Belcher and Behrens successful Miami OCR

by Mathew Belcher and Nick Behrens on 1 Feb 2007 Hey Everyone

We are happy to report that we have successfully started our 2007 season.

We just completed our first lot of racing & training in Miami. While it is a bit unusual not to be in Melbourne it was certainly a good decision to come and race against the world’s best. Our fleet during the 470 North American championships was reasonably small compared to world standard but the quality was certainly here: almost everyone in the top 15 in the world is here which makes for fierce racing. It was quite noticeable the different preparation teams went over our summer; some rested and others trained quite hard to gain any edge over their competitors.

However, we are pleased with our performance of gaining 3rd position overall, while our fellow team mates edged one back from the Australian Summer to gain 2nd overall in a close fought battle; with the Dutch team gaining 1st. The racing was held over four days with winds ranging around 15 knots the majority of the time. Now we have two days scheduled rest before starting our training for our next regatta Miami Olympic Class regatta.

We would especially like to thank Audi for their kind generosity of lending us a car while being in Miami.

Take care & look forward to catching up once we return.

Mathew & Nick

Australian Sailing Team 2007
PRDnationwide & BOQ corporate ambassadors

Hello Everyone,

It is only the second regatta of the year but so far we have had it going our way. After we finished 3rd in the North Americans last week, this week we managed to do one better to come 2nd in the Rolex Miami Olympic Class
Regatta.

Going into it we knew this would be a very tough event: 11 races and one medal race; a top quality fleet with all the top guys racing; a big range of challenging conditions -from no wind drifters to windy and shifty-. Some more
pressure was added as this is one of the regattas that will come into consideration for Olympic Selections. We knew we had to perform here and deliver results.

Throughout the regatta we sailed conservatively but consistently being the only boat who managed to have all but one race inside the top 10. In the end it paid off. Each day we moved up on the scoreboard as more and more of the top
teams had to count bad races. A lesson we learnt at the worlds. It was a close fought regatta but in the end we managed to go into the medal race in 2nd position. First place was virtually out of reach; with Athens Silver medalist breaking away from the fleet early on in the event; but we knew we had to fight hard to hold onto 2nd as there were 4 other teams closely on our heels. The medal race was very shifty and gusty making for tricky conditions. Again we sailed consistently, finishing the race in 3rd, leaving our competition behind us and securing the Silver Medal. Fellow Australians Nathan & Malcolm finished 7th in the medal race and 5th overall.

Coming to Miami has been a great experience for us. It was great racing against all the top guys. We achieved what we wanted, sailing consistently well in both regattas. At the same time we had the chance to identify a few areas in our
racing that we can improve on, hopefully helping us to achieve even better results in the future.

We now head back to Australia where we will soon commence our next 470 National Training Camp on the Gold Coast and another Australian Sailing Team Camp on Hamilton Island. We will also be competing in the Great Race on the 10th Feb going from Southport to Brisbane.

Take Care event and thank you for all your support and cheering.. It really helps us perform knowing we have so many people backing us in our Olympic dream..

Best regards from Mathew and Nick in Miami