Excitement, tragedy and decisions ahead

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 2 May 2012 86 days until the Olympics - Yesterday we talked to an excited Brendan Casey, 35 year old Queensland sailor who qualified for London with his World Cup win on the weekend.

US offshore sailing has had a tragic last year. Two deaths from the Kiwi 35 Wing Nutz in the 2011 Chicago Mackinac, five in the Crewed Farallones race out of San Francisco with Sydney 38 boat Low Speed Chase in the surf break and now four dead in from the Hunter 376 Aegean in the Newport to Ensenada Race with latest evidence pointing towards an island collision.

Our thoughts go out to all the families.

U.S. Sailing is organising two more inquiries and organising Clubs will have to look harder at a whole range of elements of these races, as has happened in Australia.

The Volvo Ocean Race leg into Miami is proving exciting. Be interesting to see just how big the crowds are for this stop-over.

In the Global Ocean Race, the Kiwi-Australian duo of Conrad Colman and Scott Cavanough took first place in Leg 4

Critical discussions at ISAF Mid-Year Meeting – with reports from the 2016 Evaluation trials, both the Womens skiff is generating some heat with the Kiwi promoted FX – the 49er with a cut down rig, battling the British designed, Thai built RS900. The Nacra 17 seems to be favoured over the Aussie promoted Viper multihull, but time will tell.

Skipper of Emirates Team NZ Dean Barker called MarineBusiness-world’s Jeni Bone this week to talk about the brave new multi-hull world of the America's Cup. Richard Gladwell revealed last week we might see a preview series with the AC72’s in Auckland.

Clipper Round the World Race - Eighth victory for Gold Coast Australia. With constant crew changes on all the boats, this is not a fluke just a bloody good Tasmanian skipper Richard Hewson.

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