2010 so far has been very hectic. In Feb I spent almost three weeks in Dubai with Team Artemis in the RC44 class. Then straight to Auckland for the first three weeks of March. Again with Team Artemis, but this time in America’s Cup class boats at the Louis Vuitton regatta. Then home for a week spent preparing to rent out our house for 12 months and for us to move to the UK.

Whilst I love what I do (and it is always nice to be busy with work), April has been a challenge……

March 31st:
Moved out of house, after a week long process of packing stuff into shed and also sending 300kg of stuff to the UK. Move into Star City Casino appartments for three nights. Kids have a ball living the inner-city life. Getting on transport, eating out each night etc etc… Fun times.

April 2nd:
Send family to UK. drop them at Syd airport at 0400 in morning for 0600 Emirates flight to LHR.

Apr 3rd:
Fly to AKL for Star training camp – until 8th. Good week in light airs with boys. Family advise they land safely in LHR and get safely down to Cowes with Kate’s dad.

Apr 9th (Fri):
Fly AKL to Melbourne. See Fri night footy game at Docklands to get footy-fix for year. Sail Etchells with JB on Saturday. Dep for Europe via USA on Sunday.

Apr 11th:
Begin the mammoth RTW journey with United. Need to jump thru hoops for them in order to keep status…. Being an “ordinary” passenger these days sucks, so unfortunately need to dance to the airline’s tune….
Arrive Palma 5pm on 13th Apr. Taxi to Hotel Saratoga. Check in. Meet roomie Chad Turner. Go to team dinner. In bed and asleep by 2130. Full coma, but wake up at midnight ready to go…..
In all, I travelled for 67 hours. In air for 38 hrs. Mental note: Do not ever do this ever, ever again………
Spend six days in Palma for Palma Vela regatta with Team Artemis TP52 squad. Light air regatta. Team wins. All positive. Whilst in the early stages of the Palma event, Kate makes vague reference of hearing on BBC radio about some volcanic eruption in Iceland and flights to Scotland being cancelled – weird hey?……. Won’t affect us…….Will it?…..

Sunday 18th April:
Obviously the volcanic ash thing grows into a massive disruption to flights. Becomes main topic of conversation at the regatta in terms of how everyone is going to get home, or to their next event. Boat designer Tobias Kohl from Judel Vrolik office in Bremen, Germany, is stuck in Palma for the last two days of the event, as German airspace is closed. Our skipper, Paul Cayard bails a day early, as he can see writing on wall and has some meetings and stuff to do in the US in the days following the event. Below is a tweet from him regarding the first part of his journey.
I also bail on the last day of the regatta after seeing the team off the dock. Very keen to get to the UK, as I have only six days there before I start a trip that takes in seven regattas over eight weeks without a day’s break at all. Every day with family is really precious, so I make a lot of effort to get on a flight. Unfortunately the Palma airport is now shut… My plan was to fly to madrid and then wing-it somehow on trains and ferries to the UK (where airports have now been closed for five days). But the volcanic ash model now has Spain airspace being affected, so both Palma and Madrid airports are shut. I wait for a couple of hours, but nothing new and nobody knows anything. I leave the airport and head back to the hotel to dump bags and start looking at other options.

I go to ferry terminal in Palma. the queue is 200 mtrs (and approx 8hrs long….). This is for the tickets the FOLLOWING day…… Not an option for an impatient prick like me. Go back to dock and work on three or four options hitching a ride with yachts being delivered back to Valencia on Spanish mainland. These all dry up, as people start to realise how bad things and are all scrambling for rides. Boats get filled with their own people. The Jigs on the boats have never had so much help! Sarah tells me of ferry option on North side of island going to Barcelona the next morning. I hesitate, as there are rumours that Palma airport will re-open. I call Iberia airlines. They tell me my flight is now officially cancelled, even though airport will open. Another flight re-scheduled for 1130 the next morning – but good luck getting on it – the last 40 flights to mainland Spain have been cancelled, so there is a bit of a back-log of people……. They give me number to re-book. I call it and wait on hold for 15 minutes. I give up on flying. I call my wife Kate (who is middle of hosting a family lunch back on the Isle of Wight). Ask her to find the ferry option Sarah was talking about. She does and books me on it – 130 euro. Need to be there at 0700 the next morning. Organise taxi with help from people at hotel – 6am pick up. Enjoy a few beers with guys that night – somewhat liberating not to be worrying about when airports might open and when I might be able to re-book tickets. Lots of laughs. Series of our guys cominhg back from airport after un-successfully trying to get on thier flights. Three guys flying to Valencia get out (Clarkie, Fongo and Chad). Anyway, the rest of us enjoy a Good night at the San Lorenzo Hotel. Feels like our little bunker.

Up at 0500 on Mon morning the 19th April. Get ready for epic journey (another one……). Read on internet that British air space shut until at least 7pm that night. I am sure I am doing right thing making my own plans, as the back-log is likely to be long once the planes are flying again.
Hour long taxi ride as the sun comes up over Mallorca. 80 euros. Check in for ferry and wait as the morning brightens. Ferry leaves on time at 0830. I have heaps of bags. Have to wrestle them up stairs etc and get a window seat with power outlet for the laptop. For a brief time the world is at peace as I feel like I am making good progress. Ferry is a nice 5 hour journey, but chock-a-block with poms and germans. Kate informs me she has booked train out of Barcelona, but it does not depart until until the following night, meaning spending 30 or so hours in Barcelona. Normally would be nice, but keen to get to family, so we talk about me trying to get to France border somehow and getting a fast TGV train to the Chanel coast (to try to get on a ferry to the UK).

1500hrs Monday 19th:
Arrive Barcelona. High-tail it off the ferry with my four bags in tow. Knock over about 15 little spanish folk in process. You get that on the big jobs…..
Another hurdle – Get a lift with friendly cab driver to the train stazione. Aiming for train to somewhere over the Spanish / French border. Perpignan would be nice I think. I am infomed that all of the south-east French train system is on strike. Nice one guys! just to make things a little tougher for european travellers……. I would normally swear, but it seems I am getting calmly resigned to the fact that this adventure is far from over and there will be bigger humps in the road ahead. Maybe also getting mellower in my advancing years. Maybe I’m just just plain fucking over it……
Switch plan: Our trusty yacht designer, Tobias Kohl hitched a ride with the German mini-maxi yacht Container from Palma to Valencia. It took them approx 20hrs – it’s about 160 miles by water. They had a good night weather-wise, but the engine shat itself about 20 miles from Valencia. They had to get towed into dock. As it is full of German crew, they made a contingency plan a couple of days ago to get a bus from Germany to come down and pick them up from Valencia. Spoke to Tobias. They have just got on bus and are heading north towards France and Germany. Barcelona is en-route for them. So, I decide to forget about tomorrow’s night’s train booking (is it any use if the French remain on strike – how would you know?). Drag my friendly taxi driver into the train station, so we can use the english-speaking train official to interpret for us. I convince him to take me up to the main highway between Valencia and the french border and drop me at a service station. Let Tobias know where I am and sit it out for 3hrs, waiting for them to get northwards on the E15 auto-pista. In meantime, i set up my own little office suite in the road-house restaurant and get some video editing work done from the event footage I have. Ingest a few more coffees. Charge both phones. Charge up the laptop. Basically re-charge everything (inclusive of myself) for the journey ahead. Options from here include going all the way to Hamburg with the Germans (approx 2000km – about 24 hours) and trying for a ferry from there to the UK. Sort of depends when the French train dudes go back to work and whether I can get on a train when they do…. Kate is on-line for me back in Cowes trying to figure that part out. At the road-house, there is coach-load after coach-load of northern european and british people all getting rides back toward their homes. These coaches are put on by the airlines to help get people back home. I ask a couple of the English bus drivers for a ride. No dice….

1930hrs:
The Germans arrive…. Unbelievable set up. A full-size coach with three drivers that are rotating, so the bus continues non-stop. Only twelve or so sailors on board, so everyone has a full row to themselves. the aisle sets can move outwards toward the middle, so that you can lie flat if you wish. The boys look a little fatigued from last nights delivery trip on the yacht, but as I board, the red wine is opened, the cheese and salami is aid out and we all have a little drink and talk about how each others journey’s have gone so far. What a great sport we are in! Meanwhile Kate is slaving away in front of the computer, whilst trying to bathe and feed the feral kids in Cowes. She has now booked me on the TGV train from Lyon to Caen (on the english channel coastline – south west of Calais). I leave Lyon at 0600 tomorrow morning. Change trains at Paris and arrive to Caen at about 1400. Once she gets the kids to bed, she is moving onto Ferry bookings….. That might be entering a new world of pain….. But if anyone can do it, Kate can.

0245hrs – Tues 20th Apr:
Woken from a deep slumber on the bus by brusque german accented men. “Where the fk am I?” is first thought that comes to mind. The bus driver has pulled up on the verge of the six-lane freeway and this is my “stop”. A few handshakes and I am out into the cold morning on the outskirts of Lyon. I pull my bags along the stopping lane of the motorway and off an exit ramp for 1km or so. At least this warms me up. Probably 5 or 6 degrees, but a still night. A couple of very random dudes walk past me. Little scary. Similar level of feral factor as the central coast of New South Wales at midnight, but then again, they speak better english here than on the coast. This is something I will remember for some time………
I have no clue at all where I am heading, but I hit a suburban road with a bus stop. It has a map. I get my bearings. It is about 4km to the train station and I have three hours to kill. No prob. “Harden up Australia” and start walking. About a km into the journey, a cab turns up out of nowhere. There is absolutely nobody around and this is the first car I have seen in close to an hour. I think the cabbie is more surprised than me. Get to train station. 20 euro for a 5 minute ride. Not complaining. The bags were getting heavy.
At the station plaza, there are three people in same circumstances as me with all sorts of baggage, having come from egypt and the south of France. They are french and two of them are elderly women. The other is a bloke in his 50’s who is a mathematics professor from Lille. All trying to get home from holidays. We have to wait 90 mins for the station to open. We are talking, when a drunken beggar is quite aggressive toward us demanding money. Then two young guys of Algerian extraction turn up, looking pretty desperate. If things get ugly, I figure the old ladies and the maths teacher will not be much help to me. This is not going well…….
We move as a group away from them and toward some shops that are all closed. I am thinking this could develop into anything from just plain theft to something more. A security guy pops out of a Subway sandwhich shop and the desperado’s scatter, yelling abuse. A white knight! The security guy is friendly. His mate owns the Subway sandwich shop and the roller door is buggered, so his job is to watch over the shop all night. We are very lucky he is around….. Did not see the police the whole time we were there. The security guy is only about five feet tall, but stocky and a little menacing looking. He tells me that he studied a particular form of martial art and he is a black-belt. I ask him if it was derived from China. He says he can’t remember that part of the study – but he remembers the bit about how to kill people…. re-assuring at this point of the journey. We look at pictures of each others kids on our phones. I show him pictures of boats. He shows me pictures of souped-up rice-burning hatch-backs. We part when the station opens. we might keep in touch on facebook he tells me….. I get my tickets like clockwork (thanks kate). I get onboard the TGV. iI’s packed. I sleep all the way to Paris.

0830 – Gare Pairs de Lyon train station:
Peak hour. This place is chockers with either stressed looking travelers or busy french people on their way to work. I need to get a underground metro train for a few stops, as my train to Caen departs from St Lazare. It’s a very hectic 30 mins up and down escalators and thru ticket turnstiles with my baggage. Finally I get to where the Cherbourg train leaves from. Lots of people with big bags and pommy accents. Get on train. Quite crowded, but ok. Two hour journey. my ferry booking is confirmed as 11pm tonight, but there i a ferry leaving at 4pm. It showed full on the internet when kate was booking. I hope to get on it. Do not fancy waiting 11hours…… Pretty weary.

MIDDAY – CAEN Railway Station:
Most of the train’s 1000 or so passengers seem to disembark here. Bit of a scramble but, after seeing there were no cabs, I manage to get on first bus to ferry port, which is about a half hour journey. Only knock over some elderly people in the process. No probs (kidding).
Ferry port is chaos. Chockers with people and vehicles of all shapes. I get to booking desk at approx 1300. Earlier ferry leaves at 1515hrs, but bloke tells me no chance, as it is oversold. I have to wait until 11pm. There is free fast internet in the port building (must be the last place in the world that has this), so I sit and try to catch up with the world and upload some TP52 video for the team….. i return to my bloke at the desk every half hour or so, just to see if there is any likelihood. He says no every time, but we are getting on well….. Doing some heavy-duty grovelling there. With 30 mins to go, most people have boarded. I go back to desk and he says there are two coaches running late, but after they have checked in will be the final, final answer. The coaches arrive with 20 mins to spare. Bedlam for ten minutes. Passports flying all over the place. Officials and the Gendarmerie yelling. kids screaming. Sort of like my house at dinner time. Anyway the dust clears and my man gives me a wink. Within 5 seconds my passport is in front of him. I have my boarding pass. ALL GOOD. I am on ferry to England! As Churchill said – never, ever give in……. Never in my life thought I would be so happy to be heading to the UK. Due to land Portsmouth at 2130hrs, which is a heap better than departing at 11pm and arriving at 6am without even an assigned seat…. I type this with a view of the English Chanel and a cold beer by my side. Will need to transfer over to another ferry to the Isle of Wight, but that oughta be easy after what I have been through to get here…… In saying all of that, i guess it is like what travelling used to be like before everything was so programmed with airlines and having the world of internet in your pocket on a mobile phone. Great experience, but I would want to go through it again anytime soon.
Just read that the eruption has cranked up again…. we could be living through this for a while yet…

PAUL’S TWEET:
April 18, 2010

I could never explain well enough what the situation is like over here in Europe for anyone who wants to travel somewhere or get a hotel room.

Since making the decision to try to escape one day early, here is what I have encountered:

1. Got to my hotel in Barcelona and had them tell me that the hotel was oversold, but that had covered me in another hotel.

2. Was boarding the flight to Atlanta this morning when the airport authority ordered the airport closed.

3. Waited there as told by Delta, and lived through all the “we’re going”, “no, we’re boarding in 20 minutes”, no it’s canceled”, “wait, we’re going at 12:00”. During these three hours I was asking Torbjorn’s pilot, Henry, who was in Palma with Torbjorn’s plane, about the likelihood that Barcelona would reopen, as well as about Madrid and Lisbon. Finally, Delta pulled the plug at 1300.

4. Onto plan C. Get a car or train to Lisbon for tomorrow’s flight to Newark which my travel agent Elin had booked before Plan B. (Plan A was flying through Frankfurt on Monday in Business Class arriving into SFO at 1200, nice and fresh. That plan got nixed on Friday).

5. No cars available in BCN.

6. Called Russell Coutts’ PA Alex who is Spanish. She had been stranded in Paris and was on a 13 hour bus ride to Barcelona. All the while, she had been working on getting Russ out of London where he had been stranded since Friday. He eventually took a train to Paris this morning and is now driving from Paris to Madrid…18 hours.

7. Alex had a network modem and got me a train to Madrid and a car to rent there to drive to Lisbon, all from the bus.

8. I then went to the same train station in Barcelona where she was arriving by bus to then take a train to Valencia where she lives.

9. When I got to the train station it was total chaos. The line to buy a ticket was out the door. Thank God she had sorted it all for me and bought the tickets on line.

10. I then started to think that driving 8 hours tonight from Madrid to Lisbon might not be a good idea. So I asked her about a train. At first, nothing. Then she did something else magical and found one that leaves at 1030 tonight and get to Lisbon at 8am tomorrow. “Perfect…let’s buy it”

11. What about Lisbon airport? Is it still open? Called Torbjorn’s pilot Henry again. Yes, still open but Palma and Madrid closing. The cloud is still creeping South! Lisbon expected to stay open. Better start moving Southwest!

12. Called United to reconfirm the flight. With all the hecticness, that reservation had been voided somehow. My heart was in my throat as the agent told me this very calmly. I knew this flight was my last chance.

13. I resurrected the reservation. Thank goodness.

14. Then my credit card would not work. Unbelievable! If he could not issue the ticket I would not have a reservation and the flights for the rest of the week are oversold. All the people in Europe who want to go to the USA are running like rats down into the Southwest corner.

15. I had one more credit card…one I never use it…. it is for my kids. I used it!! And it worked!

So, I am now on the train. Surely, I am not done jumping through hoops. Going to try to sleep a bit as I am pretty fried and I will need energy tonight for sure. If I get on the plane, I can sleep all I want.
Obviously in cases like this you don’t ask what it costs or if you can get an upgrade. All that is out the window.

Fortunately, Artemis won the regatta so I feel a little less badly for leaving them. But my poor teammates are stuck in Palma I am afraid. Maybe they will take the Artemis RIB or a ferry to Valencia and drive to Lisbon.
I am sure by now you are seeing it on the news in the States or wherever you live.

In summary; We have a situation over here! Looking for my next hoop.

Paul

Just a note to say G’day and update you on where things are heading for me.

My last trip saw lots of positive stuff happening, as far as work going forward is concerned. Basically, I spent six weeks in total with Team Artemis. Three weeks were in Dubai and three in Auckland. Team Artemis are a Swedish owned sailing team that have been campaigning hard in the TP52 MedCup circuit, as well as the RC44 class for the past few years. The team recently made public their desire to put together an America’s Cup bid. The team is well resourced and well organised. See the website here.

In Dubai, there were two segments to the trip. Firstly the beginnings of an America’s Cup team gathered and we had a week of high-level match race training in RC44 yachts. It was an awesome week, with two international umpires running the drills and a full race committee banging off the starts. We had really effective de-briefs, lots of video analysis and we were able to pull apart the scenarios and discuss options with the likes of Cayard, Hutchinson etc.. The winds were light, but that is perfect for the RC44’s. I was joining the team as a coach for what was then the upcoming Louis Vuitton regatta in Auckland. I was seen as a “floating’ crew member between the two boats. i had the chance to act as tactician for Cayard and Cameron Appleton on different days, as well as work in the middle of the boats. For me as a coach, this was an invaluable few days getting to know the boats and the blokes. By the week’s end, many of the verteran pro sailors were commenting that the week was the best training for a big team they had been involved in. I had to agree.

As far as Dubai goes – don’t rush to get there. Basically a bunch of big glitzy buildings in the desert. My disclaimer is that I only saw the hotel and the yacht club really.

The Artemis Louis Vuitton squad members not involved in regular RC44 sailing then departed and the amatuers arrived for the RC44 Maktoum trophy. For this, I acted as Coach for both the Artemis and Katusha RC44 teams. I got to meet the Artemis owner (Torbjorn Tornqvist) and I basically assumed a role that I have become very accustomed to in the farr40’s, mumm30’s, Stars, Etchells and 18 Foot Skiffs for many years now. It went well, with Artemis taking out the overall regatta (third in the match racing and second in the fleet racing). Katusha did not fair so well, but there is massive potential there.

From there, it was a sprint to Auckland for five days of one-boat training in USA87, the America’s Cup class yacht owned by BMW Oracle. This training was a great lead-in for Team Artemis to the Louis Vuitton event, which started on the 9th of March and would be sailed in NZL84 and NZL92 – the kiwi boats from the 2007 cup.

Team Artemis had their ups and downs in the Louis Vuitton Auckland event, but finished fourth overall out of eight very competitive teams. Basically the LV events have been organised in place of the vaccum in the America’s cup (caused by the legal problems and the deed of gift match between BMW Oracle (USA) and Alinghi (SUI)). Artemis were very close to making the final, losing a tight semi final 2-1 to the Italian team of Mascalzone Latino. Again, I acted in a coaching role, which is quite a challenge when working with 18 professional sailors – all of which have been around the AC scene for many years. However, with Artemis being a new team, everyone was very enthusiastic about making the team as polished as possible. So, it was a very positive time for me in my role with them.

I have been asked to join the team for the TP52, RC44 and Louis Vuitton events this year. See the schedule here: http://artemissailing.com/pages/racing It is a very busy few months coming up. As far as an America’s Cup campaign goes…. Well the new holders of the Cup (Oracle – USA) seem to be saying all of the right things about the future of the event and getting it back on track after the courtroom debacle that was the 33rd cup. Until they announce plans of when, what boats, and where, it is hard to plan too far ahead for teams and individuals. Not expecting too much personally, so if it all gets going, it will be a bonus.

To keep it real, I am still planning to sail the Etchells worlds in Dublin in August with John Bertrand and Tom Slingsby. Now more than ever, I need to sail and compete. It can get all too theoretical in the coach-boat.

Whilst I was away, the boys in the Seven Skiff stepped up really well and won the JJ Giltinan (the 18ft skiff “worlds”) for a second time. Iain Murray had to step in as coach, as I departed for Dubai on the day of the first race. He did an awesome job in identifying some errors in the rig tune early in the event, helped to repair a broken mast and generally help keep the boys on track. They had to overcome being several points down going into the final weekend, but they did that by executing their racing skills better than the rest and by being bloody fast. It was tear-in-the-eye stuff for me – on the other end of the phone line in Dubai. I have worked with Seve, Sam, Tom and Rob for four years and they (and the red boat) have become a big part of my life. On a sailing front, I have learnt so much more about the sport by being exposed to the skiff scene with Iain and the boys. On a personal front…well, let’s just say it has been great training for when my kids become teenagers…. Plenty of challenges, but lots of rewards. In four years the boys have recorded finishes in the JJG as follows: 2nd, 1st, 3rd and 1st. Not too bad!

Currently home for a week. It’s hectic, as our family is packing up the house, as we are moving to the UK for at least six months. We have rented the house in Avalon for 12 months, so when (actually Kate refers to the “WHEN” more as an “IF”, but I think a couple of chilly october days in Cowes will sort her out) we return after the northern summer, we will have to wing it re where we live. the current plan is for Kate and her mum to home-school the kids to the aussie system. We’ll see how that goes. Assuming kate is still sane after the first week…. Anyway, where we end up after the first six months is largely dependent on what is best for the kids schooling etc..

Next is Auckland again for a week with Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk in the NZL starboat. More one-boat training, working on boat-skills, sailing fitness and boat optimisation.

Then Palma Vela in Majorca, Spain with Artemis TP52.

Will do my best to keep in touch.

Have been chockers with either work or family activities for the past months.

Hamilton Isalnd Race Week on the RP66, Loki was not a great one. the boat was optimised towards the heavier breezes, but it was a very, very light week. We were slow when the wind was below 10 knots (which was 90% of the time and we were very sticky in the really light. A good experience though. However, one design is the way to go.

In November I joined the BMW Oracle team for the Louis Vuitton event in Nice, France. It was a good event, sailied in America’s Cup class yachts. a great learning experience for me to get back into the AC scene after being away since 1992. I was acting in a coaching / support role for the team. Heaps of talent there. The team had a disappointing result, which reflected their split resources with the impending multihull Deed-of-Gift America’s Cup match coming up in Feb.. But for me, it was a great oppurtunity and a massive learning experience.

December was full of coaching and sailing work at home in Sydney. Mainly coaching Etchells, the 18ft skiff and Farr40’s, as well as sailing Etchells and a Mumm30 at the Rolex Regatta.

New Years eve was spent overlooking Sydney Harbour Bridge at Guy Stening’s house.

Today the Etchells Nationals start and we are getting ready. i am sailing on the bow, with John Bertrand on the helm and Tom Slingsby in the middle. We are at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney.

Anyway, life is good.

Standing By. Lake Macquarie.

I have just attended my 9th Star Worlds. However this time it was in a coaching role. I was working with the Kiwi team of Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk.

It was a successful trip, with the boys finishing second, behind class stalwarts and deserving winners, George Szabo and Rick Peters of the USA.

The regatta was tight. Winds were generally light and unstable. The current on the race track and the wind trend made the course very much a one-way track. Szabo and Peters went hard right on 17 out of 17 beats. The top five of Szabo, Pepper, Grael (Lars), Schlonski and Campbell would not have been on many people’s lists before the regatta. The favourites (Loof, Schiedt, Mendelblatt etc) all had their moments, but also recorded big scores in some races.

Georgie and Rick were very popular winners. George works for Quantam sails, which dominate the Star market. He is forever helping the fleet out with tips. Rick has worked within the Star class for many years, either delivering boats or fixing keels. George narrowly missed selection for the US team for the China Olympics.

For me, the chance to work with Hamish and Craig was a highlight. Hamish won the worlds in 2006 with Carl Williams and is a great natural talent. Craig won Olympic Silver in the Finn in 1992 and since then has been at the top end of the America’s Cup. This european season has been a great foundation for their london Olympic campaign.

I have posted some pics of the Worlds trip here.

A quirky thing also happened when I was away. I became the number one ranked Star crew in the world. Sounds impressive?? Well, it happens that I did one event (Holland) with my mate, Flavio Marazzi of Switzerland. Flavio has put a lot of time into the class and has recorded very impressive results over this period. He was awarded with the worlds number one ranking. I happened to be in the right place at the right time for a change. Anyway, it’s great to share something like this in any circumstances with a bloke like Flavio.

So, it’s goodbye Europe for another year. I have spent nearly ten weeks here in two trips this northern summer. I spend a week back with the family, before heading off to Hamilton Island for Race Week, where I am sailing aboard Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki.

Happy to report that the reason for no blogging is that things have been busy for the past couple of months. i am currently sitting in Frankfurt airport, waiting to board the plane home after an epic 7 week trip in europe. The year was looking decidedly quiet back in April, but the europe trip saw a few events string together for me and I have not had a day off the whole time I have been in Europe.

First up was racing in the Star in the Holland Regatta with Flavio Marazzi of Switzerland. Flavio has been 4th at the last two Olympics. it was a privelige to sail with him. I learnt heaps, including some new swear words in German-Swiss. We came 4th (he hates 4th) out of approx 25 boats, but were only 2 points out of second place. A good experience and great to have the oppurtunity to jump back in the class for the first time since the Olympics last August.

Then it was off to Sardinia for one month for two activities. The first engagement was to take on the role of tactician for Lang Walker aboard the massive Kokomo superyacht. This boat is 170 feet long and is 350 tonnes (plus fuel and wine – to quote Lang). I have posted pics and photos here. Going from hanging out over the side of the star in freezing Holland to piloting the superyacht around the pituresque islands around Porto Cervo required some adjustment. We sailed two regattas. The average size of the crew was 50 people. We had a great time.

The day after the superyachts finished, I tacked over to the coaching role with team Transfusion for the Farr40 Worlds – also in Porto Cervo. This saw us train and generally prepare for eight days. Then the worlds were a four-day affair. Our owner and steerer, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis had never been to an international sailing event before, so this was a new experience for him. We came out of the blocks fast and were fourth after day one, including winning the last race of that day. Going into the last day, the boys were placed 5th, but unfortunately the last two races were poor ones for us. We toppled to 8th place, missing 6th by only two points. All in all it was a great experience for Guido and the guys in what is a long term campaign for the worlds in Sydney in 2011. Lots of things learned technically and heaps learned about how to best approach events like these. The Italians were very strong as expected, but the Worlds were won for the third time by Jimmy Richardson’s team aboard Barking Mad. I have posted some pics of team Transfusion here.

From Porto Cervo, it was a dash north to Kiel, Germany to do a week of coaching with the Star crew of Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk. Between these two guys, there are several World championships in classes such as the Star, Laser, Finn, Farr40, Mumm30, as well as an Americas Cup win and an Olympic Silver for Craig. To beasked to help them in the Star was an honour for me. The week went very well. It was a build-up for the guys towards the Europeans, which is being held in Kiel and also the Worlds, which are being held in Sweden during early August. Some happy snaps of the boys here.

So, now it’s back to be a Dad for a few weeks. Can’t wait!

Things have been quiet since the Etchells Worlds in Melbourne. Work has consisted of helping the Farr40 team Transfusion prepare for their Worlds in Sardinia, some etchells coaching on the harbour, working on various Stars at our little Pittwater fleet and starting the planning for the Gotta Love It 7 team for next year’s 18 footer season. i have also done some days as coach for the CYCA’s Youth Sailing Academy. So, keeping busy, without being out of control.

It’s been an opportunity to spend some time with each of the kids and be a part of the family. This is something I missed out on in the years and months leading up to the Olympics last year.

Been doing a fair amount of bike riding, mainly with Twirler in the magnificent Kuringai national park on the west side of Pittwater. I also bought a paddle ski and have been getting to the point where I do more paddling than swimming (very unstable). It’s nice to get out on the water and do a workout that balances out the bike-riding a bit.

Off to Europe for the best part of six weeks very soon. On the agenda is Holland Regatta in the Star (with Flavio Marazzi of Switzerland). Then sailing on Lang Walker’s superyacht Kokomo in two regatta in Sardinia. Finally, the Transfusion boys arrive to sardinia and I work with them as coach for their worlds. Back home early July. not many plans beyond that, other than sailing with Stephen Ainsworth and Cameron Miles aboard Loki for Hamilton Island Race Week in late August.

Thats it for now.

Jason Muir’s Queensland team of Paul, Bucky and Matty did a fantastic job of sailing a very composed and consistent event and won with a race to spare. Going into the second last race, we held the event lead by a point or two. We had a wonderful start in the race, heading to the left side, but unfortunately for us, the wind went right slowly by a factor of 15 degrees and we were in the 30’s at the first mark. On the run and the next beat, we needed to throw the dice a little to get back into a point where we could at least challenge going into the last race, but as is usual in these situations, we went backwards with each throw to the side we worked. We finished 32nd and the Jason’s team came 8th. Regatta over. Well done to the Queenslanders! We also dropped a place further to 3rd overall, with Team Barry from Melbourne overtaking us. These Gen Xers (or is is it Y…. stuffed if I know…anyway, they are whipper-snappers of about 30 something years old) sailed a nice event to cap off many years campaigning together in the Etchells. Well done to Damien, Sloth, Andy and Wareboy.

Basically, the Black Flag start disqualification mid-regatta cost us the breathing space of any room for error. Jason and his team made no big errors and were always there. End of story.

To sail with JB and Ben in both Adelaide and Melbourne was something I will always treasure. JB is someone I have always had a large amount of respect for. That level of respect went up a lot yesterday when I witnessed how well he responded to the tough day we had when the dream of winning the 09 worlds ended. He is a class act and a wonderful role-model within our sport. Ben, as we all know is the most decorated sailor of the modern era. However, i got to see him operate close-up. What an absolute professional and polished guy he is. An absolute honour for me to be associated with these guys….John and Rasa opened their home and their hearts to both Ben and I and also to my little family. Wonderful people and a fantastic chemistry in our wider crew family that also included Ernie Lawrence and of course (in the days prior to the event) the world’s best sailing coach, Victor Kovalenko.

My final word is to say that from all of these sailing events there is a lot of silver-ware that the winners carry home. However the thing we ALL walk away with is the memories of who we sailed with, who we sailed against, who ran the event and how we each interacted with all three of these entities on AND off the water. In that sense, I have been a big winner, as I will only ever have positive memories of the 2009 Etchells worlds on every count. Well Done RBYC, the huge team of volunteers and the Melb Etchells Fleet.

Over and out from Melb. Time to resume the real business in life of wrestling with three rug-rats who put real perspective into my life!

Dog.

More breeze today, which was good for us, as we seem to go well in more wind and it also takes some of the “lottery” element out of play that can sometimes occur in the lighter breeze. However, it was from the north and anyone that knows the top end of Port Phillip, knows that the northerly is a fickle breeze.

We started ok near the middle but took an early opportunity to get to the right. It took a long time for the right side to show promise, but when it did, it paid pretty big at the top of the leg. From there we had a very tight three boat race with GT and also two-time winner Stuart Childerly from GBR, with Jason Muir’s very consistent team snapping at our heals in 4th. There was a massive gap back to 5th. We finally claimed the lead on the last beat, but GT hit the right layline looking for a shift and it went his way. Well done to them. They have had a tough week in the light air. They were fast today.

Yesterday was up and down. On a positive note, we placed 4th in the second race of the day. It was a nice comeback, as we were around 10th after a lap. The downer for us a disqualification in the first race of the day for starting prematurely. Basically it was operator-error. Hard to describe the feeling when our number got called out over the radio. Not good, but that’s the sport.

With three races to sail we have a very slim lead to Muir’s team. Their worst is a 10th, so they are in a great position. Two races tomorrow with a very dodgy forecast, so still early days. Lots of golf left in this hole. There is also a plethora of very talented teams in the mix. For me, it is simply a matter of doing what I do to the best of my abilities and to support my team-mates to do similar. Having a ball sailing with John and Ben.

We had a nice start in the middle of the long start line and were fast enough out of the blocks to be able to let Ben do his thing and play the shifts and pressure up the middle. We led by 30 secs at the top mark and extended slightly on each leg to win by a minute or so.

For us it was a very nice day of sailing. For others it looked tough back in the fleet. 85 boats make a lot of bad air and chop and it is tough getting through all of that in light air in an under-powered boat like the Etchells. Sailing is a great leveller. We know we are just a poor start away from having to go through that sort of race ourselves. For now though, it’s all positive for us as we enjoy the challenge of the racing and the oppurtunity John has provided for us to be here sailing with each other.

Two races scheduled for tomorrow, but the forecast is not promising. More light winds on the menu. The following day looks even worse. We’ll see.

Hi Chucky!

Light southerly wind that paid the right hand side all day. Problem was for us that we went to the left on the first beat of the two races. In the first race we won our side by a long way, but had to settle for 4th at the mark and got back to 3rd by the end.

The second race was tougher. 26th at the top mark and dug back to 11th at the end.

Coming first by a point after day one but plenty of golf left in this hole.

Guys are great. Ben did a great job in picking our way thru the fleet and John was on fire on the helm. great guys to sail with. A real privilege for me.