Contents:

1. Top Olympic Classes Action in Miami
2. Olympic Selectors Announced
3. Over 90 boats in Bay of Islands Regatta
4. International Match Racing on Auckland Harbour
5. Entries welcome for Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta
6. Plenty of Talent due at Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland
7. Tempting Spot Prize for Junior Sail Auckland
8. McLay finishes third at Sail Melbourne
9. Tanner Cup Decided, Tauranga Cup Underway
10. Sailing School Coach Wanted

Top Olympic Classes Action in Miami

Day two of racing at the 2007 Rolex Miami Olympic Classes regatta has just finished on Biscayne Bay, Miami.

A record number of 855 sailors from 49 nations are at the annual event including eleven New Zealanders, four of which are YNZ Olympic Squad members. Fleets are big and competition is tough at this ISAF Grade 1 event.

Dan Slater is the top placed kiwi at this stage leading the Finn fleet over Daniel Birgmark of Sweden. Slater placed 3rd and 2nd in today’s two races enabling him to climb into the top spot having started the day in fifth place overall.

“Today started with an on shore postponement due to a lack of wind. After about an hour of waiting in the Miami heat all classes were sent out onto a glassy Biscayne Bay,” says Slater. “We then waited for the wind to fill in, which it did… but to only 5 knots when racing got underway.”

“Race 1… I had a good start, got a couple of good shifts on the first beat to finish the race in 3rd.”

“I ended up finishing 2nd in the second race today, winning the day and taking the overall lead in the regatta.”

Both the kiwi Laser Radial sailors also improved their overall standings today, after sailing just one race. Jo Aleh was pleased with her performance.

“Day two of OCR brought some lovely light wind, but it was a little too light for racing at times, so we only got one of our three scheduled races in,” says Aleh.

“In the one race of the day, I won the blue fleet, and Miranda [Powrie] won the yellow fleet… so it was a clean sweep for team kiwi. Very fun!”

“I was pretty happy with the race, I hung between 2nd and 7th for the race, moving up to 2nd at the last top mark, and had a great last downwind to take the lead, and carried it to the finish. It was nice to see that I can still race a Laser pretty well, even after such a break from the class.”

Hamish Pepper and David Giles were 2nd overall at the outset of racing, and like the Radial fleet, they only managed one race in the Star. Unfortunately day two wasn’t as successful as day one and the pair placed 27th in race three to slip back to 16th overall.

Andrew Murdoch’s position in the 109 boat Laser fleet improved after he placed 10th and 7th in today’s two races. Still carrying an OCS on his scorecard he has 29th place overall.

Full results are available on the regatta website through the link below.

Current Kiwi Standings

Hamish Pepper & David Giles (Star) – 16th
Dan Slater (Finn) – 1st
Andrew Murdoch (Laser) – 29th
Jo Aleh (Laser Radial) – 6th
Miranda Powrie (Laser Radial) – 8th
Sharon Ferris, Raynor Smeal & Shandy Buckley (Yngling) – 13th
Stephen Keen & Phillip Keen (470 Mens) – 17th


[ Rolex Miami OCR ]
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Olympic Selectors Announced

Yachting New Zealand is pleased to announce its selectors who will assist in nominating sailors for selection by NZOC to the 2008 New Zealand Olympic Team. Andy Knowles, former top level international sailor in both the 470 and Tornado, is convenor of selectors.

Laser – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Tom Dodson
Laser Radial – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Tom Dodson

RS:X Men – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Grant Beck
RS:X Women – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Grant Beck

470 Men – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Leslie Egnot
470 Women – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Leslie Egnot

49er – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Nathan Handley

Tornado – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Andy Robertson

Finn – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Tom Dodson

Yngling – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Don Cowie

Star – Andy Knowles, Rod Davis & Don Cowie

For information on the selection regattas, visit the YNZ website through the link below.

[ Olympic Selection Events ]
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Over 90 boats in Bay of Islands Regatta

Over 90 keelboats are in the Bay of Islands for the first day of the increasingly popular Bay of Islands Regatta Week.

The event has attracted an enormous contingent of New Zealand’s latest and greatest keelboats to Opua for three days of racing and social fun.

Racing was postponed at the scheduled start this morning with glassy calm conditions. Things improved for a late morning start with breeze increasing to 10 knots around midday.

The regatta concludes on Friday.
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International Match Racing on Auckland Harbour

Dean Barker is set to defend his title with the start Auckland Match Racing Cup on Auckland Harbour today.

The event, which is being hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, will start on the Waitemata Harbour today and run until Sunday, 28 January.

Commodore of the Squadron, John Crawford, said he was looking forward to a great week of racing.

“Skippers have come from as far as Russia, Japan and the United Kingdom to compete. It is a great competition for spectators with the racing just outside the Squadron at Westhaven,” he said.

At 3pm on Sunday, 28 January, the public will have the opportunity to see the world-class skippers including favourite America’s Cup contenders - New Zealand’s Dean Barker and Australia’s James Spithill, world number two Ian Williams and world number three Matthieu Richard, up-close at the cup presentation outside Soul Bar in the Viaduct Harbour.

Racing starts at 10am each day and features twenty-minute round-robin races and approximately twenty-five races a day.

The semi-finals for the cup will be on Saturday, January 27 and finals will take place on Sunday, January 28.

The public is invited to watch the racing at a purpose-built grandstand at the Harbour Bridge-end of Westhaven Marina. There is free car parking available and food and drink stalls on site.

Spectators can go to www.aucklandmatchracingcup.co.nz for location details, directions and latest information. Click the link below.


[ Auckland Match Racing Cup ]
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Entries welcome for Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta

Entries are still open for all divisions in the historic Auckland Anniversary Day regatta set to hit the water on Monday. Organisers are encouraging all yachties in Auckland to join in and celebrate Auckland’s 167th birthday.

The Governor General will fire the start gun for Division One keelboats at 11am and spectators can watch it unfold from Tamaki Drive, Orakei Wharf, Bastion Point, North Head or along the East Coast Bays.

Visit the website for more information through the link below, or ENTER NOW by contacting Joyce Talbot 0800-REGATTA or 021-818-448 for entry form

[ Auckland Anniversary Regatta ]
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Plenty of Talent due at Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland

Through the sponsorship of Singapore Airlines, organisers have been able to fly down several highly ranked international sailors to compete in Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland regatta. Again through their sponsorship, they are also bringing several International Judges from the USA, Singapore and Australia.

Now that Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland is a Grade 1 ISAF Olympic qualifying regatta some of the best sailors in the world are travelling to compete with New Zealand’s top sailors. In turn this provides the home-town sailors with exposure to international competition while sailing in our own waters, the Waitemata Harbour.

Grade 1 ISAF Regattas now require the final day of competition to conclude with a double points “medal race” which will be sailed close inshore and will provide excellent spectator viewing from the shores along Tamaki Drive.

Once again Kohimarama Yacht Club will host the event from their excellent facilities with over 70 volunteers working each day both on and off the water. Collectively the sailors will complete over 500km of

“Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland” will again be hosted and run from the excellent facilities of the Kohimarama Yacht Club. We will have over 70 volunteers working each day both on and off the water and collectively the sailors will race over 5000 km distance over all the courses.

Confirmed sailors competing in 2007 include…

RSX Boards Men

Maxim Oberemko (Ukraine) – ranked number 2 in ISAF Olympic rankings
He was 1st at Sail Auckland in 2004 and this year came 1st at Kiel Week in Germany and also 1st at the ISAF World Sailing Games in Austria

J P Tobin (NZL) – ranked number 9 in the ISAF Olympic rankings
He is the current Sail Auckland titleholder having won in 2006

Julien Bontemps (FRA) – ranked number 15 in ISAF Olympic rankings
This is Julien’s first time at Sail Auckland, in 2006 he won the Euro Olympics on Lake Garda in Italy and came 6th at the pre Olympic Regatta in China

RSX Boards Women

Olga Maslivets (Ukraine) – ranked number 1 in the ISAF Olympic rankings
Olga started 2007 well in winning the New Year International Regatta in Cyprus.
In 2006 she had an excellent year coming 1st at Kiel Week in Germany, 7th in the European Championships in Turkey and 1st at Olympic Week in Spain

Barbara Kendall (NZL) – ranked 40th in the ISAF Olympic rankings
Barbara last won Sail Auckland way back in 2003 and a few times before that also.
She of course has won gold, silver and bronze at successive Olympic Games

Irina Konstantinova (Bulgaria) – ranked number 27 in ISAF Olympic rankings
She has been sailing Boards since 1995 and at 30 is somewhat of a veteran, she came 12th at the Pre Olympic regatta in 2006 in China

Yasuko Kosuge (Japan) – ranked 26 in the ISAF Olympic rankings
Best result in 2006 was 13th in the Pre Olympic Regatta in China

Sigrid Rondelez (Belgium) – unranked since the Athens Olympics in 2004 and on the come back trail, over the years Sigrid has been a hot shot on the mistral Board so now we get to see what she can do with the new RSX Board

Laser Radial – Women

Jo Aleh (NZL) – ranked 7th in the ISAF Olympic rankings
Jo is the current NZ National Champion in Laser Radials, plus she and teammate Olivia Powrie won the World 420 title sailed here in Auckland just a few weeks ago.
Her best result in 2006 was an outstanding 2nd at the Pre Olympic Regatta sailed in China

Sophie de Turckheim (FRA) – ranked number 10 in the ISAF Olympic rankings
She was 2nd in 2006 at the ISAF World Sailing Games in Austria and 8th at the World Championships in Los Angeles.

Finn – Heavy weight Dinghy (NZL) – currently ranked 5th in the ISAF Olympic rankings but has been ranked as high as 2nd in 2006Dan had a great year in 2006, he won Keil Week in Germany and came 8th at the Pre Olympic Regatta in China

Laser – Men

Andrew Murdoch (NZL) – ranked number 4 in the ISAF Olympic rankings
Andrew is our current NZ National Champion and in 2006 came 3rd at the Pre Olympic Regatta in China, then was 6th at the Laser Worlds in Korea, outstanding results for 2006

Luka Radelic (Croatia) – ranked number 15 in the ISAF Olympic rankings
Luka is on his first visit down under and in 2006 achieved excellent results with his best placing of 3rd at the Open Croatian Championships

Michael Bullot (NZL) – ranked number 17 in the ISAF Olympic rankings
Michael is a previous World Youth Champion and has had a busy 2006 competing in Poland, Germany, France, Austria, Holland, Korea and Australia.

[ Sail Auckland ]
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Tempting Spot Prize for Junior Sail Auckland

Junior Sail Auckland is offering a spot prize sure to tempt young sailors to Kohimarama Yacht Club for the two day regatta. Two return air tickets to Singapore – courtesy of event sponsor, Singapore Airlines – will go to one lucky entrant at Junior Sail Auckland.

All those who compete at Junior Sail Auckland, and then attend prize-giving are in with a chance to win the return flights to Singapore which must be used prior to 31 August 2007. The regatta runs over 9 – 10 February with racing in Optimists, P-Class, Starlings and the Splash.

More information on the regatta is available on the Kohimarama Yacht Club website…


[ Kohimarama Yacht Club ]
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McLay finishes third at Sail Melbourne

Kiwi Laser sailor, Blair McLay finished third at the ISAF Grade 1 Sail Melbourne Regatta which concluded last Saturday at Port Phillip, Melbourne.

The Laser attracted the largest fleet at Sail Melbourne, where thirteen different classes sailed in the Olympic and invited classes part of the annual regatta. McLay was one of a total Laser fleet of 43, in which three other kiwis were also competing.

“I finished 3rd overall, but more importantly achieved the objectives I had in place in using it as a build up for the New Zealand series,” says McLay. “Every race I improved my performance after being quite rusty at the beginning to winning the medal race on the last day.”

For all the kiwi results from Sail Melbourne, click the link below…

[ Sail Melbourne ]
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Tanner Cup Decided, Tauranga Cup Underway

Thomas Saunders representing Bay of Plenty won the P Class Tanner Cup 2007 just sailed in Nelson. Alexandra Maloney of Northland was second and Stacey Swanson of Wanganui/Manawatu was third.

The Tauranga Cup is now underway with 61 entries from around New Zealand competing in Nelson. Four races have been sailed so far, and Chelsea Whitburn of Macandrew Bay has the lead from Tanner Cup winner Thomas Saunders.

Jamie Dawson of Murrays Bay in Auckland is third overall at the time of writing. The Tauranga Cup will be decided on Thursday.

The inter-provincial Starling match racing is also underway, with finals scheduled today. Andy Maloney (Northern Districts), Sam Meech (Bay of Plenty) and Mathew Vincent (Nelson) all have three wins on the board.

Racing in the Starling national championships starts this Friday and concludes Tuesday of next week.

Daily results are posted on the Nelson Yacht Club website, available through the link below.

[ Nelson Yacht Club ]
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Sailing School Coach Wanted

Ponsonby Cruising Club is very keen to find a sailing school coach for a part-time position they have available now.

For more information on this and other yachting vacancies visit the YNZ situations vacant webpage through the link below.

[ Situations Vacant ]
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