. Pete was only just keeping up in the coach boat at full throttle. The slightly higher board setting still gives lift and the boat is semi foiling the whole time. You can feel that the steering becomes super sensitive and your speed increases as you keep the boat in the groove. It was around this time that I said to
Adam: "this is the future of catsailing" It's a whole new dimension to the sport, The added speed and feeling the boat gives you is something I want to do again and again. I would have stayed out all day if it was possible!
So, we could see some seriously bad weather coming in and as it was already 20kts plus we decided to call it a day, Here is the "funny" part. The heading back to the harbour was a square reach and being silly (bloody
Aussies!) we thought it would be interesting to see what happens with a full noise reach and full boards down. We started out pretty well, the boat was semi foiling and going quick. I think we would have been quicker with the boards up a bit more though. But we were still heading a bit high for the harbour entrance, so we tried to sail a bit lower angle and initially we were fine, then we had a huge line of breeze come through and we got it all a bit wrong.. With the full boards down the boat started to get out of the water and we were standing too far aft which then lifted the bows and then the boat really came out of the water, lost grip and took a big step to leeward, this would have been ok if I was still attached to the boat!
Suffice it to say that we did some swimming in the North Sea J
The good news is that the boat was super easy to get back upright again, the lesson for the day was: don't try to fly too high!! Its no problem upwind (the boat never fully flies upwind) and downwind is ok because the boat doesn't make the big sideways step as it come out, but reaching is where the side loads are big and the boat wants to go to leeward once it comes free of the water.
The boat is the most fun I have had on a small cat for a very long time and I can't wait for the next sail on it (maybe Monday..) I would happily swap my F18 for the 20 and for a lot of the bigger teams I think it's a great option. There are already solid orders that ensure there will be a class in Europe this year and as more people get to try the boat I am sure the momentum will increase.
Steal one if you have to, but make sure you get out there and try this boat!!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Oman wrap up
Finally back in sunny (not very) Amsterdam and starting to get back into the normal groove of things here.
The last day of the Oman regatta was not the best for our team, although as always you learns something everytime you it the water so it wasn't a complete loss.
With Roman out of action it was up to me to take on the steering job, but with the boat still in a bit of a state after being on its side for quite a while the previous day we had our work cut out for us!
We were a little late getting to the starting area because the mainsail halyard lock was playing up so that threw us a little and it was quite windy so we had to reef anyway but pretty much as soon as the racing started the breeze started to drop quite a lot and in the end we had less than 2kts.
The first race was a paired speed trial, we managed to be OCS... in the first lap which was not so good, but we nailed the second start and things felt good. As we were the last boat to take a run at the speed trial we were also the last ones to start shaking out the reef, and to my amazement the RC went into a sequence very quickly, even while we had our mainsail on the deck still... I asked for more time and was refused so we missed the start by a minute which in these races is like locking in a last place no matter what. Then the next start we had a nice one at the windward end of the line, tacked off to port and were 3rd at the layline, but seconds after we tacked back onto stb the whole mainsail came crashing down because the main halyard shackle wasn't attached correctly in the mad rush to make the previous start. So we DNF that race... then we had to rush yet again to get the main back up as the RC were not waiting around for us again. So we had a another shitty start and result, the last race was super light and we managed to hold of Shirley and the Spanish (UK) team on Andalucia to save ourselves the embarrassment of a last place in the regatta.
A very tough day on the water for us and I was not happy at all with the way the racing was run over the last 2 days of the regatta. Consider this: the only time in the entire Asian series that there were more than 6 races run was the day that Red Bull capsized in the 5th race of the day. so we DNF the 5th, DNC races 6,7 and 8 which means we went from winning the regatta to 4th. And guess which boats went into 1st and 2nd places after all the extra races on that day? I'll give you one hint it starts with an "O" and ends with an "N"
Add in the seemingly biased actions of the Race controller on the final day and you can see why I was pissed off.
Regardless of how I feel from my point of view, I was approached by other teams who thought it was very strange to have so many races on the penultimate day and for the RC to rush the racing though when it was clear that not enough time had been allocated to us to unreef.
Next on the agenda for the X40 is some odd jobs to get the boat ready for the European season and maybe setup the travelling gear so its better suited for the regattas.
I am off to Dubai on the 23rd Feb for the Maktoum cup then back to Sydney for some family time before the return to Euroland..
The last day of the Oman regatta was not the best for our team, although as always you learns something everytime you it the water so it wasn't a complete loss.
With Roman out of action it was up to me to take on the steering job, but with the boat still in a bit of a state after being on its side for quite a while the previous day we had our work cut out for us!
We were a little late getting to the starting area because the mainsail halyard lock was playing up so that threw us a little and it was quite windy so we had to reef anyway but pretty much as soon as the racing started the breeze started to drop quite a lot and in the end we had less than 2kts.
The first race was a paired speed trial, we managed to be OCS... in the first lap which was not so good, but we nailed the second start and things felt good. As we were the last boat to take a run at the speed trial we were also the last ones to start shaking out the reef, and to my amazement the RC went into a sequence very quickly, even while we had our mainsail on the deck still... I asked for more time and was refused so we missed the start by a minute which in these races is like locking in a last place no matter what. Then the next start we had a nice one at the windward end of the line, tacked off to port and were 3rd at the layline, but seconds after we tacked back onto stb the whole mainsail came crashing down because the main halyard shackle wasn't attached correctly in the mad rush to make the previous start. So we DNF that race... then we had to rush yet again to get the main back up as the RC were not waiting around for us again. So we had a another shitty start and result, the last race was super light and we managed to hold of Shirley and the Spanish (UK) team on Andalucia to save ourselves the embarrassment of a last place in the regatta.
A very tough day on the water for us and I was not happy at all with the way the racing was run over the last 2 days of the regatta. Consider this: the only time in the entire Asian series that there were more than 6 races run was the day that Red Bull capsized in the 5th race of the day. so we DNF the 5th, DNC races 6,7 and 8 which means we went from winning the regatta to 4th. And guess which boats went into 1st and 2nd places after all the extra races on that day? I'll give you one hint it starts with an "O" and ends with an "N"
Add in the seemingly biased actions of the Race controller on the final day and you can see why I was pissed off.
Regardless of how I feel from my point of view, I was approached by other teams who thought it was very strange to have so many races on the penultimate day and for the RC to rush the racing though when it was clear that not enough time had been allocated to us to unreef.
Next on the agenda for the X40 is some odd jobs to get the boat ready for the European season and maybe setup the travelling gear so its better suited for the regattas.
I am off to Dubai on the 23rd Feb for the Maktoum cup then back to Sydney for some family time before the return to Euroland..
Friday, February 5, 2010
Day 4 Oman... Ooops!
A short update tonight, we have a lot of work to do still after the boys managed to turn the boat upside down in race 5 today. Roman was hurt quite badly but is now not looking to rough (more than normal!) but the boat needed some love and we had to crane out tonight to fix a bit of damage to the hull from one of the rescue ribs hitting us.
An early start tomorrow and we will be back on the water in time for racing, If Roman is ok he will be back on the boat, otherwise... Macca is on the helm! So look out all!
Ok, back to work for us!
An early start tomorrow and we will be back on the water in time for racing, If Roman is ok he will be back on the boat, otherwise... Macca is on the helm! So look out all!
Ok, back to work for us!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Day 3, the Match Racing day
It might seem a bit of a waste to spend a whole day match racing to only end up with effectively one race result at the end of all the drama. But for us it was a low risk day, With a nice lead we could afford to finish last and still lead overall.
for the match details its best to visit the event website www.extremesailingseriesasia.com but to sum our day up: we learnt a lot and we had a few rough decisions go against us but we ended the day in 4th which was better than the Blue Oman boat who ripped the clew ring out of their mainsail in the first match so they took a last place for the day.
The best part of the day was getting some cool photos with Jonathon (www.jonathanglynnsmith.com) our photo guru, We put him in some creative spots and he was really happy with the outcome so I can't wait to see how they look.
Tomorrow is back to fleet racing so lets hope the guys remember how to sail with more than one other boat on the course!!
for the match details its best to visit the event website www.extremesailingseriesasia.com but to sum our day up: we learnt a lot and we had a few rough decisions go against us but we ended the day in 4th which was better than the Blue Oman boat who ripped the clew ring out of their mainsail in the first match so they took a last place for the day.
The best part of the day was getting some cool photos with Jonathon (www.jonathanglynnsmith.com) our photo guru, We put him in some creative spots and he was really happy with the outcome so I can't wait to see how they look.
Tomorrow is back to fleet racing so lets hope the guys remember how to sail with more than one other boat on the course!!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Oman Day 2
Another good day for the boys, I had very little to complain about after today (except for the last race, where they managed to finish last...) But the rest of the day was a good demonstration of solid starts and the ability to come back from not so good situations by sailing their own race and keeping cool.
So we lead the regatta by 6 points after 2 days and tomorrow is the match racing rounds, the whole day counts for one race in the points. This is a good thing for us, not much to hurt us with one race up for grabs but it will be an interesting day of racing 40ft cats one on one...
On another note, there have been some amazing developments over the past 24 hours here at the Wave resort. Almost all the buildings and landscaping are completed and the golf course is being finished tomorrow, so we can have an early tee off for Friday before racing and squeeze in 9 holes before sailing :) I am joking of course, but to be serious the development will be great when its done.
So we lead the regatta by 6 points after 2 days and tomorrow is the match racing rounds, the whole day counts for one race in the points. This is a good thing for us, not much to hurt us with one race up for grabs but it will be an interesting day of racing 40ft cats one on one...
On another note, there have been some amazing developments over the past 24 hours here at the Wave resort. Almost all the buildings and landscaping are completed and the golf course is being finished tomorrow, so we can have an early tee off for Friday before racing and squeeze in 9 holes before sailing :) I am joking of course, but to be serious the development will be great when its done.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Oman Day 1
Nice start for the team!!
in some light conditions (Roman loves that stuff) the boys put the start practice from the last days to good use and managed a 1,2,2,1 scoreline for the day to lead by 7 points after only 4 races.
no pics yet, but check out http://www.extremesailingseriesasia.com/ for the latest.
We had a fantastic dinner tonight in the no.3 hotel in the world... you can search on google to find more, lets just say its impressive and not overbearing. Oh, and not cheap!!
More of the same for tomorrow we hope!!
in some light conditions (Roman loves that stuff) the boys put the start practice from the last days to good use and managed a 1,2,2,1 scoreline for the day to lead by 7 points after only 4 races.
no pics yet, but check out http://www.extremesailingseriesasia.com/ for the latest.
We had a fantastic dinner tonight in the no.3 hotel in the world... you can search on google to find more, lets just say its impressive and not overbearing. Oh, and not cheap!!
More of the same for tomorrow we hope!!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Oman practice day
Oman
The final stop in the Extreme 40 Asia series begins on the 1st Feb and runs until the 5th, We have been in Oman for a week now and its been a very productive one for us so far. After a 6 week break after Singapore we needed some time to get back in the groove again as well as getting our new Italian up to speed with the twin hull show.
As a warm up for the event the organizers decided it would be a good idea to have a long sail (18nm) to Muscat town and then do a couple of short races there before another long race back to the Wave resort where we are based for the event. I use the term “resort” very loosely for the Wave, I am sure it will be nice in the end but right now it’s a dusty construction site with nothing of any use (water, power, toilets…) within easy reach.
The sailing yesterday was mainly so the media guys could get some shots of the boats with nice backgrounds… but it was a useful speed test for us as well as a couple of short practice races. I was in the coach boat all day and it was quite good to check out the other boats and compare them to how we have our setup.
On the kite run to muscat the boys managed to hit a submerged UFO and wedged one of the boards into the back of the case, it took us about ten minutes to sort out once they reached the finish, no real damage to the board which is comforting considering the speed at which they hit!
Today (1st Feb) is the first days racing and there are up to 6 races planned, Lets hope it all comes together!!
Will post pics and vid as i get sorted out with sources.
The final stop in the Extreme 40 Asia series begins on the 1st Feb and runs until the 5th, We have been in Oman for a week now and its been a very productive one for us so far. After a 6 week break after Singapore we needed some time to get back in the groove again as well as getting our new Italian up to speed with the twin hull show.
As a warm up for the event the organizers decided it would be a good idea to have a long sail (18nm) to Muscat town and then do a couple of short races there before another long race back to the Wave resort where we are based for the event. I use the term “resort” very loosely for the Wave, I am sure it will be nice in the end but right now it’s a dusty construction site with nothing of any use (water, power, toilets…) within easy reach.
The sailing yesterday was mainly so the media guys could get some shots of the boats with nice backgrounds… but it was a useful speed test for us as well as a couple of short practice races. I was in the coach boat all day and it was quite good to check out the other boats and compare them to how we have our setup.
On the kite run to muscat the boys managed to hit a submerged UFO and wedged one of the boards into the back of the case, it took us about ten minutes to sort out once they reached the finish, no real damage to the board which is comforting considering the speed at which they hit!
Today (1st Feb) is the first days racing and there are up to 6 races planned, Lets hope it all comes together!!
Will post pics and vid as i get sorted out with sources.
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Singapore Story
The Singapore story
Once again, apologies for the slow updates, but I had bit on the past weeks and interweb connection time has been limited.
Onto the Singapore event for the X40 with Red Bull: Roman and I arrive pretty early for the event, I came from Phuket after finishing Kings Cup with Evolution Racing (would write more about that week if it was any good…) and Roman escaped a chilly Vienna to sweat it out in the tropical sunshine.
We wanted to get stuck into the build of the boat so we could have some fiddle time to sort a few systems out and get in better shape than we had been for the HK event, but as usual the schedule slipped behind and we waited for ages on the Monday morning for the containers to arrive, then unloading and all that crap takes longer when it so hot you cant think…
But we did get it all done well in front of time so that gave us the chance to sort things out a bit on the boat. Red Bull Singapore were awesome in their support, they gave us two slaves for the week which we named Hans and Peter because we figured that together they would be as strong as our own Hans-Peter… They were just about as strong! Plus they were great to have around and a big help with all sorts of local knowledge.
When the full team arrived we even managed to squeeze in a training day before the racing started so we felt pretty happy with our setup. We had a new Bowman for the week, David Vera of AC and VOR Telefonica fame. David was very quick to get up to speed with the tricks and sequence of events needed to get the 40 around the course.
For the racing we did really well, finished 2nd overall and we certainly performed much better as a team as the week went on. For sure we are not the fastest boat on the track yet but that will come as we work on the setup a bit more and get some real testing time scheduled.
Next up for the 40 is Oman at the end of Jan, until then I am in Amsterdam and its snowing still… Next report will be about the Xmas trip to Italy and Austria, fun times!
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