Hello to everyone from Qingdao,
Less that 24 hours to the opening of the Beijing Olympics…..
Since my last update, there was some good rest at home with the missus and kids, prior to a few days of team-bonding in Hong Kong with the entire Australian Sailing Team. We all arrived here in Qingdao on July 28th, and have been busy since then ticking off the final details in our training and equipment. (more…)
Hello from Qingdao in China, the site of the sport of sailing for the 2008 Olympic Gams, which kicks off in five weeks…
We arrived here a week ago after two weeks at home following the European adventure. It has been a very hectic few days of logistics, boat prep, sailing, fitness stuff, eating and sleeping.
There was a fair bit of stress involved in the shipping and receival of our three boats. One boat was air-freighted from Europe and encountered a delay due to Chinese customs finding some pills in a bag and also some car bog for boat repairs. We eventually got that boat on Tuesday. Then the other two boats (shipped by sea from Miami and Los Angeles respectively) were released to us late on Friday afternoon, but only after Customs agreed to let us break the seal of the container (as long as we took pictures…??…). (more…)
Hello to all,
Apologies for the (very) long time between blog posts. I have been pretty slack in terms of keeping in touch with friends and family for many months. I used to be pretty good at keeping in touch. Firing out regular e-mails from my travels over the years, firstly with Cameron Miles, Andrew Hunn and James Mayo aboard the Soling in our campaign for the Sydney Games. (more…)
Iain and I have been in Qingdao, China competing in the Star class at the Test Event for next year’s Olympic Games. Racing concluded for us a couple of days ago.
We finished in 11th place, missing the medal race (top ten teams) on a count back. This was a result below our expectations and capabilities.
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In early July, Iain Murray and I placed ninth in the Star Worlds, which were held in Cascais, Portugal.
Very significant result for us. It means that we have qualified Australia for a place in the Star class at the 08 Olympics in China. Further to that, as there are no other Aussie star teams with “benchmark� results, meeting the criteria for Olympic team nomination, we are now very close to securing the Olympic team spot for our country. From here the process (as I understand it), is that there is one more regatta for an aussie star team to meet the Aus nomination criteria. That is the European Championship on Lake Garda in Italy during September. If no aussie finishes in the top five there, then we will probably be nominated by Yachting Australia to the AOC to represent in China. IF another team finishes top five in Garda, then Yachting Australia has a choice to make, between us and the other team. So, in summary, we are looking good for China.
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Last Race of the Bacardi Cup finished a couple of hours ago. The regatta Winners were current world champion, Hamish Pepper of New Zealand and his fill-in crew Dave Giles of Sydney. It was a close run thing in the end, with Sweden’s Freddy Loof closing to within three points in the final tally today. Today Hamish was 7th (I think) and Freddy was 3rd. Iain and I placed 4th today to finish the regatta on a positive note and place fourth overall behind three very strong crews.
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During mid Novemebr Iain and I sailed the Star NA’s out of Coral Reef YC in Miami. This is the first of four big regattas we will do in Florida between Nov 06 and April 07. (more…)
Iain and I recently placed 4th in the Cascais International Race Week, held in Portugal.
It was a small fleet of 9 boats, but the quality was very high. The reason for us travelling all the way to Lisbon for such a small event is that this location has a huge bearing on our quest to represent Australia at the Bejing Olympics. (more…)
Later in the year, we are off to the Star class Worlds in windy San Francisco Bay.
The Star was designed a hundred years ago for the light airs in Long Island Sound. They can be a handful in a breeze as the series of photos from stars sailing on San Fran Bay on the home page of StarGear.net shows.
Today was the final race of the Star Class Western Hemisphere C’ship.
Unfortunately Iain and I were OCS and were disqualified. We were notified at the first windward mark at a time when we were in 4th place, with our opposition for the title back in the pack. So, in our minds we were leading the regatta – until we saw the dsq board. So, due to our worst race being a dsq, we now have to carry the 38th placing we got earlier in the week. We drop from third overall to 12th!! Ouch….
 A bummer to end the event on a downer, but it was a very positive event in the bigger picture. We didn’t necessarily come to Annapolis looking for a particular result, but more to move further forward in the campaign for the Olympics. We definitely achieved that.