A Proud Coach

The test event in Fremantle finished on Sunday with 5 GBR Teams in the top 10 and the young guns of Fletcher and Sign once again leading the British charge. Having finished 5th at the Worlds in January, Dylan and Alain's goals for the year was to consistently finish in the top 10 at grade 1 regattas and Medal in 1. Well, this week they nailed it and put the memories of Kiele (where they had lead going into the medal race only to finish 4th) to bed.

There is no doubt that this team has talent but its their work ethic that sets them apart from other Development teams within our program. Their relentless search for improvement has been recognised by Draper and Greenhalgh who have them as their training partners for that reason. Even Olympic Manager, Stephen Park, had to recognise their achievement above all others in Fremantle with the team talking home 5 medals but worryingly 'No Golds'.

Having worked with these two guys since they were 15, it's brilliant to see them consistently delivering at this level. They both came through the 29'er Youth Program although in separate teams. Now, their sights are firmly set on 2012 although they have stiff competition for that single spot. For our two boat squad of Fletcher-Sign and Draper-Greenhalgh this even marked a step forward in speed compared to the benchmark teams of Australia's Outridge and Jenson. Next step for us is a winter in Cadiz working hard on closing the gap further in the run in for 2012 qualification.

Fremantle put on a good even in difficult conditions. However, their hype surrounding spectators turned out to be just that, Hype. The talk is for 500,000 spectators for next years event but this week has reinforced the fact that sailing is not a live spectator sport. Having moved the racing close into shore, the organising committee chose to marginalise the quality of the racing in search of an impossible goal. Sailing needs to realise that it will never be a 'Live' sport and need to focus their attention on better TV production and improved Internet casting of racing. Our sport is all about data and the Net Nerds love that stuff. Lets embrace this and put rich data onto race footage so people can follow the decisions and make their own calls buy using speed and wind information.

So, thats it from Aus; Well done Dylan and Alain.

Is 'Stadium Racing' the future?

With Sailing struggling to find support within the International Olympic Committee its up to the sport to be proactive in finding a solution that will guarantee its place in future Games. The 49'er Class has always been at the forefront of this and yesterday we stage a 'Stadium Race' to prove that we can deliver fast, easy to understand, exciting racing in confined spaces.

The concept is radical. 2 flights of 8 teams going head to head over a 5 race series to determin 1st to 4th ranked teams in each flight. Then its a conventional Match Race format to decide the Overall placings. The real difference is in the course. A 400 meter windward leeward course within a 100meter wide lane fenced off with swimming style buoys on ropes. Races last 8 minutes and its full on 'Crash and Burn' racing.

Yesterdays 2nd attempt at running the format went really well. 15-20kts of wind and a fierce chop meant the boat handling of the best teams in the worlds was put under intense pressure. The biggest question is will the best teams win or will we see random teams taking the Gold. Well, the early signs are that the 10 ten will remain the same but the order may change slightly to favour the teams with better boat handling. Yesterday it was Greenhalgh and Draper that prevailed with Fletcher-Sign 2nd the NZL team of Burling and Turk 3rd.

'The Doctor' and the Wing

When you list the best places in the World to sail Fremantle always feature in peoples top 10. It's home to one of Australias most influential clubs and the Aussy Americas Cup team that wrestled the Trophy away from Seppo's back in the 80's. Fre'O' is also the home of the infamous 'Doctor'. The most feared Sea Breeze in world sailing and a match for anything Sydney, San Fran or Lake Garda has to offer. This whopping breeze is fed by the desert inland from Perth that has temperatures soaring well into the late evening resulting in a massive cell that feeds a 25-30knot wind. This is made all the more trecherous by the shallow waters of the Bay that cause a wicket short chop that has broken mast written all over it.

Team GBR is in town for the ISAF World's test event ahead of the main regatta next December. This is the biggest event in the quadrinium for Olympic Classes as it has stages all class Worlds in one venue the year before each Games. Inlike the Olympics, each nation can enter up to 6-7 boats in each class reasulting in 700+ boats and an ornaisational nightmare.

We've all settled into the team Hotel and the training camp has been going well for the past 5 days. We managed to squeeze in a trip to the Maritime Museum to pay homage to the boat brought the Australia and see the faballed 'Wing' Keel. At the time this was heralded as the key factor in winning the series and really flustered the Americans. At the time the class rules were limited on the old 12 meter class to allowing a very traditional shaped keel unlike the long fin and bulb we see on the modern Cup Class boats. The idea of this keel was to turn the existing shape 'fin' upside down so the narrow cord was at the top and the long, heavy section of the keel was at the bottom. This lowered the weight and increased the righting moment but at one huge cost. The flow of water across the keel was lost at the tip, something we call leekage. This reduced the effectiveness of the keel in the amount of lift it was able to generate until those cunning convicts decided to stick on some winglet's to redirect the water back along the bottom of the keel. It's something any flyer will see now when the look at the end of a passenger airliner. It was brilliant to get the chance to see the beauty up close and toast what was a significant part of yacht racing history.

Today, we had a spot of coach swapping and I took on the role of Laser coach while my opposite number Chris Gowers rode with the 49'ers for the day. Had a great day with Nick Thompson and Paul Goddison so thanks to the lads for being open to ideas and for giving me a shorter than normal day on the water. Really impressive to see the phyicality of Laser sailing at this level and even more impressive was the speed of Australian Tom Sligsby who is quite special in the breeze.

So, The reagatta starts in 4 Days and I'll report back on the progress of the Brit Pack as they continue the quest for world domination. I leave you safe in the knowledge that whereever you may be, the beer will be cheaper than it is at our Hotel!

49'er Skandia Ad

SB3 Worlds

Last week I got the chance to return to Largo del Garda to team up with one of my good coaching mates, Mark Rushall along with his wife Liz and Niki McGreggor to sail the Laser SB3 Worlds.

105 Boats entered with some hot competition from RSA, ITA and GER along with a 50 boat British contingent lead by last years World Champion , Craig Burton. The standard, was pretty reasonable considering these one design boats don't carry the same international appeal of say the Melges24. What they do offer is a cost effective alternative and a more Corinthian approach to racing (not entirely Corinthian mind you!). One boat stood out from the rest and that was the' 3 Sad Old Men in a Boat' with Jerry Hill at the helm and Grant Rollerson (bow) and Joe Lewellyn (main). They sailed really well and did so with off the shelf new kit which is encouraging for the class. The concern with many manufactures classes is that top teams always manage to flex the rules and the SB3 has suffered from this in the past. Its hard to explain but I think 'some boats are more equal that others' say's it all.

On board Rushall.net we had the unusual situation of having 2 coaches in one boat with 2 girls as the 'Jam' in the coach sandwich. It was great to sail with Mark, who I've worked with in delivering Tactics modules with TeamGBR. With one training day and a practice regatta in Lymington we were far from the 'Gun' team. We did, however, have a very good understanding of the lake and realistic expectations of a top 10 finish.

Initially the fleet split into 2 for quification. This format helpes select a top 50 to go through to finals and means that you avaoid having 100+ boats on the same line. I think we qualified 14th which was solid but we'd been struggling to get 1st beats right. We were in good company as even Italian Americas cup tacticians we picking the wrong side of the beat despite having sailed on the lake for 20+ years. Garda has a very predictable wind with one side of the lake tending to pay depending on the wind direction and Windward Mark position. The difficulty in this regatta was the 1st mark being laid in the middle of the lack with both gain features effecting the approach. Coin tossing ended up being the most consistent approach to strategy. Well, that's not entirely fair and the right of the course was tending to pay but to lead the group out you needed to put some risk on that start and that wasn't our style. Mark and I both like to be conservative and work the middle of the course up the 1st beat and we executed that plan well!

The penultimate day was perfect Garda racing with a pumping 20kt breeze on the lake and the course set on the far side under the cliffs. We had a great day with Niki and Liz helping us move through the fleet with top 5 boat handling to record a Jumbo 7,4,7, on the score sheet. Its amazing, so much lake and only one was to go up wind and downwind. The racing started to look like river racing with 50 boats all short tacking up the side of the lake. After a brilliant day we moved ourselves into 9th and in sight of our top 10 goal. That needed celebrating so we headed off to an old 49'er chums near Malchesnie. Luca's family run restaurant was beautiful and a must for anyone passing, just mention my name...Restorante da Umberta.

Day 5 and the final day started with big breeze again. Once again we got the 1st beat slightly wrong but lead our side in to round in the teens. With some tight downwind racing we moved up to finish 13th with all to play for on the final race. Up front things were getting really tight with all of the contenders carrying a big discard. The final race started with both sides paying but we really suffered in the middle. We rounded in the 40's but with the breeze switching off we worked the puff and patches down the run and moved into the mid teens at the gate. As we approached Liz noticed the T flag flying and having read the race instructions we headed straight for the finish, unlike the rest of the fleet. There was a little tension in the boat as we neared the line wondering if we would get a gun or not. 2 boats had seen our move and rolled us into the line but the gun sounded and a 3rd place guaranteed us a top 10 finish. Its also caused mass confusion ahead with many of the other top boats scoring DNF's due to continuing to race and finishing out of the time limit. The wait started, could we move up further, who would win and who would be the biggest casualty.

Well, the right boat won with Jerry hanging on to finish just ahead of Ian Ainsley from Race Ahead (a really cool project to get disadvantaged kids into sailing in south Africa). The biggest winner was Sarah Allen who had sailed a really consistent series and shot up the results to 4th as other teams carried high scores after a DNF. The biggest loser was Rodian Luca and the team Russia who plummeted to 2nd to 8th Occhhh.

So, that was that. A fantastic regatta and a quick exit to Milan to try and catch a flight home to the Mrs. Next week its back to reality as Team GBR prepares for the Olympic Test Event 2 years out from the Games.

For more on this regatta visit the webite on: http://www.circolovelatorbole.com/en/