Editorial- A Kiwi Sailing Kaleidoscope

by nzeditor@sail-world.com on 12 Apr 2006 There’s plenty of sailing action involving Kiwi’s around the world.

The Princess Sophia regatta is underway in La Palma, Spain, and though only a Grade 2 regatta attracts a large European contingent, plus the Antipodeans and Americans extending their sailing season into Europe.

The results to date show that the Kiwis are in touch, with the best performances coming on the Mens RS:X. We feature the extracted NZL results in our story. Team Skandia GBR have turned out in force and are dominating the regatta, underlining the fact that many countries have their Olympic and development campaigns underway for 2008 and 2012. The Poms will have their tails up, no doubt on the back of the news that they will be receiving additional funding to maximize their medal tally from their home game Olympics in Weymouth in 2012.

We also feature a story from GBR on the progress of their Youth Trials in the 2012 Olympic venue, as well as a piece from the Times Online on preparations for the 20087 Sailing Olympics in Qindao.

Off the coast of South America the NZ skippered ABN Amro One continues to lead the fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean race. Behind them the rest of the fleet are poised to pounce as lighter winds are expected to move through the fleet offering the chance of catch up. The speeds over the past 24 hours have been very impressive – with ABN Amro One chewing out 100 miles in just six hours, and doing another 500 mile day without really batting an eyelid.

In the Congressional Cup, Simon Minoprio and the Vision Yachting team are handily placed at the end of the first day. They are up against the best of the match racing world, with Russell Coutts and others competing.

Over in Florida, the Flying Dutchman Worlds have just finished with Paul Scoffin and Simon Garland finishing sixth and a second Kiwi crew back towards the end of the 34 strong fleet.

Closer to home we have the Toyota Optimist Nationals getting underway from the Torbay YC, and the oldest trophy in NZ dinghy sailing – the Sanders Cup is being sailed off Auckland Sailing Club.

Stay tuned to Sail-World for all the results and sailing action over the next few days.

Our thanks to those who have send contributions in from around New Zealand – it is most appreciated and we are pleased to help your sailors and sponsors. Our address is nzeditor@sail-world.com

Good Sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor