ISAF Sailing World Cup - Aussie ups and downs and Grand Finals ahead

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 4 Apr 2014 Palma, Mallorca, Belcher and Ryan resuming normal service at the top of the 470 leader board, Bundock and Curtis are impressing in the Nacra 17 fleet, Laser sailor Ash Bunning is doing well, but there have been some sobering results for some potential stars. Long days on the water and some late results but they will all be on Sail-World, along with great vision and images.

The ISAF Sailing World Cup is the annual circuit of Olympic sailing for serious campaigners and up and coming sailors. The series is now seven years old, has attracted less media and sponsorship attention than ISAF had hoped and it’s still looking for mainstream media relevance, as President Carlo Croce has been saying loudly and clearly. Yesterday a major revamp of the series was announced and Sail-World talked at length to Antonio Gonzales de La Madrid, the ISAF Sailing World Cup Technical Manager about elements of the restructure and we have that article in this newsletter.

Canadian John Craig is the newly appointed Head of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Craig was for 11 years the PRO at St. Francis Yacht Club, having organised over 300 regattas. He built bridges between sailing and kiteboard racers and he was most recently the PRO of the 34th America’s Cup.

Sail-World talked to Craig in San Francisco yesterday, as he prepares to head to Southampton about the challenges ahead in steering this major restructure of the ISAF peak Olympic class series.

A fast 40th Mount Gay Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht Race expected this weekend, we have all the news.

Newcastle Port Stephens Race - Sunday 6th April marks the beginning of two huge weeks of racing beginning and ending in Newcastle.

The Auto Advantage Newcastle to Port Stephens Race commences at 10am this Sunday. The start will be in Newcastle Harbor or off Nobby’s light house dependent on wind conditions and scheduled shipping movements.

The racing kicks off with the annual Auto Advantage Newcastle to Port Stephens Race. This race is a feeder to the popular Sail Port Stephens Regatta where the NSW IRC Competition will be held starting on Friday 11th and finishing Sunday 13th or Wednesday 16th of April dependent of division of choice.

After a week’s racing in Port Stephens the yachts will return to Newcastle for the 2014 Audi IRC Australian Championships. Hosted by Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club the Australian IRC Championships has to date attracted a fleet of 34 yachts. The event will offer a week of truly competitive and exciting racing off the Newcastle coastline across three divisions.

And while we are looking at the now action and the future, Sail-World has a three part retrospective on why the Kiwis lost the 2014 America’s Cup from Richard Gladwell. It provides absorbing reading this week.