Of School Balls and Olympic 470 preparation

by Burling Media on 15 May 2008
Here's the May newletter from the Carl Evans/Peter Burling Olympic 470 campaign. How many other crews have ever tried to juggle school sports committments, and School Balls - with an Olympic games just 100 days away?

May 08:

We’ve had a short break from our 470 sailing program with three weeks back in NZ and now we’re ready to head back to Europe on Friday for some more regattas.

The time off has been good – sleeping in our own beds and having some family time as well as catching up on a bit of school. Peter initially joined his Tauranga Boys College sailing teammates for the Secondary Schools teams racing nationals at Whangarei, which they won for the second year in a row. Peter even made time to have fun at a School Ball on the only Saturday he was at home.

The trip back to Europe will be easier this time – flying Singapore Airlines (who are giving us discounted flights and extra baggage allowance – thanks guys) direct to Amsterdam. Free internet at Singapore Airport always helps pass the transit time there. Our car and boat/trailer are in long term storage in Amsterdam, ready for the 1 hour drive north to Medemblik and the Holland regatta. Superspars have also kindly sponsored us a new mast for testing that we pick up at the storage yard.

Towing a wide trailer in Europe has been a new experience for us – jamming the trailer against both sides of the concrete guides into an ordinary motorway toll booth, requiring a delicate backing out against the traffic was exciting ... so that’s why they have truck lanes! We also learnt (the hard way) to check the light fittings at the time of tow bar fitting – a mistake by the tow bar guys cost us another few hours.

Some of our Olympic gear will be shipped direct to China after our first regatta in Holland - another grade 1 event. After Holland we head to Italy where the 470 Europeans are being held on Lake Garda. There are nearly 2 weeks between these regattas and we have the option of also competing at the Italian 470 nationals near Venice during this time. It’s supposed to be light wind and current similar to China. We haven’t completely decided about that yet – going to see how the energy levels are like and what the other sailors are doing closer to the time.

While we are away in Europe our Olympic 470 hull and masts will be shipped to China from New Zealand. Tauranga Yacht Club helped fund this 470 through charitable trusts and we are very grateful for the use of this boat during our campaign.

We are in Qingdao, China for a 'coach’s regatta' July 4th to 18th with the Olympics starting in early August.

The websites for our European events are:

Holland regatta 21 – 25 May http://www.deltalloydregatta.org/2008/
470 Europeans 8-14 June http://www.470.org/champ08/euro/