The following is a draft that I wrote for the Etchells Class Newsletter…
The planning behind John, Tom and myself winning the 2010 Etchells Worlds in Howth, Ireland had it’s beginnings during the campaign for the previous year’s Worlds in Melbourne. In that campaign John and I were joined by Ben Ainslie. Ben’s sailing pedigree is un-matched and to sail next to him on the etchells and hang out with him ashore was a very positive and memorable experience.
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Today marks the start of the 2009 Etchells Worlds.
John Bertrand, Ben Ainslie and myself have had a good build-up this week, following our 2nd placing in the pre-worlds last weekend.
We have had Victor down here for a few days putting us through a couple of training sessions, which were quite intensive, but exactly what we needed. The build-up has been pretty relaxed apart from that. We did not do the practice race yesterday, instead opting to watch the start from the coachboat and then head in to rest up for what we expect will be a taxing week.
Through the week, we have trained at the Collingwood FC gym and I have got out for a few rides. this morning i did a quick lap around Albert Park Lake, which is in prep mode for the Grand Prix. Another ride was a trip down memory lane, as I rode around the area north of melbourne where I did my welding apprenticeship. I love Melbourne. We also had lunch at the MCG one day with none other than Ron Barassi. For me this was a great privelige, having been such an AFL fan when I was a kid. Another day we had a round of golf at Royal Melbourne. I am glad JB and Ben can sail, as their golf is fairly ordinary.
Anyway, the wether today is very nice. Expecting a light to moderate sea-breeze day. Two races.
Really looking forward to sailing with John and Ben and going out to have some fun sailing.
Again, it’s been far too long since my last blog posting. I am sure even Mum and Chucky have given up on me by now.
Anyway, it’s been another great few weeks in the life of a sailor, coach and Dad. (more…)
Last Friday I travelled to Melbourne to sail with John Bertrand in his new Etchells for a couple of days. This was the start of a worlds campaign in the class. The worlds are to be held in Melb (out of Brighton) during March ‘09.
John had asked me to think about sailing with him prior to me heading to China for the Olympics, but I had to decline, as Iain was planning to compete and I was very keen to continue sailing with the Big Fella. However, soon after the games, Iain decided that spending time with family and concentrating on business was a bigger priority than launching into another campaign (nice call BF). (more…)
Iain Murray, Michael Coxon and myself won the Milson Silver Goblets Etchells Regatta held on Sydney Harbour out of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.
The Goblets format is one race per evening for the whole week. This year’s regatta saw 21 boats compete. It was a very tricky weather pattern all week, which saw the scores all over the place. (more…)
Iain Murray and I won our second Etchells class NSW Championship over the weekend with Michael Coxon as our third crew member..
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The worlds finished yesterday on nice terms for us. We scored a 4th for the race and moved up two spots to third overall. Tito Gonzales of Chile won the event with Shark Khan taking second. We were only seven points bvehind the winner. (more…)
Not a good one for us today. Conditions more like Kiel than San Francisco Bay. There was no fog, but plenty of cloud. The seabreeze never got going. We had a shifty and patchy 10 knot sou-wester.
We had a great start again, but toward the top of the beat we got the wind strategy wrong and were back with the pack around 10th at the mark. (more…)
Very good day for us. Finished second behind Craig Healy. Going quite quick after a good start. We tacked to the right a couple of minutes after the start in pretty good company. We outsped all of the guys around us, but 5 or 6 from the far left corner got to the mark well ahead of us. (more…)
More on than the early settlers today here in San Fran. Just for a change, it was quite windy (again) and we had two races. (more…)