Changes at Sail-World...Red Bull in Auckland...America's Cup beat-up

by . on 7 Mar 2016 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for March 8, 2016

Apologies for the break in newsletters. At Sail-World, we have taken the opportunity over the extended holiday period to undertake a lot of changes domestically and internationally.

In New Zealand, we have closed our Takapuna office as the lease was up, and we are time-shifting into a more European and international day than working New Zealand hours.

After a protracted sales process, we've sold the family home in Stanley Bay and headed north to Narrow Neck just north of Devonport, on Auckland's North Shore. The change means a bigger office which is being kitted out to be a combination of the two offices we worked out of previously.

We are also now on UFB enjoying speeds more than 100MB up and down, which make a huge difference in this publication.

It has been a difficult few months, as anyone who has downsized will know. But hopefully, we are well positioned for a better future. Plus our new office is closer to the sailing club!

Internationally Sail-World has undergone a few changes. We are in the process of integrating our software platform with yachtsandyachting.com - UK's largest sailing website. We will be taking the best features of both sites, including a Forum from yachtsandyachting.com and will be on a Microsoft platform.

We have shifted servers to the UK and have transitioned the entire Sail-World content base to the UK. This process is not yet complete, behind the scenes, some links need to be restored to point to the existing content. Our apologies if older stories do not display at present. With over 15 years of content, a transition like this is quite a task.

Another change has been the rework of the newsletter system, and this newsletter is the first test of the revamped system. We expect to be smoothing out the wrinkles in the Sail-World network over the next weeks and months and look forward to adding more functionality and expanding Sail-World for the benefit of our readers and advertisers.

So behind the scenes there has been alot happening, however the changes were long overdue.

In late January, we visited Sydney, for the first time in 30 years. Last time was to compete in the Sydney-Hobart and then Southern Cross Cup.

Some things have changed. Some have not.

On Saturday it was great to be able to view the sailing on the harbour, with the occasional glance at the wedding we were attending at the time!

Sydney is a very scenic and impressive harbour, quite different from the Waitemata and other stretches of water in the sailing world.

It was the first look at the Historic 18ft skiffs - which we have featured from time to time in Sail-World.

But with all due respect to the excellent Michael Chittenden, the photos don't do the boats justice.

The rigs on the Historic 18ft skiffs are a sight to behold, and how the crews manage to keep the show on the road, figuratively speaking, is just baffling.

The degree of difficulty is highlighted as the crews tack and gybe the boats with their massive rigs - an exercise which can maybe likened to trying to ride a bike as slowly as possible without losing balance and trying to turn through 90 degrees at the same time.

Known locally as 'the Hystericals' the Historic 18's are a must see, if you are a sailor visiting Sydney.

Next day it was back to the 21st Century, with the invitation to take in the final race of the 18ft Skiff Australian Championship from the 'aft deck' of the Camera Cat with a crew of four running the on-the-water section of the live broadcast of the racing.

The aft deck is a flat area about half the size of a table tennis table - from which two photographers operated (Michael Chittenden and yours truly). No fence, and a little disconcerting when you are trying to capture the action with some reasonably expensive gear, and at the back of your mind is knowledge that one wrong move and you are in the harbour.

That is something we've experienced once with two cameras and aren't keen to repeat.

Ten days later the JJ Giltinan Trophy got underway on Sydney Harbour.

Followers of our website www.sail-world.com will know David McDiarmid and the crew of Yamaha came within a point of pulling off one of the great New Zealand yachting coups when they came within a point of winning the unofficial world championship of 18ft skiff sailing.

The last time New Zealand won this trophy was in Auckland in 1974. That is 42 years ago, and when Kiwis were sailing on their home waters. Now the JJ Giltinan Trophy is permanently based in Sydney, and winning the regatta has probably doubled in difficulty.

We featured daily reports from Yamaha on sail-world.com along with full video replays.

It was quite remarkable how the crew of Yamaha had finally caught up to the Australians and were able to be consistent with both their #1 and #2 rigs, which the other boats in the regatta did not seem to be able to do with the same ease.

But rubbing out that Sydney Harbour advantage takes quite some doing.

Yamaha scored an excellent end to end win in the Final Race - giving the Australians plenty to contemplate ahead of the 2017 event.

Much is made of the likes of World Sailing and other events putting together live coverage but without a lot of chest thumping and big promises the group behind the Sydney 18fters do an excellent job each week of posting stories, images, live video and then delayed coverage.

For anyone who has experience of this sort of production, it is not easy and takes a lot of dedication which is all too often taken for granted and critiqued by the armchair admirals.

Despite, or is it because of, the class operating outside the World Sailing umbrella, the 18ft skiffs have hit on the right formula with a good mix of veteran and new sailors, new boats and very competitive older boats, well-organised sponsorship and, of course, plenty of enthusiasm and continuing a great tradition.

The final stop was at Zhik on Sydney's North Shore.

It was very interesting to have a look at their latest range in this Olympic year. Zhik has partnered with several top Olympic sailing teams including Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Great Britain. Those countries are expected to dominate the Medal table in Rio de Janeiro. They have partnered with Zhik for a good reason - they want to have a competitive advantage throgh wearing the very best of gear.

Upstairs is the Zhik design, development and workroom, where the Zhik team can produce up to 10 of most pieces of their apparel, and is where the ideas and designs get turned into reality. It is also where they pull the clothing apart to see how it has stood up to the use by their test team.

A good example of this whole process is the development of Zhik hiking pants in conjunction with the Olympic medalist in two classes across five Olympic regattas.

These pants were released at the RYA Dinghy Show in the UK last weekend and will no doubt be available in New Zealand when the Zhik store opens soon in central Auckland.

Follow all the racing and developments in major and local events on www.sail-world.com, scroll to the bottom of the site, select New Zealand, and get all the latest news and updates from the sailing world.

Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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