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..

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!

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!!

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.

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!!

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.

Singapore Vid

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!

Sorry!!

Shitty interweb connection in Singapore... actually it was a good connection, just a bad price!!

you can check the news at http://www.extremesailingseriesasia.com/ and here are a couple of pics to check out whilst I get to doing a full wrap on the Singapore event.

Now in Amsterdam and freezing cold, Snow all around and tomorrow I drive to Austria and then Italy or some real snow time!!

Tough way to finish

Hans Peter caught a bug after the round the island race, so the next day we had a replacement crew for the 2nd last day.
The teamwork is hard enough at the best of times, but its super hard to get a new guy on the go in very short notice.
We survived but then we had a small but unfixable issue with the hydraulics and that was the end of racing for us...

Now I am in Phuket getting a few days of "relaxation.." before Kings Cup starts. I am sailing with Evolution Racing, A modified TP52 so hoping for big wind so we can send the bus!!