Emails from the NZ Splash Worlds team

by Rob and the Tavira Team on 29 Jul 2008 Due to a lack of information on the Splash Worlds in Tevira, Portugal, Sail-World was a little light in its coverage.

Following is a sequence of emails that we have since been sent, which tracks the progress of the New Zealand team and its World Championship win:

The Fat lady has sung!

High drama on the water yesterday, the breeze kicked in, the swell rose and again it was a day for the strong and powerful.

The sailors had been warned at the start that there would be no 'general recalls' only 'individual recalls'. there were huge numbers over the line on both starts today, George and Scotty were hugely lucky not to get pinged ....Declan suffered twice ...two OCS's put him out of the top ten.

There were some protests to the Race Committee about the performance of the Start Boat personnel ...they were fishing during the Start sequences.

For us Kiwi's, it was a little of a surprise to see not one false start and all races started under the 'P' flag ....and everyone pushing the line.....

Ben Lutze of Taipa, NZ is the new World Champion!

He ground his way from just inside the top ten to winning with some great sailing. Some of his best races were in the

lighter breezes of the middle of the regatta but he came into his own when pure power was needed to haul his boat through the large waves.

George Lane had a great final day with two wins and Josh Edmonds was close behind. Michael Cate and Jordan Coles also had a good final day.

All the sailors will take very positive things away from this regatta and the lessons learned will help their sailing careers as they go on to greater things.

Declan had 5 wins and 2 seconds from thirteen races, the most from the NZ Team, he is very satisfied with that.

New Zealand won the Champion Team Trophy for having the most sailors in the top 10.....we are all hoping the airlines will be kind as the major trophies are HUGE....and heavy.

Ben Lutze 1st

George Lane 3rd

Scott Fyfe 5th

Michael Cate 7th

Josh Edmonds 9th

Jordan Coles 10th

Declan Burn 16th

Keziah Deverall 17th ...2nd girl

Joesph Wright 22nd

Laura Hemmingway 25th

Michael Turney 40th

Melissa Gibbs 48th

Sebastian Masters 86th

As with all Regattas, we came in, washed down the boats, washed the RIBs, gave our charter boats back and most of us collected our bonds. We did try to buy the sails like last year but the price was so high, it was the same as buying them new and unstretched in NZ.

The sailors focus then went onto the Closing Ceremony and after-party.

The Closing Ceremony was held at a beautiful resort, the dinner and awards were set around a large swimming pool. There was great food and a warm summers night to get the ambience going, lots of mixing and promises to catch up in Wales for the next Splash Worlds 2009 .....and of course, New Zealand was on everyones lips for 2010 .....only 18 months from now.

Ben gave a good ..and short speech, him and the rest of the placegetters did us all proud. The rest of the Team did another rousing Haka across the pool for our champion .....our National honour then had to be upheld after the vanquished Belgians and Dutch scrum-charged our Haka warriors into the pool. Fisticuffs were narrowly averted!

On a final note, there are some exciting developments in the Splash Class....Some investors have bought into the production company that currently produce the Class boat, they have bought a company in Qingdao, the Olympic Venue, and will produce the boats there ....they are just about to buy McLaughlin Boats in the USA to do the same and we are told of a license agreement about to be signed with Rio Techna, (Opti Manufacturers) in Argentina to produce the boats there under license ..to provide the South Americans a boat to sail after Optimists ....that is local built and doesn't attract the 60% duty that the Laser currently does.

Here in NZ, we are developing a carbon mast for the boat that will help solve the mast problems ....it is all go for the Class that is the natural International progression from the Optimist Class.

See you all in New Zealand.....

Rob and the Tavira Team



Hello All

Today was windy and plenty of waves....a great day for the big and strong sailors, a tough day for the small ones.

Sailing started at 3pm just as the windy was honking thru at around 15 knots, building to around 18-20 knots. What hit the smaller sailors was the size of the waves which continually battered them off course. Declan, especially, at 52kgs .....needs another 10kgs to fire in todays conditions.

The day started with Scott Fyfe in first place, followed by a Belgium then and a Dutch, then Declan Burn ...all within 4 points and a big gap back to 5th.

Ben Lutze had two first places, followed by George Lane with two seconds .....Josh Edmonds's best was a tenth ...after a capsize round a mark at fourth place!

The rest of the Kiwi's including Scot and Declan took a bit of a hammering .....Scot not as bad as the others.

The saving grace was the Belgium sailor had the same problems and to a lesser extent the Dutch.

There are two more races tomorrow .....as we always say 'it's not over until the Fat Lady sings'

The results aren't up yet...you can view them and todays photos on the Splash website ....but it could be a two horse race between Scot Fyfe and the Dutch sailor for the Championship ....but we certainly haven't ruled out Ben yet if it is windy tomorrow....watch this space!!

The RIBs are away, we are enjoying a wine in the shade while drying out ....it was very wet on the support boats.

Rob


Hello All


Game On! We have had nine races in reasonably light conditions and all our NZ sailors have had some good races.

The top of the fleet are being shaken out now and tomorrow the division is made into Gold and Silver Fleets.

The NZ Splash team are all in the gold fleet plus Melissa Gibbs, the only one to miss the cut was Sebastian Masters.

Declan Burn had the best day with three first places followed by Scott Fyfe with three seconds and Josh Edmonds with one second, George Lane with a third, Ben Lutze, Jordan Coles, Laura Hemmingway and Keziah Deverall with 4ths.....the other sailors had some great results in the top ten.

Tomorrow the two fleets merge into the Gold and Silver where the top sailors will finally race together. The battle between Declan Burn and the 3rd placed Dutch sailor is eagerly awaited as both have won their last two days races very convincingly in their different fleets .....the Dutch is one ahead of Declan who was pipped at the post on the last race yesterday.

Scott Fyfe leads on 24 points, followed by a Belgium, then a Dutch, then Declan on 28 points ...The Dutch and Declan both have big drops to come tomorrow which may change things dramatically. There is a large gap to fifth place.

The NZ team has eight sailors in the top 13 positions.

The forecast tomorrow is for similar conditions around 5-10 knots with a slight swell, and hot....we have all got tans now and the biggest concern is making sure the sailors are cool, well watered and well fed.

The Canterbury Clothing Co 'Hot' tops we bought through Events Clothing have been fabulous in this heat, the sailors love them.

I will try and keep updated as soon as I can but it hasn't been easy.

There are some Fab photos on the website so check those out ...I have more plus some video footage.

Wish us all some luck and fair sailing

Rob