Sail-World New Zealand- March 12, 2013

by . on 12 Mar 2013 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand newsletter for March 12, 2013

America's Cup news continues to dominate, following the practice racing, on the Hauraki Gulf, for several days last week.

In this edition of Sail-World.com's newsletter we feature the first of a two-part interview, by Sail-World Publisher Rob Kothe, with Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Oracle Team USA's AC72.

The interview is mildly controversial, with the usual barbs hurled across the Tasman as usually happens when a couple of Australians look longingly towards the Eastern Island.

But the gloves come off tomorrow in Part 2, which will be published on Sail-World.com

The practice session in Friday was viewed on the water by Television New Zealand's Martin Tasker, who filed another prime time news report on Saturday. The on the water video coverage is not as extensive as it could be due to the difficulty of filming the AC72's when they are travelling at speeds in excess of 40kts.

Sailing in winds that were averaging 17kts (true wind speed) the New Zealand AC72 averaged 39kts for the final downwind run, which included three gybes. Those are fairly incredible numbers, to say the least.

There's also a video from Emirates Team NZ's in-house media team, along with new images of the day from team photographer, Chris Cameron.

There was a lot of sailing in New Zealand over the weekend as the Endless Summer continues.

We cover the OKI 24 Hour Race, conducted largely in light to moderate breezes, however the start of the show was the Lancer AiroDock, which featured in a previous Sail-World, being used as a stern marina off the back of a superyacht.

But on the weekend the AiroDock got a very solid work-out being used as a crew change platform, as the sailors rotated at the end of their three hour shift on the water.

The AiroDock not only took the weight of the sailors, but also that of a dozen or so very active kids who used the AiroDock as a diving and swimming platform, without appearing to sink the dock even a few millimetres, and its stability was amazing.

With all the hoo-haa that goes on in New Zealand, to get permission to build private docks and wharves, it would seem that the AiroDock offers the perfect solution for anyone, or yacht, rowing or canoe clubs, who have a lake, river or estuary side property and wants water access. Because it is temporary and floats, the AiroDock would seem to be the ideal way to skate around a lot of regulations - and only takes 35 minutes to inflate.

Watch the videos in this edition, and see for yourself the treatment the AiroDock can take, and the mass jump-off.

In this edition we feature a couple of Etchells stories - one from the Victorian Championships, and the other from the regular Tuesday night racing off Westhaven, which attracts a fleet of a dozen boats. The class is building towards the Nationals in April. The New Zealand fleet story features a short video taken onboard during the evening race, shot using the AEE Magicams.

The major events covered in this edition include the OKI 24 Hour Race, including the six hour Optimist event. The Harken Schools Regatta conducted by RNZYS over the weekend, concluded with a win for Wellington's Hutt International. There's plenty of interest in this event conducted in the fleet of Elliott 7's.

Royal Akarana YC staged the NZ National Keelboat Championships, which was sailed in the MRX fleet, and was won by the Blackmatch Racing crew led by Adam Minoprio. A top fleet contested the one design event, we report in this edition.

Following up from the JJ Giltinan Trophy, conducted in Sydney, last month, New Zealand 18fter C-Tech has been announced as topping the World Rankings for the 18ft skiffs. Story in this issue.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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