The WA offshore fleet will be getting a new addition this year, with Beneteau 34.7 'Fairy Tern' owners Laurie and Madeleine stepping things up to a new Archambault A40RC, currently in construction and pictured above. 'Aardvark' - the chosen name of the new vessel - should be ready to hit the new WA offshore season for the George Law opener on September 18, which will kick start a busy 18 months for the former terns, highlighted by a trip down to Rockingham for the 2010 Cockburn Sound Regatta and an east coast campaign including the tropical regattas and the infamous Rolex Sydney Hobart.

This addition will bolster the already bustling 36-40 foot range in the offshore fleet, with the proven IRC performer sure to create a few headaches in what should be one of the toughest contested Siska Trophy championships since 2009/10.

For more information about the A40RC and Aardvark, head to www.aardvarkyachting.net.au

The local boys from North Sails have just returned from a week of sailing around in the Phuket Race Week 2010 on the Farr 1104 Piccolo. Below is the report from Brent Fowler. Note - I will add in photos once I figure out how to use this uploader (Ohf shore)

Pre-Regatta

The majestic HM Bark Endeavour replica will complete an historic circumnavigation of Australia, in 2011-
12. She will play a role in promoting the exhilarating Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships to
thousands of people at ports from Sydney to Perth, as part of the journey.
The finely crafted wooden ship (built in Fremantle) will leave Sydney on the 15th April 2011 and arrive
back in Western Australia’s busiest port on 20 November, 2011 in time to play a major role at the Perth
2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships (3-18 December 2011). The vessel will add to the atmosphere
of the exhilarating sporting and sailing spectacular.

Freshie Racing Team has had another successful weekend finishing second in the Irish International Match Race at the Royal St George Yacht Club. The event was a new concept with 6 international teams and the 6 local Irish teams racing in Scotsman Bay. The conditions where variable throughout the whole weekend which lead to the program being cut short only finishing at the end of the round robin stage. The team improved race by race on the J80 yachts and had some great racing, only losing to the eventual winner Baggio from France and local Irishman Andy Fowler in a shocking first race. An added bonus was beating the other Perth team in Kieth Swinton and his Black Swan Racing.
An interesting feature to this regatta is the GPS tracking which each race been uploaded on TackTracker and can be reviewed on:

CLICK HERE

The event was a great lead-up to the team’s next event in Pornichet, France this week starting on Thursday . The event is the team’s first grade 1 event and will come up against the current leader of the world match racing tour Mathieu Richard and other top teams. The event is also raced on the same boats as the Ireland regatta which will help greatly next week. The grade 1 event will be a great opportunity for the team which is full of confidence after 3 podium finishes in consecutive events of the European tour.
Thanks to Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, Zhik and the Ron Tough Yachting Foundation for their continued support.

www.freshieracing.blogspot.com

The 2010 Valmadre Cup Series conducted by Fremantle Sailing Club was completed on Saturday with the fleet racing in a 13 to 18 knot East north Easterly which swung north and moderated throughout the day finishing in 6-12 knots from the North East.

The course involved plenty of reaching a running which favoured the longer yachts and culminated in a spectacular finish in Division 0 with 18 seconds separating the first three boats with Charlotte and Optimus Prime match racing for the final two legs.

On YAH Finistere, The X Factor, Le Truck and Anastasia took home the light blue flags in their respective divisions and on IRC, The Next Factor, Archimedes and Blondie were the big winners.

Valmadre Cup race results can be found at the Yachting Western Australia website

CLICK HERE

For those who enjoy suspense, the Presentation lunch for the series will be at Fremantle Sailing Club on Sunday the 15th of August commencing at 1200

Competitors took to Lake Garda this morning for races 13 and 14 of the Volvo Laser SB3 World Championships. The Gold Fleet to the Yellow/Torbole course and the Silver Fleet to the Blue/Riva course. The fleet was full of tired but determined faces as the fleets cast off the pontoons. Hill (GBR) and Burlton (GBR) both “appeared” remarkably cool going into the final day of racing, with just 4 crucial points separating them, it seems appearances were deceptive.

Conditions were lively on both race courses, with a constant 18 knots of wind at the start of racing. The Gold Fleet, enthusiastic as ever to get race 13 underway were recalled having jumped the line with 15 seconds to the gun. With the well worn black flag raised, and the course re-set after a 20 degree wind shift the Gold Fleet were underway for their penultimate race of the Championship. Ian Ainslie (RSA) and crew pulled out a great lead on the fleet in the first lap of the windward leeward course and finished the race over a minute ahead of Geoff Carveth (GBR) in second place. Jerry Hill (GBR) finished eighth, Luca Rodion (RUS) finished ninth and Craig Burlton (GBR) finished tenth. It was all to play for in the final race.

Yet again the fleet were recalled on the first attempt of starting the final race of the championships and only got away after the black flag was hoisted. The glorious Garda sunshine finally ran out as the fleet beat to the windward mark, the black clouds burst and the wind dropped to 8 knots and swung back 30 degrees. The Race Officer was in a quandary; finish the race in unstable conditions or shorten the course after the first lap? As the fleet were making their final approaches to the leeward gate, the race committee raised the Tango flag and signalled to the fleet to finish. Unfortunately for many of the fleet, the flag was not recognised and only a canny few held their kites and carried on to the finish line.

Well, we know they do, but it seems our friends over at Sailing Anarchy have realised it as well.

Check it out here, www.sailinganarchy.com

It is a few stories in.

For those of you that couldn't make Wednesday's lecture, Paul Eldrid has generously allowed us to post the notes here.

Did we hear correctly that only one offshore boat was there?

Just as well there were many others who are keen to improve their game, we hear it was a great night.

Paul Eldrid - The Start

Fitzgibbon and Cox win Bronze at World Championship to book Australia a place at 2012 London Paralympic Games

The Australian Sailing Team’s Skud 18 crew of Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox has won the Bronze medal at the 2010 IFDS World Championship in The Netherlands and in doing so has qualified Australia for the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

Fitzgibbon and Cox were the star performers on the final day of the regatta winning both Skud 18 races to consolidate their third position and put plenty of pressure on the two crews ahead of them with Great Britain winning Gold and America Silver.

“Rachael and I had a really good day overall with two race wins and good breeze, we’re very happy with how we went today,” said Fitzgibbon. “Both races were in pressure around the 20 knot range, we had good speed, good starts and sailed really well to win both races.”

“We were a bit disappointed with how we started the regatta but to finish the way we did means that what we are working on is going well for us,” he said. “The best thing about today is that we qualified Australia for the 2012 London Paralympic Games in the two person keel boat class so it looks like Australia is going to London!”
 

The Doctor's Prescription; Given the current content of the forums in regards to the starting abilities of some of us, the Doctor prescibes the following, on tommorow night, 1900 at RFBYC.

It’s on again, with over 900 attendees throughout the 09’ Winter Lecture Series, we invite you to attend the 2010 lectures kindly presented by some of WA’s most experienced and respected sailors.

Wednesday July 14th - Sailor and Evolution Sails Perth loft owner and sail maker Mr Paul Eldrid will present again for YWA this time on the topic of Starting Tactics. Come along and gain from his wealth of knowledge and experience.

Paul is one of the most recognised sailors in WA and around the world with his successes in events as diverse from dinghies to match racing and onto offshore. Those that have sailed with or against Paul will atest to his ability to get a boat off the line in the best way possible to get on with the job of wining the race.

This is an event not to miss, as Paul's coaching backround which as divrse as his sailing, is always informative and entertaining.

For the full series brochure, CLICK HERE