Kiwi Optimist sailors meet the America's Cup

by Hamish Willcox + Richard Gladwell on 19 Jul 2005 The New Zealand Optimist team has spent the past few weeks in training for the 2005 World Championships. Coach Hamish Willcox gives this update from Europe:

‘Dan Willcox sailed the Spanish Optimist Nationals last week, two days after stepping off the plane from NZ.

‘The regatta was staged in Pensocola which is 1000 km to the west over on the Atlantic near to Vigo. It was a mission to get Dan and Matthew Jones an entry!

‘This is a closed event and every one of the 150 competitors had to sail in qualification regattas in order to get entry to this event. I had to write to the Spanish Yachting Federation, who pulled strings and finally entry was granted about one week before Dan arrived.

‘Dan and Matt drove with Jan Shearer in the Jones new Merc (supplied by Alinghi). Dan thought driving at 180 km was pretty cool. They both enjoyed watching DVDs both on the journey and even when they arrived - sneaking out of the accommodation and watching in the car park!

‘Dan borrowed a NZ Sail One boat and used his old and tired North from two nationals ago! He reported good speed in a variety of winds from 5 to 10 kt offshore to 16 kt sea breeze. He won five races on the way to first place overall.

‘Three other team members, Carl Evans, Jason Saunders and Luke Deegan arrived in Valencia on July 9th and trained in Valencia until July 19th. It was arranged for each of them to spend a day with an Americas Cup team, including going to the gym, sailing team meetings, then out sailing and racing then back to shore. The visit was facilitated by Chris Dickson from Oracle, Brad Butterworth from Alinghi and Francesco de Angelis from Luna Rossa.

‘The team trained here for six days over a nine day period. They experienced 2x 20 kts and 2x 15 kts and 2x 12 kts. Bruce Deagan (Lukes Dad) was their coach and he did an awesome job! The kids all reported a challenging and learning time with Bruce. They are very lucky to have an ex-Olympic sailor who is also a current teacher!

‘We will all meet up in Milan on the 19th and drive on up to Silvaplana, where they will start sailing on a lake near St Moritz in our worlds OP's.

‘The lake temperature is about 12 degrees and if the thermal winds are present we should see the windspeeds building up to 16 kts in the afternoon.

‘More later and regards, Hamish'

Source: www.kiwispy.com