How do you take a photo like that?

Check out the banner photo above, how is it possible to do it??

My good mate Christope Launay is the master of onboard photo's for small boats, check out his work here :- http://www.sealaunay.com/

if you ever need a top photo dude and want it to look like it is for us as sailors then Christope is your man.

A total pleasure to work with and I am proud to call him my mate (even if he is french!)

Right now I am in the southern hemisphere again, arrived on Friday and had a good look at a couple of new builds and projects that are moving along very well (not ready for public consumption yet) as well as having a look at some very nice foils that will be available in Europe in the next few weeks. I will bring a couple of sets back with me.

More meetings next week for me and then back to euroland for the next events on the F18.

M20 is fast!!

Check the results here: http://roerkoning.nl/2011/vjb11.htm#r4grote_cats

pretty much untouchable in 7-12kts breeze.

will try to get more detail pics next week, the boat is in the shed now getting some love.

I have been super busy the past few days getting the new Wildcat sorted out, should be sailing Sunday before we head to Carnac. More photos of that little regatta will be posted too.

Cheers

New trapeze lines

Spent a few hours sorting out the time consuming parts of a new boat buildup, we can now have dyneema trap lines on the f18. Not sure of the reason, but it has been touted as a safety issue but I'm stuffed if I can see it being any different in practice.

Anyhow, I like to tweak my boat so it suits me to have the freedom to make this stuff.

I used some 3mm sk75 in yellow because it looks cool! But later on I will receive my new 2.5mm highly pre stretched sk78 from alpha ropes. So I will make another set of lines then.

These first ones came out really nicely and the cool carbon handles really fit well and work even better.

Boat arrives on Monday, so it's going to be a busy week, have to get the wildcat sorted and we have a heavy weather test scheduled for the motor cat.

Oh, keep an eye out for the motor cat this Saturday, it's being used as a jury boat for the team racing event. We will do some video of it during the event.


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final prep for team race broadcast

This afternoon we went through the final checks to make sure we are not going to make a mess of the saturday event, I even did a small voice over for the promo video that will be released in 24 hours or so. Keep an eye out on Sailing Anarchy for the live feed of the event.

Thanks again to the Nuguru guys and Mischa de Munck for today.

First race of 2011

We have been sorting the M20 out over the past few weeks, and i'm pretty happy with its current state, Its funny how a few changes here and there can have a compound effect on the performance. Add in more time on the boat in a variety of conditions and the total gain is considerable.

I really didn't spend much time on the M20 in 2010 due to my work with Nacra, but now I can do much more sailing on it, so whenever I get the chance we will have the big beast out there!

Last week we shot a small video for Zwisterleven in preparation for the round Texel race, the boat will be essentially as you see it here in the video, except for a small change which will be revealed just prior to the race... I am sailing a Wildcat at texel, so Herbie and Bulkas will be piloting the weapon. http://www.vimeo.com/22052067

Enjoy the Vid, and keep an eye out for the stealthy black carbon RIB as well, it will be the commentator boat for the upcoming team racing event on Saturday, broadcast live on Sailing Anarchy.

results fromt he racing are here: http://www.roerkoning.nl/2011/vjb11.htm

The next step

A lot of you will be aware that we are hosting a team racing event on the 16th April here in NED, the basic concept is simple enough: Team racing in F18's with a solid focus on bringing it to the public.

The tricky part is how do you get the action out there? beyond those who attend the even in person.... Sure we have photo's and reports, but nothing beats TV, and imagine if you could put cameras on F18's and broadcast live? add in GPS tracking and you have a super cool package.

up until very recently all this was costing mega bucks and actually it was too big and certainly not waterproof enough, but as technology evolves these options become more and more feasible. With modified Gopro cameras and some geek engineering this is all going to happen next weekend.

For me though, the seriously cool thing is the plane.... Yep a remote control plane with a Gopro on the nose and it sends live video up to 40km!!!

You have a cool set of video googles to watch it all like a pilot, its seriously spooky to view the world like this, but addictive all the same!

So, next weekend we will see the next step in sailing viewing, sounds a lot like the next AC TV plans..


Big thanks to the boys at

2 posts in one day!

Rumors abound that I am sailing a Hobie in 2011, well its not exactly fresh news really is it?

These photos were taken in 2009, and clearly show me sailing a Hobie :)

But seriously: I am sailing a Hobie in 2011 and went for my first training session yesterday, borrowed boat (thanks mini Mischa) and new crew, Cas (Ex John Casey slave) . We were very happy with our first session. Upwind speed was really good and downwind we are happy too. we had a pretty good boat to measure against (until a small technical detail took them out for the afternoon)

More Wildcat training in the coming weeks in preparation fro Carnac, hopefully my new boat arrives in time for the customary Macca tuning session.

What the hell??

This is what I have been working on recently, its for sure not a pretty thing! but its functional and surprisingly quick. The end use will become clear in a few months, but its safe to say that its not class legal and will not be granted a texel rating anytime soon!

ISAF, final chance...

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...

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...