Dean's Blog

Not a great Day 1

Today was not a great first day of the Venice event. The format was for the first two fleet races which also acted as seeding races for the match racing. Then once positions were established two quarter final races were to be sailed.

The first fleet race ourselves and four other boats were over early. The new OCSrule been experimented with here requires all boats over the line to fall behind the last boat which has started correctly within 5 seconds of the start. Unfortunately Artemis had a terrible start and so by the time we had dropped behind them we were well behind the rest of the fleet. We did a good job to work our way back to a 6th place.

Race two and we had a nice start and rounded the first mark 2nd. We got rolled on our first gybe and rounded the bottom gate in third which is where we finished to place us in 4th overall.

This seeding faced us off with Artemis in a best of three quarter final. We sailed terribly in the first two races losing both. This eliminates us from the match race section although we claim a more credible 5th placing out of this event.

We certainly need to lift our game tomorrow.

Dean

Good practice in Venice

The last couple of days has been nice sailing conditions off Venice. The area outside Lido is a very nice area to sail and a good opportunity to practice and test speed. However once racing starts on Thursday we will only have the first day in these ideal conditions before the race course is shifted inside on Friday.

At this stage we have not had the opportunity to practice on the inside course area, but the brief sail we had up there on Sunday proved just how tight and difficult the race area will be. You quickly realise this is very much a show and anything can happen!

Forecast for tomorrow is for strong winds so hopefully we can get out for a final preparation sail in the afternoon if the wind moderates.

All for now

No sailing for ETNZ

The last two days for us have been incredibly frustrating as we struggle to repair damage sustained when tensioning the trampoline that connects to both hulls. We were preparing to launch the boat on Friday for our first practice sail when there was an almighty bang which was the resultant noise as the core failed under the high loads that the trampoline tension exerts. This is a very unique issue and one that none of the other teams have had to deal with yet.

The shore crew of Ben and Dan worked overnight last night to affect repairs and replace the broken core material. Everything cured well overnight and the tramp was retensioned this morning so we could go out for the first day of the City of Venice Trophy. Unfortunately the same issue occurred for a second time as we were preparing the boat for launching. The onsite event structural engineer decided the fix they had provided yesterday was not enough and a lot more laminate needed to be applied. As a result the shore crew and the ACRM boatbuilders have been working flat out to laminate more material in today and overnight tonight so we can race tomorrow.

We were very fortunate that Luna Rossa offered us the use of one of their two boats for some training after the completion of the racing today. Although it felt a bit strange sailing the LR boat, it was great for myself and the guys to get our first taste of sailing on the Venice waters.

The focast for tomorrow looks like strong winds as we get the tail end of the Bora breeze so some exciting racing in store.

All for now

Dean

Venice

When you think Venice, Italy, you do not normally think about racing boats there. Having never been here before the images are of romantic holidays and James Bond movies. However this is the venue for next weeks ACWS event.

Venice is historically a light air venue and with very narrow channels and strong currents it will no doubt be a very testing event.

We arrived this afternoon after the long haul from Auckland. It is about a 32 hour trip door to door so plenty of time to watch movies and try and get a bit of sleep. Normally you can cram 5 movies into the trip but by then the eyes are going a little square!

Tomorrow we have some work to do to prepare the wing and sails before we have a short shake down in the afternoon. Should be plenty to learn here.

Dean

Shanghai Boat Show

After making it back to NZ for two days at the end of Naples, I was back on a plane to Shanghai for the Boat Show. It was an opportunity to meet with our Chinese distributor for Nexus, Marineware ASia, and to get a feel for the market in China. In any manufacturing or production business China is seen as the Holy Grail. Certainly the cheap labour rates are attractive and the quality now is somewhat better than years gone by. It was quite an impressive boat show with a large number of boatbuilders and equipment suppliers represented. It was interesting talking to a number of different people from within the marine industry and hearing their views on the way things are developing there. It is a very new market and the percentage of the population that is interested in boats and boating is very small. But without question there is a huge potential for growth. Marinas and infrastructure is going up all around the Chinese coast although many remain quite empty for now. You just get the feeling that at some point in the not too distant future things could change dramatically and the marine industry could really take off. As well as spending time on the stand and looking around the show, I was also asked to present some prizes at the Asian Boating Awards which was a great honour. It was nice to see the industry so well supported. Back to NZ now and back into the testing programme with ETNZ in the SL33 cats. We have two weeks and then head back to Venice to prepare for the next AC45 event. All for now Dean

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