The slide begins
by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 19 Aug 2018 15:00 PDT
About Time - Newport to Coffs Coast Yacht Race 2017 © Jennifer Cook
So Hamilton Island Race Week has kicked off, and runs until August 25. Next thing you know there's the Grand Final, the Melbourne Cup, and all of a sudden it is Christmas once more. It is a bit like having livestock in behind the fence. Once that gate opens, all hell brakes loose as the herd takes flight in every direction out of there.
We have three Christmas time races to enjoy these days. There's the other race that stops the nation on Boxing Day. It is the longest of the holiday offering. You can do that one, and still come back in time to do the Pittwater to Paradise, which is the second longest. It gets underway on January second, and then has the Sail Paradise series after that from 6-9 January. Just in case you live by the adage that there is no such thing as too much racing...
Now if that slide means you only have precious little time before the myriad of other activities in this life command your attention, then the shortest of the three could be for you. The right race at the right time is the way they bill the Pantaenius Newport to Coffs Coast race. Fair call, too. You start on December 27, and can have the boat back in the pen before NYE, with a result to boot.
You can gain some Brownie Points by taking the family to Coffs for a few days. It is only about four and half hours North of Sydney, and you may even choose to have your little break there, where the hills come to meet the water, and the bananas and avos are simply awesome. Way to healthy? Well I am sure they have plenty of black and green cans, as well as bacon rolls, to offer you.
So there it is. The choices are yours, and so all you need to do is work out how much time you have, the budget, and which direction you want to go in.
One mob that it was originally thought were going to be on a real slide into the end of the year was SuperFoiler. However, in speaking with Jack Macartney we now know that there is to be no major on water activity from October. Instead it looks more like it will be training in January, and then racing in February and March.
Right now SuperFoiler is building more boats, as well as new foils and rudders. There will also be additional sailors too. We'll have more on this as it all unfolds.
Right oh - here today there are some gems for you to review. We have information from the 5.5m class, Nacra 15s, J/111s, the Round Britain and Ireland Race, 14 foot skiffs, Middle Harbour youth programme, news of the work done by the Andrew Simpson Foundation, the AST, gear from Raymarine, 420 Worlds, Laser Radial Youth Worlds, intel from North Sails, Lisa Blair, Il Duce's pics from Airlie, Farr 40s, RS Aeros, Mirabaud image time – so snap away, Golden Globe, Five Ohs, James Sainsbury's very cool home build Moth, and certainly there is much, much more.
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John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS