• FW Class Event Page
• Official Event Website
• Results (after 4 races)

Hi guys, I’ve touched down over the weekend in Singapore to compete at the 2012 Asian Windsurfing Championships in the Formula class. Arriving a week before the event starts, I got asked to run some sailing training sessions for the BIC Techno and RS:X Classes and a special clinic on gear tuning for the formula/slalom guys.

The BIC/RS:X training took place on the Saturday with a full day on the water in gusty 15-20 knots (pretty windy for Singapore!) with a small, motivated group of sailors and finished off in the afternoon with a theory supersession on startline tactics at the amazing facilities at the ConstantWind Seasports & Sailing School (check the pictures on the right; this is probably the biggest windsurfing club on planet earth). On the Sunday I ran a formula clinic however it rained pretty hard the whole day which killed the wind so we were unable to get out on the water; nevertheless I think the sailors enjoyed the session where I talked everyone through gear setup and tuning as well as rigged some sails and explained all to do with tuning up the big gear.

Registration starts tomorrow for the event and Ceri Williams has just touched down here so tune in here tomorrow and I’ll have some reports and plenty of photos from the event…

The first day of racing kicked off here on the Changi Coast Walk in Singapore; such a nice grass area with shady trees to rig and only 15m from the water – however the NE winds are quite offshore here so it is a little bit of a punishment to get off the beach – especially if you leave it till the LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT before the race to leave, said beach. Hmmmm.

We had a bit of delay with the skippers meeting this morning so I spent some time at the massive NRSCC Sports Club where the event is being run from just chilling out in front of the computer, smashing some work and having YET ANOTHER massive bowl of fried rice and mongolian style chicken. The actual race site for the equipment is 5 minutes walk down the road as there is easier access to the water in this grassy park, so I couldn’t hear what was going on and when I finally arrived at the beach it was only 14 mins before the first start!

Once again I’m on the “travel easy” program and just brought one sail and fin; this time 11.5m and 73/70 VMG fin, so I didn’t have to deliberate too much and was rigged and stickered in a few mins and out on the water. The wind was very gusty and offshore around 12-15 knots in the gusts and 0-3 knots in the lulls – fantastic! I’m so unused to sailing in offshore winds but I remember some good advice from an ex Olympian in Mistrals from Australia – “Love the gust you’re in” so I just tried to stick to my plan of forgetting about shifts and just sailing always for pressure.

This paid out and after a first race that I was leading by a streak was abandoned, I managed to win the next start by a large margin and waited 2 minutes for the next competitor, Wang Yew Pang (SIN-0) to finish as a lot of guys were parked in various places on the course in the lulls and I figured it wouldn’t be right to let the 15 minute time-limit cut them off after sailing for so long!

We stayed out on the water in between races but had a good 30 minute break when a storm blew over showering us in rain and pounding us with gusts over 25 knots! I was struggling all over the place with the 11.5m and big fin however most of the SIN guys were out on 12.0′s so a big PROPS to them for managing these winds!

The wind was shifting quite a bit through the storm so we couldn’t set an accurate course despite lot’s of mark movement from the race-crew. After the storm had passed the winds became a bit more variable with 5-10 knots at times and still 20 knot blasts every now and again. I had a good start in this race with Wang and Harold on starboard and picked some nice gusts to get me up to the mark first however I couldn’t connect the gusts downwind and parked for quite some time which meant Wang was on my heels for the rest of the race! We had a cool long distance slalom style mark rounding in to the finish line and I managed to hold Wang out and take the 2nd bullet before the race crew sent us home for the day as it was pretty late in the afternoon by now and the sun goes down quite early in Singapore.

Good racing; good location; horrific winds; good friends… So far it’s been a really fun event to partake in and I’m looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring.

Stay tuned.

Photo by Howie Choo / www.howiephoto.com

Today we got some better winds out on the course but still in that shifty offshore NE direction. We were sent out to the course just before lunchtime in fairly light 6-10 knot breezes however halfway in to the sequence the wind the wind cut out (despite the BIC and RS:X racers knocking a few rounds out) and we were kept on call for another 30 mins drifting around in the breezeless heat to see if it would return. After 30 mins the race crew sent us home which was about an hour long beat (drift!) upwind back to the beach! argggghhh.

After an elongated lunchbreak the wind picked up again around 2.30pm so we were once again (reluctantly) sent out on the course however on arrival at the startline, the winds were quite fresh around 12-15 knots and relatively steady. Race 1 I had a nice start on starboard and led the fleet around the short windward/leeuward course with a long 2-buoy slalom course to the finish. Chris Newman (GBR-88) had finally got a day off work and came to race today; who is also on the new Starboard 167 (normal) and on a Severne Relfex II 11m and going fairly quick upwind. Chris was hot on my heels for most of the race however I was able to take a bullet with Chris 2nd and Wang 3rd.

Photo by Howie Choo / www.howiephoto.com

Race 4 started in much the same fashion however a big shift out of the start on starboard meant I had to quickly tack back to port to cover Kit and Wang who’d started on port and got a great gust to the right. I managed to claw back to get to the top mark first with Chris and Harold Ma quite close behind me after the first lap. I seem to be quick on the slalom runs despite the brutality of using formula fins on beam reaches in +15 knots (not fun!) and was able to take another bullet making it 4 wins from 4 starts.

In the evening, the sailors headed on down to Butter Factory; a cool nightclub in town which is sponsoring the event and partied the sore muscles away late in to the evening. Singapore is definitely a place that can put on a show!

Day 3 started with the “official” opening ceremony for the event inviting a few dignitaries and special guests/sponsors to oversee the event and have a formal breakfast at the NRSCC club. The forecast was for onshore SE winds however it wasn’t a pretty forecast and it lived up to it’s name giving us little to no wind over the ENTIRE day! After last night’s fun I think a few of us enjoyed the day off however the temps start to rise in Singapore with that wind direction and we had a blistering day on the beach sapping the energy.

Photo by Howie Choo / www.howiephoto.com

Not much else to report as we spent most of the day tuning sails on the beach and talking shop amidst bowls of mongolian style beef at the ‘Belly View’ cafe at the windsurf club. Apparently we have another VIP party at Butter Factory tonight for the sponsors… waaahh!

The final day was a late start for most of us as we hit the Butter Factory once again for the second event party at this cool nightclub in the city. The forecast was always going to be bad for this final day but with 4 races under the belt we weren’t too worried as we had a good result and Saturday ended up being a big night!

Finally after many hours of sitting around and smashing more hokkien noodles and infinity 100Plus drinks the racing was cancelled for the final day at 4pm as it never materialised about 4 knots on the course. Sadly (this happens often actually!) a little bit of 10-12 knot afternoon seabreeze kicked in just after the AP over A went up and a few of the guys had a nice sunset blast out on the water before the prizegiving ceremony would begin at 7pm.

We’re awaiting the final ceremony now so I’ll update with a few photos soon and final results can be found here.

• FW Class Event Page
• Official Event Website
• Final Results (After 15 Races)

If you want to get involved with the Twitter stream on the right sidebar, just include the hashtag #PR2011FW whenever you write a tweet about the event and it will automatically appear on the feed.

Stay tuned for more updates starting tomorrow when the registration begins…….

PS. If you want to ask some specific questions about what gear people are using let me know in the comments and I’ll find out all the goss…

So the registration kicked off today on the 4th July Independence Day holiday. The beach was jammed with thousands upon thousands of Puerto Ricans taking advantage of the hot sun and cheap beers over here and taking up all the space on the beach. We have a super big tent on just across the road from the beach for all the gear which means we can rig on GRASS instead of concrete (which is awesome) and Jose, who’s been driving everyone back and forth from the airport all week continued his work driving all our equipment from our hotels/apartment’s storage to the event site in the blistering heat.

Everyone who is anyone is here. Former and current World Champions like Antoine Albeau, Steve Allen, Wojtek Brzozowski amongst the regular top guys like Arnon Dagan, Casper Bouman, Paulo Dos Reis (and 300 more Brasilians), Gonzalo Costa-Hoevel, Jesper Vesterstrøm, Micah Buzianis, Martin Ervin, a bunch of Polish, French, Americans, Argentinians, Latvians and one lone guy from Australia on a black Point-7 sail. I haven’t seen the final count but I assume its around 50-60 guys and a World Class fleet.

If you look up Windguru the forecast is for 8-10 knots most of the week (including today) but the reality is you need to add about 10-15 knots on top of that because today (and most days this past week) it’s been +20 knots and plenty of guys were out on the 10.0m today screaming……….!

I brought with me one board, one sail, one mast, one boom and despite registering a bunch I know I’m only going to use one fin. I think its about time we cut the gear we need to these events as I helped carry bags today for some guys and a lot of them brought 6-8 massive 3m bags at 40kg and Antoine had 12 bags in total (including his slalom gear from PWA Aruba). WTF?!! It’s a joke. Please vote for my 2 sail submission at the AGM on Thursday!!!

That’s about all to report. Tomorrow we’ll kick off the racing and a party sponsored by Corona beers will be kicking off straight after we get back on the beach. Stay tuned………..

Woke up this morning and it was already 25 knots as I peered out the window to the beach from my bed. Think I’m going to rig 11.0m, cause that’s all I brought……

When we left the beach last night after putting the equipment in the gear tent that was about all there was on the beach in terms of infrastructure for the event. When we arrived this morning we were surprised to see another 15 tents on the beach; some big tents to allow us to store rigs between races, food tents, drink tents, DJ booth, photography tower and of course, the Corona tent full of the beautiful Corona beer promo girls. Ahhhh. Nice work Puerto Rico!!

Race 1 kicked off on the scheduled start of 2pm and despite Bruno calling it 16 knots on his Facebook tonight the wind was around 22-25 knots with a viscous chop/swell running through the course over the various reefs. The startline was insanely port biased and it was clear the port start was the favoured route so after about 4 massive crashes which ended with 2 split boards and Casper Bouman taken away in an ambulance we were in to Race 1…. Gonzalo had a killer start leading around the first mark although was later deemed OCS which left the race win to Antoine Albeau closely followed by the Dragon (Arnon Dagan) and Vesper (Jesper Vesterstrom).

15 minutes was all we got between races which was ok because there was sports drink on ice, gourmet turkey/salad wraps and fresh fruit waiting for us in the tents in between races. The wind picked up quite a bit for Race 2 up and around the 27 knot mark (as measured at the top mark apparently) which made it a bit of a nightmare in the chop on 11.0 for me!! I decided to start again on starboard as there is some sickening crashes happening each start and I just value my life and limbs too much to push those extra couple of places you get from starting on port. This time the Dragon showed us his pre-event speed and blitzed the first mark before being passed by Antoine who later crashed on Lap 3 because apparently he was trying to hang on to a 12m in 27 knots (WTF?!). The Dragon took the bullet with BRA-boy Paulo Dos Reis clutching second ahead of Antoine and Vesper. I had a good race here sitting on the back of the front pack but ended up going too far on the last downwind and had to sail around the reef to get to the bottom mark and lost a few places to end in 13th.

Race 3 the wind dropped off a TINY bit but was still up to 25 knots in the gusts. Incredibly, quite a few guys like Wojtek Brzozowski opted to change up to 11.7m sails (no idea how they hang on to them) which seemed to improve their results. I haven’t seen the results for Race 3 yet to comment on the finishers but at the start there was plenty of carnage with Wojtek (on port) plowing in to Steve Bodner and putting a big hole in his board, Arnon crashing trying to avoid someone, Steve having to hit the brakes and nearly drop the sail, losing places trying to avoid me on starboard! And then one of the french guys getting his JP split in half literally by Victor Melo was on port. Somebody is going to DIE here this week however the racing is pretty exciting as a result!

This was an interesting race for me as a lot of guys normally a bit further up the pack were back a bit after crashes so I had a good battle with Arnon, Steve and Gonzo…

We’re about to head down to the Opening Ceremony now and enjoy the free Corona beers! More updates tomorrow.

Today I’m going to start the report with an interview I just had with Casper Bouman (NED-52) who, in what seemed like a fairly small incident on the water, got one of the most HORRIFIC injuries we’ve seen in a FW World Championships. In Casper’s own words:

A bit of back story… The startline is pretty short here and a lot of the guys are starting on port. After the first race, we’d worked out the port start was pretty favoured. Normally I’m not such a big fan of port starts; but I went for it. We were all coming in on port to the pin end with a big group of guys – Antoine, Micah, Dennis, Paulo, some Frenchies all together coming to the pin looking for gaps sailing at half speed. The signal went and I couldn’t find a space, then a couple of guys got through. I was in the back going halfwind towards the guys on starboard… still no space…

Then I rounded up to go upwind and a Filip Korczycki (POL-555) who didn’t have a good start was dogging and as he crossed in front of me I went over a wave and went upwind and he seemed to falter… I could see a collision was about to happen and I bore away a bit to try to avoid it. I went over this wave as I bore away and thinking I would clip his boom in my FACE I ducked under my front arm and the boom to shield my face from his boom and as this happened the backend of his boom sliced my forearm clean to the bone.

I think Filip had maybe modified the backend on his Gulftech boom? Which had razor sharp carbon edges protruding from the tailpiece where it had been modified. When you’re going upwind your front arm has a lot of tension as your squeezing the boom so the muscle just opened as it sliced. The impact wasn’t actually very hard at all because neither of us crashed. I basically just brushed the backend corner of the boom which made the cut.

As soon as I saw my arm sliced open to the bone I knew I had a big problem. With one arm I sailed to the beach instantly (trying to keep my cut arm out of the water). Luckily some guys on the beach saw the trouble and helped me with my gear as I couldn’t lift anything… I went back to the gear tent where the medical team were. As I crossed the street to walk to the tent everyone who passed me on the street had to look away! I couldn’t see the extent of the cut because it was on the outer side of my arm but that’s when I knew it must have been pretty bad!!!

The medical team at the tent came quickly with clear water to wash the wound and put big bandages around with people to hold it to keep the wound together; off to the hospital then!
Cecile (the wife of the organiser, Jose) decided the ambulance would take too long so she drove me to a nearby Medical Clinic – still in my boardshorts! It took an hour to get help waiting in the emergency room, I don’t think they realised how bad the cut was, which was a bit annoying. Luckily for me there was a very experienced doctor (maybe they are used to cuts like this here!) at the surgery to stitch me up.

40 stitches in total later; 10 stitches in 4 layers starting by repairing the muscle tear internally, 10 more in the fissure outside the muscle, then 10 inside the deep tissue skin and then another 10 on the top of skin outside. It took over an hour stitching me up! The doctor said I was lucky – if it got sliced even further, it would have gone through my nerves in my arm it could have meant I lost movement in my fingers. Talking to my doctor in Holland it looks like I will be out for 2 months minimum, and I may not have the same power again in this arm when I get back on the water again. I’m still keeping fingers (on my other hand) crossed that I can still compete in Latvia for the Europeans. I’ve never had a serious injury like this before from hitting somebody and maybe it’s a bit sad that it takes an accident like this to highlight the design of these square backend booms can be this sharp when we’re travelling at these speeds.”

Now back to the racing…

4 races were scheduled today and by the 11.30am start time it was obvious it was going to be another windy day. More port starters, more crashes, a shortened course compared to yesterday with a starboard rounding top mark. Today was the day for Steve Allen’s comeback. Nailing a 2nd in Race 2 with a good start but still not nearly enough speed to pass la Beau who seems to be unstoppable at this event with 3 out of 4 race wins after Race 1 today. The course was taking the leaders around 16 minutes but changed the tactics a little from yesterday with the different top mark rounding.

Race 2 started in much the same way with most of the guys on 10.0′s (with Albeau still on 12m) however half way through the first lap a big dark rain cloud that had been looming over the course finally unleashed and pelted us all with stinging rain, killing the visibility on the course. The wind dropped down to around 12-14 knots which for the guys on 10.0 would have been quite a punishment! I had a fairly rough start in this race but was able to catch up a lot of places over the last 2 laps with the 11.0m and managed to claw my way back to 19th after rounding the mark VERY deep on the first lap!

After a lunch break we were back out on the course. The rain had subsided and the sun was back out with wind kicking back in. By this point everyone had figured out the reefs and the best way around the course so the racing was starting to get pretty tough. I had a good start in the 3rd race today but clipped someone in some traffic at the bottom mark and put it in the drink, losing about 10 places…argghhh.

Race 3 was going to be a battle between the two fastest guys on the water here; Arnon Dagan and Antoine Albeau. Both starting on port and with Dagan quicker out of the tack and leading to the mark……. then Dagan put it in the DRINK as he tacked around the mark!! I didn’t see it as I was coming in on port to the mark but he somehow managed to fall backwards with the sail and took out Antoine (and a few other guys) in the process!! Both managed to claw their way back to not so shabby results but this opened the door for the big Brasilian Paulo Dos Reis to take his first race win.

Race 4 today was a little bit of a re-run of 3 but without Arnon crashing and he managed to BLITZ Antoine in the final race today and took a bullet! I had an ok race this one battling with Wilhelm Schurmann who crashed on the start and was deep in the pack a little and we both arrived on the final beam-reach to the finish at the same time however I was able to run over him with my 11.0 by about 3m as the Schurminator was still on 10.0m.

Another day gone… I’ve dropped a few places but there’s still a long way to go in this event. Tomorrow we have rain forecast so let’s see what that will bring….

Not too much to report from today… Rain was forecast for the entire day and that’s what we got. Bruno delayed the first start until 1.30pm after arriving to a glassy beach so most of us retired to the apartments to catch ‘How I Met Your Mother’ which was on at 11.30am (such a good show). Arriving back at 1.30pm there was a little wind building but some dark storm clouds on the horizon. Bruno pushed the first start to 2.15pm and many guys rigged 12.0′s but in front of the clouds came a pretty big squall and the rest of us still on the beach deciding what to rig watched the first few guys sail out to the course completely lit-up in their chicken-straps heading downwind to the start. As soon as the squall finished, the rain hit and the wind dropped. We were held out on the course for another 20 minutes while the wind played with us before Bruno finally tried a start which ended being abandoned when the wind cut out to 5 knots on the startline. Another hour on the beach waiting and we were sent home with an early mark around 3.30pm to enjoy the rest of the rainy day.

Tonight we have the Annual General Meeting for the FW Class starting in about 1 hour… Later I will try to re-cap some of the things that took place in the meeting as there are quite a few interesting proposals on the table to vote for…

….We’ve just come back from the AGM. To quickly summarise what the outcome of some of the items we voted on, please check the actual AGM proposals here. I’m just going to quickly list them and throw down some discussion which came about from each point and my thoughts:

1) Change the fins from 3 to 2 at events = YES.
This was a fairly unanimous decision that we want to change the ‘perception’ of formula that its expensive and gear-heavy to get in to. We already know the Pro’s are going to buy 2-4 fins of each brand and test the lot, but what about the amateurs who make up probably 80% of the class? On the flip side we DON’T want fin manufacturers to sell LESS fins! We want to support the people who support us, so I think by voting this in, people will feel more competitive only owning 2 fins and most people may still buy 3 fins and register the perfect 2 for the event.

2) Change the sails from 3 to 2 at events = YES.
This was always going to be an interesting one. On paper it was actually my proposal but it came about from discussions with many Pro’s and at local events I have been to around the world in the past 6 months. It was also something the AWA (Australian Windsurfing Association) agreed with however later we had a re-vote of more ‘FW orientated’ sailors within Australia (not all of the AWA committee are active FW sailors) and Australia voted NO to it. Lot’s of interesting discussion came about from this proposal. Sailors in Poland and Brasil were heavily for it as this apparently had been a deterrent for many sailors who’ve left the class in recent times; also with many parts of the world still effected by the Global Financial Crisis, reducing the cost of equipment to be competitive in this class is a big step forward.

The voting was very split and this proposal only got up by 2 votes. There is still some discussion going on as to when this will be phased in …

3) Make all sails a solid colour (ala Point-7, North etc) = NO.
This was decided it would be too difficult/expensive to implement.

4) Build a new Marketing Strategy for the FW Class = YES.
There wasn’t one person in the room who didn’t agree with this proposal, however the details in the original submission were a little ‘broad’ and ambiguous. The people at the AGM voted that we build a sub-committee to work on this strategy separately. To me that’s a waste of time, something should just be done INSTANTLY as what we have now is almost ZERO coverage and we need to build some kind of platform that the organisers of events can leverage from … Not sure how this will pan out as a result …

5) Allow an ‘Open Development Class’ to operate alongside the FW class at events = NO.
I think this proposal was completely misunderstood by everyone at the meeting. The suggestion wasn’t to allow full custom equipment by every sailor at a World Championships, it was that in National events, there are some local board builders and DIY sailors who’ve built/customised their own boards and want to use them. Normally they are banned from events with these illegal boards but the proposal was that we have a separate division and start for them to allow them to compete. In a sense, we’ve been doing this in Australia for 3 years already; targeted at getting new people in to the class and letting them use any board they want, generally speaking this has fostered new sailors to get in to the sport and purchase the ‘right’ equipment down the track. It hasn’t effected any of the racing for the top guys even though we let them all start on the same line in the same sequence.

A VERY interesting meeting last night and lot’s of decisions that will definitely change the class around a bit next year. I think all the decisions were for the better of the class but it will need some careful thoughts during development of next year’s equipment to make sure it benefits both the light/heavier sailors and the amateurs all the way to the Professionals.

I don’t really want to blame Arnon for taking the last of the milk this morning so I had to eat toast instead of the awesome Honey Oat Crunch cereal we bought, but something REALLY cursed me today; I safely managed to get all my 3 discards in one day. Blarrrghhhhh!!!

11.30am start, lighter winds around 12-16 knots, bright sun – should have been my day. Race 8 started with me getting clipped on starboard coming off the line and somehow managing to stay upright but completely killing my start forcing me to tack off on to port and get drilled by the rest of the port fleet sailing over the top of me half way up the first leg. It was low-tide for the first part of the day and everywhere I went I seemed to get stuck on the wrong tack having to avoid a reef. Up the front it was young Gabriel Brown who decided today was going to be his day (I bet there was milk left at his place this morning) who spritzed (as Arnon would say) Antoine to take the first race bullet.

I somehow managed to break some battens in the shorebreak coming in from this race and with only 15 minutes in between races I didn’t have enough time to fix them and subsequently missed the next start by a few minutes. Decided I might sail the race anyhow for a laugh and waving to the boys on the boat as I cruised the startline about 4 minutes after the rest of the fleet (#FML). The wind went super light and shifty in this race, allowing Micah Buzianis a chance to get ahead on the second lap and cruise home to victory ahead of Arnon and Gabriel.

After a short lunch break and some more batten construction we were back on the water for Race 10. The wind did look like it was starting to fill in and in the gusts was around 18 knots, but most of the front fleet were still on 12′s (Antoine on 12.5m). I took a boat start on starboard with Micah which lined up perfectly with the shallowest of the reefs about half way to the layline. I assumed Micah would tack off and save his fins but he didn’t and neither did I. Fortune favours the brave and somehow both of us managed to sail through the breaking waves on the outer reefs without touching our fins. I’m going slow as a dog on port so lost a few places running to the mark trying not to get flipped on the big swells outside the reef and rounded the mark about 6th having to let Arnon cross me on starboard (kind of felt like just clipping his boom on the way past for taking the last of the milk this morning, but the guy paid for my chicken quesadillas last night so I let it slide, hahaha).

I lost a few places on the downwind as I had the track all the way back in the slot on the HWR and quite a stiff mast in my sail for the lighter winds, so the sail was just bouncing me around like a ragdoll as I went over the swell downwind and I watched as Vesterstrom and Arnon came charging past me in to the bottom mark. I rounded just behind Dennis Littel at the bottom mark and sat in his dirty air upwind (he was pointing like a machine on the PD board) getting punished but managed to hang in there but I think I tacked a little early on to starboard and lost 1-2 more places as the guys who went a bit further along the beach got a better lift to the top mark. Clung on to a 12th this race.

There must be someone looking down on the Browne family this week as just flicking over to the PWA site it seems that Marcilio finished 4th in the Pozo wave event right about the same time the smaller Browne (Gabriel) came from NOWHERE today to jump to 2nd position overall for the event. The final race today I didn’t sail as I got KO’d on the startline so just thought I’d save myself the trouble of getting a 40th and sailed back to the beach. Arriving there about 3 minutes after me was a very shaken up looking Dennis Littel. Dennis had just been CRUNCHED from behind by Arnon travelling at full speed hitting Dennis’ knee with his board as he tried to avoid killing the guy. So after Casper on Tuesday we now had to take the next Dutch guy to the hospital (thanks again to Cecile for being the designated ambulance!). [update - Dennis is all good, X-Rays showed nothing is broken, just bruising and swelling. Nothing a few vicodins can't fix, although I doubt he'll race tomorrow].

So that was the end of Day 4 and my worst day of racing that I can remember. Just to really put the icing on the cake I managed to rip my harness catching it on something sharp as I carried gear back from the beach. But luckily Arnon still owes me another dinner so I can at least enjoy quesadillas once more (found arguably the greatest mexican restaurant on planet earth here the other day) without too much stress.

Final day tomorrow… I need to get my sh1t together and get back in to the Top 16 (or at least just beat Mathias Pinheiro). Arnon needs to get his sh1t together and start winning races as he’s clearly faster than Antoine and we ALL hope Dennis is back on his feet tomorrow and able to slot a few more Top 3 finishes in to wrap up his event.

Today was Arnon’s day. We knew it as soon as we got up this morning; cause he was as nervous as a highschool kid meeting the President. We had 4 races scheduled today in winds around 10-12 knots for the first race but building up to 18 knots by the end of the day. I had a horrific start to the day breaking some battens in the first race then crashing in to someone on the second start and breaking my mast. Basically 2 DNF’s as far as my results go but managed to have 2 solid races to finishes off the event but still ended up way down in 22nd place due to the races I wasted breaking things; argggh.. Anyhow, I know I can get solid Top 15 results when it goes my way so that’s nice to walk away from the event with.

Arnon, the conqueror. Taking 3 bullets from 4 starts today he finally showed us the dominating speed he had whilst we were testing the week before the event. Arnon dragged back 2nd overall after today (his best result in a FW World Championships) and knocking out the super consistent Gabriel Browne, who had a couple of 4th’s and a 7th today to keep on the podium in 3rd overall.

Gonzalo, Steve and Jesper also had a solid day today, making up 5th, 6th and 7th overall with big man Paulo Dos Reis finishing ahead of them in 4th despite crashing in to me on port in the second last race today (the guy does not stop for anyone!) but luckily he’s a nice guy and none of us fell off so a protest was unnecessary.

Dennis Littel was on the beach all day today keeping track of the racing and looking positive. His knee is still really swollen and he’s unable to walk on it. A week before, Casper Bouman volunteered to take Peter Bijl’s slalom gear back to Holland with him as Peter’s gear arrived in Puerto Rico from the Aruba event but Peter injured himself in Aruba and was unable to compete here. With Casper bailing early after his injury, Dennis thought he’d take up the slack. Not sure how he’s going to survive taking 9 bags with him back to Holland when he can’t walk :-/

Tonight we have the prizegiving ceremony in Old San Juan. Not entirely sure what to expect but based on what we’ve seen here the past week none of us are worried; Puerto Rico definitely put on a great event and the conditions during the week were very conducive of great racing. Very easy to run a great event when the wind blows everyday, but even then, PR definitely put on a great show and the locals took that extra step to help out a lot of us sailors with all sorts of non-racing related requests we had! Big shout out to Jose, Arturo and Nono who gave Arnon, Steve and I a big helping hand during the past 2 weeks !! Not really sure how Jose is going to go getting people to the airport at 4am tomorrow ……yikes!

For me now its flights back to Milan, stopping in New York to catch up with Jesper Vesterstrom for a few hours (he’s based there now) and get ready for the PWA Fuerteventura slalom World Cup in 10 days (not that I want to even go windsurfing again any time soon after this week!!).

Thank-you Puerto Rico !!!

After an intense 5 days of racing at the 2010 Fortaleza Grand-Prix World Tour event in Brasil, I’ve finished with 11th place and in to the prizemoney. There was plenty of action through the week; rolling with the BRA-boys and eating at some incredible restaurants, partying at some incredible bars, and wandering through a favela. You can read all my reports and see my photos from event on the live-coverage page for this event: Fortaleza Grand-Prix Live-Coverage.

I’m here for another week with Kurosh Kiani to film some movies at some of northern Brasil’s finest beaches… watch this space…

• Race Updates from Sean on Twitter
• Official Event Website
• FormulaWindsurfing.org

Day 1:

In three races today (2 counting and one abandoned) I managed to rig all three of my sails and use all three fins; amazing!

The day started as did everyday this week with the wind a very light westerly of 5 knots in the morning then dropping out around lunchtime before swinging to the south and picking up to 10 knots very quickly. The first race we were out on 12m’s with the big fins however after a general recall in which 20 guys sailed the entire first lap we had a delay of 20 mins or so until we could restart the first race. By this time the wind had picked up and for me it was a bit of a handful with the 12m and 76 fin combo. I had an average start and was deep in the pack going round the first mark however I elected to go to the left on the second lap which the majority of the front runners didn’t do and managed to pick up 10 or so places on the second lap.

Ross Williams (GBR-83) passed me on the final downwind; I haven’t seen the results but either I was doing quite well or he was doing quite sh*te.

The wind continued to pick up and I changed down to the 11m and 73 fin and this race I got squished on the start underneath Gonzalo leaving me deep in the pack off the line. The startline is rediculously too small for the one fleet of 80 guys so the starting tactics for the majority is to just sit on the line stopped (as there is not enough room to run down the line) then start pumping with 5 seconds to go; just like an RSX race … haha.

I tacked away early in this race and got a good lift on port across to the layline to be in a decent position around the first mark. I was following Adri Keet (NED-34) downwind before he crashed in to a French sailor at the gybe in to the bottom mark and I was able to make a few places going round the mark. We had a gate for the bottom and with everyone arriving on different tacks you had to keep your eyes open to avoid hitting someone. Suffice to say, I doubt anyone (my included) noticed the boat 10m downwind of the marks holding the ‘C’ flag (course change) and luckily most of the fleet had realised the top mark had been moved 400m to the right and changed to a red mark.

I arrived at the top mark in a group with Hubert Mokrzycki (POL-25) and Lukasz (POL-320) and although they were a little faster on the downwind, Lukasz had a big crash on the run to the finish so I was able to finish just behind Hubert. I was later to discover that Hubert was OCS in this race and BFD the race before; unlucky.

A big storm arrived around this point (see the photos!) and after a big delay of 45 mins or so and myself given time to rig the 9.9m we were sent back out. Unfortunately for me the wind started to die as the storm and lightning arrived and with only 1 boom I wasn’t able to have my 11m rigged at the same time ready to go. So the countdown started and the wind dropped to around 12 knots which was a punishment on the 9.9m. I ended up getting a great start just to windward of Steve Allen (AUS-0) however as only about 15 people got off the line planing. I didn’t have particularly good angle because I was struggling to keep on the plane with the small sail but I held in under Steve for most of the run before the boats chased us down with the abandonment flag (just as I dropped off the plane!) and we started to head back to the beach to get in before the rain.

The forecast for tomorrow is the same again, so it looks like there’ll be a LOT of rigging going on this week!

Ps. Check out some photos below of the new 2010 Starboard LWR and HWR formula boards as well as the new 2010 Exocet Warp formula board developed by Gonzalo.

UPDATE. We haven’t been able to get on the internet connection here at the race site the past 2 days, so I’m stopping doing the daily reports. Sorry guys! Keep watching FormulaWindsurfing.org for more info…

• Overall Results
• Event Video (by Sean)
• Another Photo Gallery

This weekend we had the Norwegian FW Championships in Larvik, Norway; my first trip to this country. After some tough conditions racing at the Nordic Championships in Denmark (where many Norwegians competed) last weekend, we took a few days to relax and do some sightseeing, catching up with some friends in Moss, Drøbak and Oslo as well as visiting Gotheberg, Sweden on the drive up to Norway.

On Friday afternoon we arrived in Larvik to meet up with our Norwegian friends and get out on the water after a day wandering around and getting lost in Oslo (ps, can now “officially” confirm this is THE most expensive city in the World!). We were greeted with rain, mist and 25 knots of breeze with temperatures around 15 degrees, which to me is pretty much the 3rd IceAge so we decided we’d take a break from sailing and wait till the sun came out the next day! (we are pussies, granted).

On Saturday morning, 30 Norwegians, myself and James Briggs (GBR-848) signed up to race with the impending forecast for winds to be 25-35 knots all weekend!
The race committee decided to err on the side of safety this weekend as on the open ocean there were 3m swells breaking in to sheer cliff-faces which would’ve meant if you fell off close to the wall you would certainly die a horrific death, so they set the course on the inside of the fjord. A short course of about 600m upwind with the fjord only being around 250m wide which meant lots of tacks and gybes to get upwind and downwind between the steep cliffs of the fjord – exciting racing!

The plan was to do 6 races today (the races were short, around 10-12 mins for the leaders) in winds of 28-35 knots! I won the first two races closely followed by the strong Norwegian fleet. In Race 3 I opted to try out a more ‘medium wind’ fin which turned out to be a disaster as the winds cranked to a solid 30-35 knots this race and I put it in the drink so many times despite somehow coming back to 2nd. In Race 4 I stuck with that fin and managed to break not one, but two footstraps off after a horrendous crash and decided to retire from the race … haha.

New footstraps and back to my trusty ‘super high wind’ 70cm VMG and we were back on the course after a delay of 30 mins while the wind was well over 18 m/s (36 knots!). I managed to win these one of these races but had 3 crashes in the final race to get a 3rd behind the top Norwegians who only managed to crash twice!
After 6 races I was in the lead by 2 points with plenty of wind forecasted for Sunday also. We had a fantastic BBQ grill with all the meats in the well furnished Larvik clubhouse and had an opportunity to meet most of the Norwegian sailors.

Included in the 30 or so in the fleet were many younger sailors, boys and girls, most of which sailing the Formula Experience class (which we don’t have back in AUS). What I was super impressed with is the fact that all of these kids got out there and started every single race, even with winds well over 30 knots and a difficult course to sail; some of the girls were as young as 16 – full commitment! I’ve seen many older guys sit out races in much less winds … hehe.

Sunday morning the winds dropped down to a more manageable 25 knots. We raced again with most of the Top 5 on 10m sails and the rest on anything from 7.2 – 8.5m! After a race was abandoned when the
wind dropped at the bottom mark we nailed 2 races which I won which included 3 laps of the course; giving everyone more opportunity to make up some places (when the people in front were crashing, usually!). A short lunchbreak and we were back out for 2 more races to end the event.

I put it in the drink once again in this race and allowed NOR-0 to shoot past me but got my sh*t together in the final race to win and take the overall event.
All in all, the event was run very smoothly with the race committee listening to the suggestions of the sailors and making quick adjustments to the course where necessary. With insanely strong winds, racing on an narrow fjord with sheer rock cliffs on either side and difficult shifty winds between the islands, I think it would’ve been VERY difficult to organise any races, let alone nailing 10 races in 2 day! Congratulations Norway.

Always being a fan of coming to smaller events and seeing new countries, meeting new people, rather than just doing the Pro Tour events, I really enjoyed my short stay in Norway and the racing we did with such an enthusiastic, positive National fleet. Thanks once again to the guys involved with organising the event and to Svein Rudihaugen for looking after us and the beers ;)
I hope I can make it back to Norway again sometime and see more of this beautiful country.

Day 0 (Training):

We (myself and Guernsey sailor James Briggs) arrived in Denmark early on Thursday morning. The previous evening we’d help a friend in Holland move furniture in a new house, unpacked and repacked two vans full of gear, caught up with another friend in Holland for coffee around midnight then drove full power to Denmark after also picking up my sail from the sailmaker which was an extra 1.5 hours drive out of the way … so by the time we’d arrived in Denmark we were pretty wrecked!

On Thursday afternoon, after checking in at our accomodation for the weekend (staying at Christian Bo Justesen [DEN-26] and his family’s place – who happen to also be the event organisers) we headed down to the club to catch up with the other sailors and do the Thursday night twilight race with the local Danish sailors. This particular race was 4 laps of a fairly short course with very gusty strong winds around 20-24 knots at times. Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111) won this race by a good margin with myself in a clear second.

Back at home we relaxed with a cool Danish beer (possibly the only ‘cold’ beer I’ve ever had in Europe; thanks Denmark!) and had an early night ready for racing the next day.

Day 1 (Racing):

We started racing around 12pm with the plan to do 4 races and possibly more if the conditions allowed. Yesterday we’d sailed in easterly winds which was unnatural for this venue but today we were back racing in the typical W-SW offshore breezes; which on a ‘lake’ venue are typically offshore, shifty and gusty (I can confirm this!).

There were plenty of the big names here; all the top Danish sailors as well as psuedo Aussie Jesper Orth (AUS-10), Brett Morris (AUS-8) and myself rep’ing Australia, a host of Norwegian, Swedish and even Finlandian sailors and James all the way from Guernsey (GoogleMap it if you don’t believe that it is a country!).

Race 1 started as all lightwind shifty races do, with 50% of the fleet unable to plane off the line. I took a great start at the pin end with Jesper and Kasper Larson (DEN-11) heading out to the left. Jesper tacked very early and I decided to go 300m further than the layline to make sure I could cover if the wind went light. It did, and this maneourve paid off as I was able to bear away in the lightspots with my height above the layline and rounded the mark a good 100m clear of second. With the shifty winds the rest of the fleet seemed to fall further behind and I thought this race was in the bag for me until I saw the abandonement flag shortly after rounding the top mark on the second lap – damn!

The re-run of Race 1 was a complete disaster for me as I went left again with Kasper and couldn’t stay on the plane. Kasper finished this race in first somehow but the rest of the fleet went right to stay in the wind…everyone else who went left was back with me … in about 30th!

With the offshore wind we were a good 2km downwind of the beach so with no opportunity to go home for a drink we started another race. This time I started on port to head right as the wind had locked more in to the West and the right side was working well. I had a lousy start and sat underneath most of the port starters but again went 200m over the layline to allow for the shifts. Again this worked well and I was back to 3rd at the top mark behind the young Danish Sebastian (DEN-24) and one of the Norwegian sailors who was going very fast upwind. I went further on the downwind layline (strangely enough, overshooting laylines pays off on days like these!) and was able to pass these guys to have a clear 100m margin at the bottom mark. I held on to this lead most of the second leg despite heading right on one of the biggest LOOSERS I have ever sailed. I was basically heading the same angle as the downwind leg, but the rest of the fleet was following me so I decided to stick with it to the corner. After tacking the wind went really whack! I fell off the plane another 2 times in the run to the mark and everybody started tacking in different places … Somehow in the traffic I dropped back to 5th and was unable to pass anyone on the downwind. Sebastian won this race ahead of the Norwegian …

Race 3 started after a 10 minute break (definitely not enough time for a drink!) on the beach with the course moved another 1km downwind. With the wind lightening most of the fleet were unable to make the start ontime! I arrived on the line with 45 secs to go and tacked on to port to get a terrible start sitting right underneath Jesper and Brian Roegild. Jesper and Brian were able to climb away from me with their clear air and I got a little pinned having no ability to tack away as we were heading to the favoured side. I was 7th by the top mark and finished the race in 7th. The wind was less shifty this race so there wasn’t as much opportunity for passing. Brian was leading until the final downwind when he let Jesper pass him ….

That was it for the day … tonight we have a dinner at the club then more racing tomorrow.

Day 2 (The Bullet):

The forecast was much better today with 8-12 knots predicted as well as a possible 30 knot front with rain and lightning arriving at some point after lunch. The course was moved a long way up to the north of the fjord, probably about 4km downwind of the beach which meant there was no possibility of changing equipment between the races. That being said we all rigged our 12′s, big fins and full lightwind setups and headed down to the startline around 12pm for the first start. After two attempts at starting the first race which were abandoned with the wind becoming very light and shifty, we took a 10 minute break to relay the line before the wind picked up to 18 knots for the start of Race 1 for the day.

To be honest, I would’ve loved to have not had my mast-track at the back, boom at the top of the pocket, no-outhaul on and no chicken-strap, as with a 76cm cutdown fin with a 12m rigged for lightwind it made for some pretty interesting racing!

Jesper took the first bullet for the day, with Sebastian (DEN-24) taking the next race. In Race 3 for the day I took it upon myself to finally get my sh*t together and take a bullet! I had a lousy start on starboard pinned between Nikkolai (DEN-4) and Sebastian and even hit the shore with my fin going to close to the beach to tack, however that extra 50m I sailed kept me in the strong winds a little longer to recover to 4th around the top mark behind the top Danish guys. I was still in 4th on the bottom mark following Kasper Larson (DEN-11) back towards the shore as the other 2 guys went out to middle. Kasper tacked early but I sailed once again until my fin grinded the shore then got an amazing lift because of my extra distance out to the left of the course. I rounded the top mark about 100m clear in 1st with only the downwind to go …

…the wind went SUPER light on the downwind but the guys behind me got a massive gust taking them 30 degrees lower than me. I was far enough ahead to possibly gybe before they got to my line to hopefully beat them by the distance it takes someone to gybe! I pumped the entire way downwind till my hands nearly started bleeding but I held on to take the bullet!!

In the final race of the day I got another good start and picked a good layline to the top mark with Sebastian ini front of me and we were likely to round the mark clearly ahead however the wind went light 100m from the mark and I came off the plane but flyweight Sebastian managed to stay on and hold 4th around the mark as Jesper and the rest of the guys who went to the right side of the course came around in the top spots. I was 7th at the top mark and basically stayed in that place for the entirety of the race, although I did manage to pass old Brian Roegild on the downwind to pickup a spot ;-)

Day 3 (The Nothing):

The forecast today was for ZERO wind and in a rare (but awesome) move the race committee decided to pull the plug at 11am, run the prizegiving at 12pm while everyone was still here and let everyone get the earlier ferries home in the afternoon back to their Nordic homes … A great BBQ was put on by the Skive Sejling Klub after the prizegiving ceremony also.

I finished 7th overall in a tough fleet which was very close on points in the Top 10. 5 different race winners in 7 races shows how close and competitive the racing was (or how fluky and shifty the conditions were!).

Final Results:

1. Jesper Vesterstrøm (DEN-111)
2. Kasper Juul Larsen (DEN-11)
3. Sebastian Kornum (DEN-24)
4. Nikolaj Kruppa (DEN-4)
5. Brian Røegild (DEN-173)
6. Robert Åberg (SWE-13)
7. Sean O’Brien (AUS-120)
8. Magne Frønsdal (NOR-4)
9. Per Boström (SWE-92)
10. Kurosh Kiani (DEN-13)

• www.AllegroCup.pl (Official Event Site)
• www.sieplywa.pl (Polish Windsurfing News)
• www.FormulaWindsurfing.org (FW Class Event Coverage)

Video Gallery:

Rather than write a long report about this event I thought it would be more interesting to some it up in a few sentences and then post some videos and pictures we’ve been making on the beach the past week. It had been a little difficult to get on the internet with a decent connection to upload the videos for the first few days in Łeba so my plans to write a daily report had been sidelined a little.

To some up the event, I think everyone would say that this was a typical AllegroCup this year as we were able to race in a large variety of conditions from light onshore winds and big swells, gusty offshore winds and flat water and the token 25 knot day with cold temperatures and breaking waves on the beach. A good opportunity to cover all three of your rigs in sand instead of just one. I’ve had a bit of a hit and miss event but apart from 2 races in Pobierowo last weekend this is the first time I have sailed my new Point-7 sails and also my new VMG fins and I have a new Gaastra board (!) so I’m happy with how my speed was out on the course without having much a chance to tune up; just need to get my head switched on for the racing a little more.

Steve Allen (AUS-0) once again won the event ahead of Pawel Hlavaty (POL-11) and Ross Williams (GBR-83) with Marta Hlavaty (POL-111) taking the women’s crown. Stay tuned tomorrow for a video of the final event party. Allegro over the years haven’t failed to put on an amazing party with bands and acts like “Shaggy”, “Boney-M”, “Stereo MC’s” and “Mattafix” joining the ranks of some of the bands to grace the AllegroCup stage.

Day 1.

Not a lot to report here after the first day of racing in Pobierowo. After a long day at the beach and a few attempts to get a start away, the day finished without any races being completed. A decent sized fleet is competing with 64 competitors from all around the world (including 3 Australians this time!). All the usual suspects are here; Steve Allen (AUS-0), Wojtek Brzozowski (POL-10), Wilhelm Schurmann (BRA-999) and Poland’s champion Olympic RSX sailor Przemyslaw Miarczynski (POL-126).

After a long day on the beach the sailors headed home late in the arvo to find some accommodation and get ready for the opening ceremony on the beach at 8pm. I unfortunately missed the entire ceremony as we’d driven through the night from Italy (arriving at the beach only 1 hour before the first possible start!) so we hadn’t had a chance to find a place to stay; nor had any sleep in the past 2 days! Ended up only being able to find a hotel in the town 10km down the road from Pobierowo so by the time we got back to the beach, we’d missed the ceremony.

Day 2.

Day two kicked off in usual Polish fashion, with a bit of light rain and clouds before the sun popped out and the temperature kicked up about 15 degrees in a matter of minutes. The wind was light, but we were out on the course around 11am for the first starts. I took my new 11.8m Point-7 out with a VMG Blades 73; first time I’d used both but I was very happy with the feel of the new sails and fins on my Vapor board. The first start was a little tricky with most of the fleet lining up to start on port before a bit of lull 20 seconds from the gun, made it difficult for a lot of the port starters to cross the line. I got fairly buried in this mess and although I had some good downwind speed to catch up a few places, I spent most of the race outside of the Top 10, with Polanowski (POL-16) hot on my heels before he managed to pass me and a small group in front on the final run to the finish. Steve Allen took the bullet in R1 ahead of Wojtek and Pawel Hvalaty (POL-11) and Hubert Mokrzycki (POL-25).

As you can see in the photos below, Wojtek is sporting this rediculously oversized NP boom they he has modified himself. The width at the harness line must be close to 1m! haha. It allows his 12m sail to not even touch the boom when the outhaul is fully released, keeping the profile of the sail consistent in light winds. Wojtek took the bullet in R2 ahead of Steve and Przemyslaw. I had a good start but had some trouble with weed in the early parts of the race (I don’t remember weed at this beach last year, but there seems to be a bit of it around this time) and got in to quite a bit of trouble putting me back down the fleet.

After a lunchbreak with plenty of Polish food for the competitors we tried to start R3 early in the afternoon with the winds fading. I continued with the 11.8m but up’d on to my 76cm Blade however the race was abandoned after the first lap with Steve in a clear lead and Wojtek buried on the startline and back in the 20′s … lucky for him. I was in 6th with the front pack around the bottom mark with great speed on the 76cm fin; so a little disappointed this race got K.O’d.

Later in the afternoon we tried once more but the flailing winds prevented a restart of R3. The forecast for tomorrow is fairly nuclear so there should be a good chance to have 6 races for this event completed. Stay tuned …

Day 3.

Not a good start to the morning today. Late yesterday, in the small cramped rigging area we have access to, someone careless smashed a boom end through my board making a large hole in the centre of the underside. I raced all last year with a board with +2kg of water in it so I didn’t want to have this problem again, so thought it best to sit today out and get the board repaired properly so it is ready for Leba in a few days and I can be sure I won’t be sucking any water. I also haven’t even had time to take my 9.9m out of the bag so it doesn’t even have sail numbers!

Racing kicked off at 11.30am with the winds dropping back to 18-25 knots (+25 knots earlier in the morning) and a decent sized swell running creating a heavy shorebreak at the beach. Due to the rain I haven’t been watching all the racing but so far Steve has won R3 and R4 ahead of Wojtek and Paulo (BRA-3333) taking 2nd in R3; liking the stronger winds.

Check out some photos and stay tuned for a bit more news later today.

• Greek Windsurfing Website
• Karavi Club

I was sitting watching the rain through the window at my home in the Netherlands last Monday when I get a call from my Aussie/Greek celebrity friend Jason Roditis (GRE-200) telling me that the Greek FW Championships are on this weekend and I should come down and see what it’s like in a country where it hardly ever rains. After a solid 5 days of rain in Holland I needed no further encouragement and I booked my tickets to Athens …

Greeted at the airport by Jason I only managed to get my sails to Greece as the lousy airline (I won’t publicly shame them) wouldn’t let me take my board and boom (although they did let me take a +50kg bag of sails and masts which was well over 3m long!). Just to drop a name, Jason is Greece’s dancing sensation being a judge on So You Think You Can Dance and will shortly be dancing as the Greek representative on the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest which he is somehow managing to fit in before flying the next morning back to Portugal to compete in the FW World Championships next Monday. It appears ‘dancing’ is going to be the next big thing in windsurfing as Steve Allen is about to do a similar thing in Poland as a contestant on Dancing With The Stars airing very shortly in Poland …

Thursday morning we arrived at the Karavi Club at Schinias Marathonas; one of the most perfect beaches I’ve seen in Europe for Formula sailing and only a short drive from the centre of Athens on the eastern coast of the Greek mainland. The wind was already howling and the forecast of 25 knots for the day seemed pretty accurate. A small but enthusiastic fleet turned up to contest the event; a few more notables hadn’t returned from the ISA Speed World Cup on Karpathos as yet.

We rigged 10m’s and I had to quickly learn how to tune the Starboard F162 as my Vapor board was still sitting in my van back in Brussels where I’d flown from. Luckily I’d brought only one fin with me and that happened to be the worst fin possible for the 162 :-/ We did 4 races of the day in windy conditions. I took 3 bullets and a 2nd. The second place came from me doing a muppet mistake in the third race. That muppet mistake was; realising I’d been doing the same muppet mistake in ALL of the first three races – sailing around the downwind mark before the finish instead of straight to the line. Luckily I was ahead enough in the first races not to worry about this but Akis Chrisohou (GRE-22) punished me to the line seeing I had taken the extra distance in Race 3.

On Friday morning we were blesssed with a lighter wind day. I rigged the 12m for all three races we completed and had some tussles with the Greek sailors Yiannis Papaspyrou (GRE-17) and Zois Theocharis (GRE-100) who managed to take a bullet each from me with me taking the win in Race 3. By late afternoon the wind had died and I was able to spend the afternoon talking with most of the sailors about fins and tuning and all things relating to how to build up a good formula racing series in Greece. Greece have recently adopted the ‘Formula Plus’ category that we have been promoting in Australia for some time. Its nothing new, just a way to get the newer Formula sailors to do one lap instead of two whilst still starting with the main fleet as well as a system on how to introduce these new guys in to the sport and build up their confidence and enthusiasm to work on being able to finish two laps of the course. Its been really successful in growing formula in Australia and it was great to see it is also working in Greece as well. I’d love to see it spread further through Europe – this class is not just for the elite!

In the evening we went to dinner with the Greek FW Association Committee as well as some other sailors. I really love the way the Greeks eat and value the importance of sitting down together and sharing a meal with friends and family; we don’t do this as much back home in Australia with our busy lifestyles. The Greeks love their food, which worked out pretty well, because I love food too and after a few hours of eating and talking about the formula scene in Greece and how they could work on coordinating bigger and better events and attracting more Europeans, we retired for the night; leaving Jason and I an opportunity to hit the Athens nightlife – wow, is all I can say about that. Wow.

Saturday was a lighter wind day again and we only managed to get one race away for the day despite having a few attempts at this start. I tried out some new Hurricane fins from Jason which were a little better than what I had previously been using in the F162 and won this race by a clear margin. On Sunday morning, the final day, we had very strong winds coming from the North which was completely offshore at this location. It was still possible to sail, but very shifty and gusty in the corners close to the beach which made it difficult to set a fair course. On the outside, farther out to sea there were gusts up to and over 35 knots which meant we couldn’t just set a course out to sea to get away from the shifty conditions in close to the shore… so we waited… and waited…

By around 4.30pm we had to pull the plug for the day with no racing as the wind conditions didn’t change over the day. It was possible to sail in these conditions, and many guys went out to try and force a final race to start but with the offshore winds any rescues would have been very difficult and for safety reasons, wisely, the racecrew kept us on the beach.

For the prizegiving, a decent amount of trophies were dished out over a few beers in front of the Karavi Club. I won the overall event but the Greek Championship for this year went to Zois Theocharis (GRE-100). After a decent spraying of champagne over everyone at the presentation the Greeks retired home and I had another great dinner out with Jason and Antonis Nikolopoulos (GRE-202) friends back at the sailing club restaurant closer to the centre of town.

This was my first time in Greece and I must say this place has everything going for it and I hadn’t even made it out to some of the islands which apparently have even better sailing conditions. I think, at least for me, the attraction of living in a “city” weighs more over the ‘island lifestyle’ (I grew up in a big city in Australia) and so I think you’ll see me coming back to the Greek mainland to train rather than out to Rhodes or Paros… The Greek’s welcoming and passionate demeaner made this trip really special and one I won’t forget for a long time. Perfect training conditions and a perfect warmup for the Formula Worlds next week. See you guys in Greece in 2009 !!

OVERALL RESULTS:

1. Sean O’Brien (AUS-120)
2. Zois Theocharis (GRE-100) – Greek Champion
3. Akis Chrisohou (GRE-22)
4. Vassilis Solidakis (GRE-19)

• Event Report on Riders.dk
• Official Event Gallery

After Sweden’s effort last year the Nordic Championships returned to Denmark again in 2008. Specifically, Nyborg, which is a smaller town at one end of the Great Belt Bridge (Storebæltsforbindelsen in Danish). A decent sized fleet of +50 guys arrived for the event from all parts of Scandinavia as well as randoms from Italy and even Australia. The forecast for the weekend was pretty light but most of us were optimistic for some good racing to happen this weekend and we were to be treated…

The racing course was straight out in front of the clubhouse with the bridge in the background and only a few minutes walk from the centre of town in Nyborg. On Friday we were teased most of the day with the wind anywhere from 3 knots up to 12. The Danish race crew tried for 2 hours or so to get a start away but with the wind up and down and shifting a fun race was held – which Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111) won by a streak as most of the rest of us (me included) had already headed back to the beach to save our energy. That was all the action we got on Friday and after a great dinner put on at the club we were back off to the hotel to get rested for the first races on Saturday.

The wind was in relatively early on Saturday and we were able to get races away by midday in perfect 10-12 knots with great sunshine and relatively warm water (by European standards). Race 1 kicked off with a few over-ealy’s from Jesper and Andrea Cucchi (ITA-1) amongst others which allowed me to take the bullet after a hard fought race in the winds around 8 knots.

The course was a windward/leeuward with a short reach mark after the top mark and in the first two races the course was set relatively short taking the leaders only 12-15 minutes to finish each race. The line was considerably pin-end biased and it suprised me that most of the top guys weren’t starting too far down the line as I hit the pin on every start all weekend and had great starts each time in clear wind.

Race 2 and 3 was much of a repeat of the first with the winds increasing to a perfect 12 knots and most of the fleet still on the 12m’s and cutdown fins. I was around the top mark in 2nd each time behind the unstoppable Vesterstrom however Andrea Cucchi with his superior boardspeed managed to pass me late on the second lap each race and I had to settle for 3rd in these two races – edging out Nikolaj Kruppa (DEN-4), Kasper Larson (DEN-288) and Brian Roegild (DEN-173) who were battling it out for the minor places but still hot on my heels.

The final race on Saturday had the course lengthened considerably and the top guys took 25 minutes or so to finish the race. I really enjoy these long courses as it gives everyone an opportunity to get back in the race even if you had a bad start. Brian and Andrea got ahead of me early out of the start and I had to follow them the entire way around the course in their dirty air as it was difficult to go too early on your laylines with such a long course. I managed to finish 4th in this race behind Brian but quite a long way behind Vesterstrom who had cleared out on us this race.

On Sunday, the final day of racing I was sitting in 2nd overall just 2 points ahead of Andrea Cucchi and needed to have some more good results to keep myself on the podium and ahead of the Italian.
The wind was very light up until nearly 1.30pm and it looked as though we may not even get another race in (which didn’t entirely bother me as I was happy with my position at this point). By 2pm however the wind had finally kicked in and we were back out on the course with the 12m’s up for some more perfect 10-12 knot races. The last possible start was at 3.30pm (to allow the Norwegians enough time to make their ferry home that afternoon) so we knew at this point we were only going to get 1 maybe 2 races in today to finish the event.

The long course was set again and the startline moved a little to make it more favourable at the boat this time. I had a great start ahead of Andrea and Kurosh Kiani (DEN-13) before getting informed it was a general recall after I’d nearly sailed all the way to the port layline. A few minutes later we restarted and I tried to start a little further down the line to be below Andrea who was pointing quite high and dodging a few of the guys like Kasper Larson and Magne Fronsdal (NOR-4) who were starting on port. I didn’t do as well out of this start as the guys closer to the boat and was in 6th at the top mark hot on the heels of a few of the Danish guys and Andrea – with Jesper clear out in front again. I had a great downwind and passed a few guys to be in 4th at the bottom mark however I had no speed to catch up with Brian, Andrea and Jesper and had to settle for another 4th in this race.

The final race of the day started in much the same fashion and with the chop picking up in the middle of the course (as the tide was travelling the opposite way to the wind) it made it a little more bumpy in this race with the big rigs. I finished 5th in this race but knew it was enough to hold my 2nd overall as Andrea had an extra DNF to count after breaking his harness line in the previous race.

The presentation got away on time around 4pm-ish and the sailors were presented with prizes and medals for their efforts. This was the first time I’ve raced in Denmark and really enjoyed the conditions, the courses and the racing itself as the Danish fleet is one to be reckoned with on the formula circuit.

I used the 12m Gaastra Vapor and Vapor board all event with my VMG Blades 70 fin (which we actually designed for medium/strong winds, not so much lightwinds) and was very happy with my speed all weekend. In the past there’s been a few Nordic sailors floating around in Australia and attending our events so I thought it was nice to repay the favour and come up to the Nordics to race. The event was very smoothly organised and conditions were perfect for racing. I’m hoping to be able to come up to this event again as it was a nice warmup for the FW Worlds in Portugal in 2 weeks.

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