A new video from onboard Mind's Eye has been posted on their Facebook videos page and it is pretty neat stuff. A red hot gybe set shows us all how it should be done!

Find it here

4 new Viper 640 sport boats have been imported into Australia and are now enjoying the fresh sea breezes Perth is renown for.  The decision to import the Viper was made after searching the globe for a 20’ one design sport boat. The Kiwi designed, UK built boat has the potential to become a successful one design class. With 130 boats in the US and boats now heading to Europe, an Australian fleet will add to this success.

The Viper 640 is 6.4m long, weighs 340kg and combines the stiffness of a keelboat with the planing abilities of a dinghy downwind (clocked 18 knots.) It has a simple two piece carbon rig with lowers and single spreaders. Strict one design rules require the boat is sailed as delivered and with only 1 set of sails per year the running costs are kept to a minimum. Rondar raceboats(UK) who have been in business since 1965 are the sole builder of Vipers. At $40,000 landed on a trailer the Viper is extremely competitively priced.

The boat uses a Gnav vang system which opens the entire cockpit and comfortably allows the boat to be sailed by three standard sized crew or four smaller adults.

The decision of choosing the Viper over other designs came after West Australian sailor, Rod Beurteaux travelled to China to view the Melges 20, Sydney to sail the Laser SB3 and Texas to sail the Viper 640. Rod also looked at the Melges 24 which was sailing in Perth.  The Viper has proven faster than the M20 and SB3 and half the price of the M24. All round it represents excellent value with growing fleets and international interest.

At Geographe Bay Race Week, 2010 the Vipers competed successfully in a 15 boat sports boat fleet which included 4  Melges 24’s, a T7.5 , 2 – T7’s and a couple of Elliot 7’s. The quality fleet included Chris Williams, 5 times National Sports Boat Champion. The Vipers finished a credible 2nd 1 point behind Chris and 4th. under the sport boat sms rating system , winning 5  of  the 10 races sailed. Not bad for a first up event.

The boats are fast and exciting to sail.

All photos are courtesy of the Viper class's hottest Viperette, Stacey Loula, AKA Venomiss.

More info and photos can be found at the Viper web page, click here, their Facebook page, click here or by contacting Rod for any sailors looking for as an exciting, price competitive, sports boat.

Freodoctor is all about getting WA's local news out there. So wether you are writing about the news or making it, send it in and we will post it.

The editor is quite interesting to use so if you are not an IT wizard, yes we know Remmie is back but it is only for a short time, email your news and photos through to the Doctor at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will take care of making sure the rest of the web knows what you have on or been up to!

Glowfast Cruising Series – Just as bright, half the price

Glowfast has long been known for its Luminous Draft Stripes - Now they have announced the release of their Cruising Series, and they are half the price!

Draft stripes are the horizontal line markings across a sail that allow you to read your sail shape to maximise speed and performance.

Brita Fowler from Glowfast says 'Glowfast has been making Luminous Draft Stripes for racing sailors for a couple of years now, but we know that cruisers are always interested in having this kind of technological advancement too.

That's why we've produced the Cruising Series. These are a set of Luminous Draft Stripes that, like the racing range, allow you to see your sail shape at night without damaging your night vision.

The advantages of this are less breakages, less wear and tear because you're able to see what's happening at the top of our sail at night, increased safety and of course, increased performance on night races regatta time.

We're always working on making our products better, brighter, more durable and of course more cost effective which is why we're thrilled to announce the release of Glowfast Luminous Draft Stripes – Cruising Series.

'The Cruising Series will be a permanent addition to our range offering the same high quality glow for half the price of the original.

'You may be asking how are we're able to offer this product at half the price?

'The Cruising Series uses a different production process to create the glow.

'This makes the product just as effective, but does add some weight. This means that it's perfect in situations where a couple of grams per square meter isn't critical for performance. The Cruising Series also has a protective coating that makes it more durable on sails that spend a lot of time out of the bag.

'Also, we don't recommend this product for use on spinnakers as it's a little heavier. For application on spinnakers please use Glowfast Luminous Spinnaker V's.'

Glowfast products are available from Boating Hardware/Prosail or for more information contact your nearest Glowfast stockist - www.glowfast.com/find-a-stockist.html

The Abbey Road Gang (from Right to Left) Greg, Paul, Skid, Pete and Big Mick

It is with great sadness that I am announcing the passing of Michael (Big Mick) Coverley.  A great friend and an ex crew from Abbey Road, Frakka and several S80’s and Space Sailor 22’s.
Many people may have known that Mick had been fighting health issues since the middle of last year.  He lost that battle on Monday 1st March 2010.  He was just 49.  
I would like to pass on my condolences to Francisca, Mick’s wife, his kids and all his extended family.
As a long time friend I was blessed to have known Mick, he was always there to offer advice, which was always well considered and well received by all.  I will always remember his amazing strength of character, never complaining and always prioritizing any activities for his family and friends.  He was always a fantastic and calming influence on board and had many many friends in the sailing community. 
The Funeral Mass for Big Mick will be celebrated in Mater Christi Church, 340 Yangebup Rd, Yangebup, commencing at 9.45am on Monday 8th March.  The cortege will leave the Church at the conclusion of Mass and arrive at the main entrance of Fremantle Cemetery, Carrington St, Palmyra at 11.00am for a Cremation Service.   Following the cremation service a gathering of family and friends will occur at the South of Perth Yacht Club.
 He will be sadly missed.
Mick we all hope your future journeys are with following seas and fair winds.
All the crew of Insite Racing.

Qualifying an impressive second place in a star studded line up in the double round robin stage MRT were chosen by round robin winner Team Origin lead by Ben Ainslie for the semi-final race.

Ainslie took two quick victories in hard fought battles against MRT

"It was great to compete against the Cup teams as they warm up for the Louis Vuitton Trophy being held next week., Adam's and our teams were the only teams that weren't Americas Cup teams so we are happy to have raced the world best match racers and finished where we did. It was a good warm up for our team as it has been our first event as a team since last years Monsoon Cup. We are looking forward to the tour taking off again in Marsielle in April and we are aiming for bigger and better things this year" said Mirsky.
 
In front of their home crowd, Emirates Team New Zealand's Dean Barker took out the trophy once more after only narrowly scraping into the semi final round, beating Team Origin's Ben Ainslie 2 - 0 before the breeze shut out completely.

Final Results:

1st Team New Zealand
2nd Team Origin
3rd BlackMatch
4th Mirsky Racing Team
5th Team Synergy
6th Aleph Sailing Team
7th Victory Challenge
8th Team Azzura
9th Dickson Sailing Team
10th All4One

The 2010 March Match Cup was hosted by Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club on the club’s fleet of BW8 class yachts. Our team for this event consisted of Michael Taylor, Nadia Punselie, Thor Schoenhoff and Anna Aile from Latvia.
Our regatta started off well with two solid wins over David Gilmour and Peter Nicholas’s teams. These two races were sailed in very Easterly strong winds and with a sail suit consisting of just a reefed main and number 3 jib up.
After such a positive start we were keen to maintain this momentum. We managed to do this by also defeating Christopher Lee and team from Singapore University Management, Adele Jackson and her women’s team from South of Perth Yacht Club and also a victory in a tight race against fellow RFBYC Youth Squad sailor Brett Sharpe. So at this stage we were 5-0 and looking for a victory in the final race of the round robin to secure a perfect scorecard for Round Robin 1.
However this didn’t eventuate as we suffered a loss to the lowest ranked team from the University of Western Australia, skippered by Luc Tasker who sailed a great race. A poor start and poor race throughout cost us the perfect start to the regatta.

The Caporn Young WA Optimist State Championships were held over three days last weekend at Fremantle Sailing Club.  The 82 sailors, ranging from 7 to 15 years of age were treated to strong offshore breezes all weekend.
The Gold and Silver fleets completed 14 races in glorious conditions, whilst the Bronze fleet sailed within the harbour enjoying a variety of racing, fun, games and swimming.
Yachting Western Australia President, John McQueen was the Race Officer for the event, and the intensity on the start line, typical of the way these Optimists start, gave him a very close up view of the future of sailing in Western Australia.
All five sailors representing Australia at the World Championships this year were present, but it was Lachlan Gilmour who showed excellent form all weekend to win the State Championship.  Sam Blackburn, another “Worlds” team member was second and Fieke Koelemij was third. 
The Silver fleet shared the race area with the Gold fleet but started after the Golds and raced a completely different course configuration.  The conditions on Saturday were challenging for these young sailors but the smiles on their faces and the improvement in their sailing skills throughout the weekend showed how much can be learnt with a few days of intensive racing.   The Silver fleet winner was Marcus Fisk from Hillary’s YC, with Lee Benjamin and Brenda Morrow in second and third places.   The Bronze fleet trophy for “Most Improved” went to Portia Knight. 
Overall, Annabelle Davies was delighted to achieve  Top 11 Year old, top 10 year old went to Tom Giudice, Elliot Young was the top 9 year old and 7 Year old Ezra Kaye won the trophy for 8 and unders.

For those of you interested it was certainly an interesting weekend in Mandurah for the Mirror States. What is a States series without a bit of controversy and this time it was all becasue about a third of the fleet, including the top 3, did not sign on when they went out on Saturday afternoon, although some boats did sign on at the Race Committee boat.

With one race to go on Sunday afternoon and a redress hearing pending for one of the top 3, Nick Davis & John Collova had to sail the last race to ensure they held on to their 1st place. They did what they needed to do, finish no worse than 3rd, and ended up winning the State Championship by 1 point from last year's winners, Paul & Austin Taylor. Laim Wilson & Jessica Stout were only 2 points behind and claimed 3rd.

It was also very close for overall 4th and the Veterans Trophy with yours truly and crew, Sara Batten, holding out fleet newcomer Simon Barwood and his 9 year old daughter, Sidonia, by 2 boat lengths in the last race to claim 4th & the Veterans Trophy.

PRSC did not quite claim the Club Team trophy, awarded to the club with the least number of points from their top 3 place getters. Once again the trophy went to RFBYC but PRSC took away the majority of the Special Category przes. These were -

Paul & Austin Taylor - Family
Paul Terry & Sara Batten - Veterans
Chris & Mitch Sainty - Ladies Skipper
Kieran Murnane & Mani Giuntoli - Junior
Nathaniel & Ethan Brough - Sub-Junior

So all in all a great outcome for the club.

Results in the forum.