Editorial- Stars in their Eyes!

by nzeditor@sail-world.com on 14 Aug 2006 Mid last week we wrote of Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams sailing as the Harken Star Team in the Rolex European Star Championships in Lubeck Germany.

At that stage they were lying 12th overall, and needed to pull a couple of good ones out of the bag, to grind up to that vital eighth place to assure themselves of making the YNZ Olympic Squad for 2007 and the funding that goes with that achievement .

Next day, they picked up a win and a sixth placing and lifted themselves into fourth overall and were equal third on points in the 82 boat fleet. As it turned out there was to be no further racing in the regatta and that was the final place. So far it is the best result achieved by a New Zealand sailor or crew on the European or World circuit in 2006 – although some classes are yet to have a World championship.

In fact only one other sailor, Tom Ashley has so far met the YNZ automatic qualification criteria – with his eighth place in the RS:X Europeans in Turkey earlier this year.

For Hamish it’s a long way from being dropped as tactician from NZL-82 in the middle of the 2003 America’s Cup. But true to the old maxim of it’s not how hard you fall that counts but how quickly you get back up, Hamish got straight into the Laser, won the Olympic Trials and then placed seventh in the 2004 Olympics. Then had another shot at the America’s Cup with the Italians and then really bit off a huge mouthful by moving into a Star campaign.

As you can see in his report, the Harken Star campaign Hamish is undertaking with Carl Williams, is not without its difficulties in terms of their professional sailing commitments. They have got off to a flying start and hopefully can maintain the momentum. Winning a race in the European Championships in the Star in your rookie season is not a bad achievement by any measure.

Applause, too, for their coach, Australian David Giles, an Olympic bronze medallist with Colin Beashel in the Star in 1996. Giles has worked as a substitute crew for Carl Williams when BMW Oracle Racing commitments have had first claim on Williams’ time. As a coaching approach, it is very successful and a similar process has worked well for others wanting to get off to a fast start in a new class.

Saturday saw the Laser Radial World Youth Championships finish in Marina Del Rey in California. James sandal was the best performed of the New Zealand contingent finishing fifth overall and scoring three race wins along the way. USA won all three fleets (Junior Mens Gold and Silver and Junior Womens), emulating New Zealand’s feat in 2005.

This week there are nine Kiwi Spash sailors competing in the Splash Worlds at Riva del Garda, Italy – an event that has attracted a 192 boat fleet. We’ll also be covering the European Junior 420 and 470 Championships in Portugal with the current World 420 Champions Carl Evans and Peter Burling competing. This is looking to be a great event which has attracted 400 sailors from 25 countries.

We are also featuring full pictorial coverage of Airlie Race Week, along with racing reports. Most interest is on the performance of Anatole Masfen’s Pussy Galore, a top performing Cookson 50 which is locked in a near match race with another Cookson 50, Living Doll.

Stay tuned to Sail-World.com for daily reports.

Good Sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

PS We seem to be having gremlins with our line speed sensing. If you are not hitting Sail-World New Zealand with full images please enter the URL: www.sail-world.com/nz and that should do the trick. If you are reading less than full line speed, please check the options at the top of the Sail-World home page and manually select the option you require. And, please drop us a line to nzeditor@sail-world.com so we can follow up. Many thanks