Sail-World New Zealand- January 14, 2013

by . on 14 Jan 2013 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand newsletter for January 14, 2013

First public signs of Emirates Team NZ’s second AC72, this morning, with parts of the America’s Cup catamaran being seen via webcam to be wheeled into the team’s Halsey Street Hangar.

We expect to be following up on this story later in the week.

In the meantime, the team continues to get some match racing practice against the Italian Challenger, Luna Rossa in their AC45 catamarans.

Yesterday, we took the opportunity to get on the water and have a good look at the 18ft skiffs as they worked up towards their Auckland Championship and then the JJ Giltinan Trophy in Sydney in mid-February. That event is expected to attract a fleet of about 30 boats from several countries.

The New Zealand fleet is impressive, in numbers at least. We counted seven boats on the water yesterday, and there were another three on trailers at Auckland Sailing Club. Some of those crews, no doubt, with other obligations at the 12ft Skiff Interdominions in Brisbane.

A ten boat 18ft skiff fleet is a very good effort and full marks to Graham Catley and others who have worked long and hard to get the class re-established and lift the quality of the fleet in Auckland.

There’s a regular circuit established between Auckland, Sydney and San Francisco, with many top sailors, from other classes, taking the opportunity to compete on this circuit when the occasion suits their schedules.

At the other end of the sailing spectrum, the Optimist, P-class and Starling classes have been doing their thing with some very mixed results.

Nick Egnot-Johnson and his younger sister Sophie, have been across the Tasman competing in the Australian Optimist Nationals, in Hobart, Tasmania. Nick won the Open title, but was not eligible for the Australian National title. His sister Sophie finished 31st overall.

We have reports on the event in this edition of Sail-World.com (but in true Aussie fashion, the New Zealand is severely downplayed in these reports, with the focus going on the winner of the Australian title. However it must be remembered that the Australians are not long into serious competition in the Optimist, preferring to promote sailing in their national Junior classes.

That changed several years ago, and now the fleet in Hobart is up to 130 boats and the trans-Tasman rivalry should start to build nicely, as it has in many other sailing events.

Olympic Silver medallist, Peter Burling, kept the spoiling of the Australian sailing summer running, with a runaway win in the Australian Int Moth Championships. Again, we have reports in this edition of Sail-World.com

Down south the sailors in the P-class and Starling have been coping a pasting from strong winds.

In this edition of Sail-World.com’s newsletter we have a report on the P-class Tanner Cup (for Inter Port competition). This regatta was shortened by strong winds, but not before the minimum contest had been sailed. Congratulations to Leonard Takahashi-Fry for winning the Tanner Cup.

The Tauranga Cup, was not so fortunate, with strong winds and other restrictions preventing the sailing of the minimum series, so it was declared a no-contest. We have the full story in this edition of Sail-World.com.

Across Cook Strait in the Starling North Islands, the 53 boat fleet has copped a pasting at Muritai Yacht Club. Half of the 53 boat fleet failed to finish/did not start in the first race, and according to our sources bent masts were the culprit.

Apparently, the class has previously rejected to move to carbon spars, but as we saw earlier this month with another one design class using an untapered mast, the costs of a carbon tube can be very reasonable – within 10% of an alloy spar, and the longevity of carbon rigs, is substantial. The justification in not moving to carbon, no longer really exists, and if properly designed, there is no reason why the carbon spar should lower optimum crew weights as some claim happened when the P-class switched to carbon spars some years ago.

Finally an apology to Russell Wood winner of the 2013 OK Dinghy Nationals, who we incorrectly referred to as Roger Wood, in a couple of reports and newsletter.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

Send your news and images directly to Sail-World by http://www.sail-world.com/admin/add_story.cfm?rid=6!clicking_here

To subscribe a friend to Sail-World's FREE newsletter http://www.sail-world.com/nz/newsletter_subscribe.cfm!click_here

If you are an potential advertiser and want to understand how Sail-World can work for your company, website or product, then drop a line to Colin Preston at nzsales@sail-world.com

If you wish to come off our mailing list please click the unsubscribe button on this newsletter, or drop a line to deletesailworld@gmail.com, giving the email address that appears at the top of your newsletter. Or, if you want to contact Richard Gladwell directly email: sailworldnzl@gmail.com or call (649) 489 9267

Stay up with the latest sailing news, as it happens, on our website www.sail-world.com/nz