Easter Regattas...Second death in the Clipper...Olympic buildups

by . on 4 Apr 2016 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for April 4, 2016

Apologies for the break in transmission, caused by some technical issues, plus a dose of man-flu.

In this edition, we catch up with the racing developments over Easter, plus the first of the Olympic class regattas in Europe, the Trofeo Princesa Sofia.

We also carry news of the tragedy aboard one of the Clipper Race entrants, with the death of a second competitor who was swept overboard.

Sarah Young (GBR) went overboard after she was unexpectedly hit by a wave. She was wearing a safety harness but was not tethered to the yacht. They had just completed a reefing maneuver.

In an interview with the BBC, Clipper Race founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and the first man to circumnavigate the world solo non-stop made frequent reference to the fact that Sarah Young was not tethered to the boat.

For this comment, the world's most respected trans-oceanic sailor has received a lot of backchat in social media. But he is right, however, hard that fact may be. We carry the link to that interview in one of the reports – sorry we can’t lift the full interview for you.

We’ve covered this issue in the past on Sail-World, and once again, and very sadly the lesson has been learned.

Sarah Young was buried at sea today.

New Zealand sailors performed well in the two men's Singlehanded classes at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia regatta in Palma, Spain.

We have daily reports from the regatta in this edition. But the event must be put in context – that it was not a Sailing World Cup regatta, and such events are often used by top sailors to test gear, try new tactics and strategies.

With big fleets, many of the Olympic nominated entries competing regattas such as the Trofeo Princesa Sofia are a good test opportunity – and one that is too good to pass up.

While Josh Junior and Andy Maloney’s wins are great, the real test will be their respective World Championships that come up in April and May, ahead of the next round of NZ Olympic selections expected in the third week in May.

For Laser Radial sailor, Sara Winther, this regatta was a big experiment in a changing her approach to race strategy' taking a few risks and seeing how the dice rolled.

Overall she didn’t come away with a good result, and could probably have done better with a more conservative approach. But she wouldn't have learned as much.

But breaking her regatta down leg by leg, race by race we can see a different picture.

Sara has shared her daily notes and analysis with us – which we have tidied up and have run daily on www.sail-world.com. They give a fascinating insight. She too has a barrier to climb in the 2016 Laser Worlds in Mexico starting April 12.

There is a similar but different story in the Women's RS:X windsurfer. With just the Sailing World Cup Hyeres event left on the international calendar, Natalia Kosinska has put together her own program – based out of Takapuna. She'll train with the current women's World Champion, the fourth-placed Men's competitor in the 2015 Worlds, the Brazilian Olympic representative and some great coaches including Tom Ashley, JP Tobin and David Robertson.

We have the story in this edition, and will be following Natalia right through Sailing World Cup Hyeres.

Over Easter Auckland and New Zealand experienced a very long and light spell of weather, which tested the patience and skills of those involved in race management for the several national contests held over the holiday break.

In this edition of Sail-World.com, we feature coverage from the Auckland to Tauranga Race, the Sanders Cup, Toyota NZ Optimist Nationals, the OK Dinghy Interdominion and the Paper Tiger Interdominion.

TeamVodafoneSailing, the ORMA60 trimaran which holds most, if not all the race records for major New Zealand offshore races, we believe equaled another one on Thursday/Friday.

How many other races have there been where of a fleet of over 20 starters, there has been only one finisher?

We can only think of one, the tragic Wellington to Lyttelton Yacht Race in January 1951, where there was only one official finisher.

We have the full story in this edition.

Interestingly, and similarly in several of the other older dinghy classes, the fleet numbers were well up in the OK Dinghy and Paper Tiger Interdominions.

Fleets of just under 40 boats contested each event – which is very good going for classes which are 50-60 years old, and are still having new boats built.

For sure many of the boats are sailed by sailors in the 30yr old plus age bracket, who are well performed in these classes and others.

The OK Interdominion was won by Dan Slater, a double Olympian and top coach – sailing a new boat in his first OK regatta.

The Paper Tiger Interdominion was won by Mark Orams, a Round the World race winner (Steinlager II) and former Laser Masters World Champion. The PT’s were shortened by a day when no racing was possible on the Final Day, Monday due to light winds and starting time deadlines.

In the Optimists, there was a massive fleet of 258 young sailors from four countries – New Zealand, Australia, Tahiti and New Caledonia.

The Australians gave the Kiwis a sailing lesson, taking five of the top seven places overall. The first New Zealander was third in the Open contest.

We also feature, very sadly, a tribute to noted yacht designer Ed Dubois, who died quite suddenly at the too young age of 64yrs old. Although he first made his mark on the racing scene in the 1979 Admirals Cup with the top performing Australian team, as the 27yr old designer of Police Car, a Two Tonner (42ft) for West Australian, Peter Cantwell.

Ed Dubois will be most remembered for his superyacht design work. In this regard, he had a close association with New Zealand. Several of his designs were built in New Zealand, and he worked with many Kiwi companies in the course of these building projects.

His talent will be missed and can never be replaced.

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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