Southern Star Racing - March 08 Newsletter

by Hamish Pepper on 11 Mar 2008
Hamish Pepper updates on the NZ Olympic Star team campaign:

Qingdao here we come!

Yes many of you have probably heard or read that Carl and I have qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters and sponsors; Sextant, Sparc, Yachting New Zealand, Line 7, Alloy Yachts, Fosters Shipchandlers and Harken for making this possible.

With just over five months until Race 1 of the Olympics Carl and I are in the planning stages of our campaign. Last week I raced in the Bacardi cup with Ed Peel from the UK. As Carl and I have a long campaign ahead of us we decided this wasn’t an important regatta and it was more important that Carl spent sometime with Sjaan and the kids.

I still wanted to get 8187 on the water after doing some major surgery on her. So still bolting down fittings the day before and not getting her wet until the day of race 1, it was always going to be tough getting a good result. To add to that Ed hadn’t sailed in the Star for over 2 years. Still the goal was to get her sailing and make sure nothing I had bolted down came flying off! All went well and the old girl showed some good speed at times.

After selling our new boat from last year NZL8292 we have another new boat due next week.from the Italian star maker Lillia. We will test and race her in Europe before sending her to Qingdao in June.

At the moment the plan is 10 days of training before the World Championships in Miami (Worlds - 7th – 18th April). Then Carl and I with families move to Valencia where we plan to set up base and train from. We will compete in a couple of European regattas before the games which are still to be confirmed.

We will fill you in with our program and progress soon.

Regards Carl and Hamish