Cruising Yacht Club of Australia advises the notice of race and entry form for the Audi Winter Series is available. Direct Link
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CYCA’s Audi Winter Series 2010 entries now @ Sail World Australia
I was beginning to wonder if it was a wise move to take on the challenge to write a post every day this month on the theme STRANGE. I mean, there might be some people who come to this blog to read serious sailing tips like how to roll tack a Laser or serious sailing news about how the America’s Cup is coming to Newport. These people might not like a whole month of strange posts.But then I checked back in my archives. And I realised that I’ve always been strange.Four years ago in March 2006 I was posting a weird video of old geezers singing sea shanties, writing about how I had persuaded my old sailing club to hold a very strange ceremony, showing you the soles of my feet, and reporting a conversation overheard in the men’s changing room on how to use KY Jelly. Not much serious sailing blogging there.A year later in March 2007, I seemed to have an obsession with animals. I was reporting on surfing rodents, a land vehicle steered by a goldfish and more goldfish who had learned to do synchronized swimming. All very silly stuff.It is true that a lot of my posts in March 2008 were devoted to very serious accounts of my very serious sailing in the very serious Laser Masters World Championships in Australia the previous month. But I also wrote an exceedingly strange post about the reproductive biology of animals of the family Leporidae. Warning: photo of inter-species sex.It is also true that in March 2009 I wrote some very serious posts about my very serious training at a very serious sailing clinic in Florida including one about how I almost very seriously injured my finger. But fear not dear reader, I was still strange on some days. I wrote one very strange and wonkish post about a very strange racing rules situation. And another even stranger post that started talking about “my sisters Ho and Po”, had a character called “Mister Dick”, and ended up with the worst pun you have ever heard… and it had absolutely nothing to do with sailing. Very strange.Yes. It seems that I have always been strange. This blog has always been strange. Get over it. Direct Link
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It Seems That I Have Always Been Strange @ Proper Course
Yachting Australia has announced the dates for the 2010 Sail Down Under Series with Australia to be the hub of Olympic class sailing action from the end of November until mid-December. Direct Link
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Sail Down Under Series dates announced @ Yachte.com.au
Aboard Groupama 3 – 16/02/2010 – © Team GroupamaThe miles have been streaming by since Thursday lunchtime: 763.4 miles across the water in 24 hours at an average of 31.8 knots! The stable W to NW’ly wind is enabling Groupama 3 to maintain a constant speed thanks to a sea, which remains manageable for a thirty metre long trimaran. The deficit in relation to the reference time has shrunk away to less than 240 miles…Time is ticking by! After amassing a deficit of over 430 miles following 18 days at sea at 1400 UTC on Thursday, the time spent in the Indian Ocean was beginning to drag for Franck Cammas and his nine crew. However, having now succeeded in getting ahead of the front circulating around the Roaring Forties as it shifts quickly across towards Tasmania, Groupama 3 has finally clawed back some miles this Friday. And as this wind-fuelled boost of speed is set to continue as far as the Pacific, the deficit on Orange 2 will be recovered over the course of the weekend, transforming into a lead at the start of the third ocean… However the sailing conditions are particularly wet for now…“We’re going to unfurl the heavy gennaker as the NW’ly wind is easing off a little. In fact we’re switching between the solent jib when there’s 30-35 knots and the small gennaker when there’s no more than 27-32 knots of breeze. We’re really copping it at the helm… It’s raining a lot and there are big seas. That’s why we’re avoiding sending anyone up to the foredeck. I prefer a helmet but some of the others are wearing ski masks to stand up to the spray as it slaps against your face. Fortunately the water isn’t cold…â€? stated Fréd Le Peutrec, at the 1130 UTC radio link-up with Groupama’s Race HQ in Paris.Constant speedThe current script for this round the world sprint began at midday on Thursday and is continuing to record some incredible average speeds for a ‘normal’ sailor: 32, 33, 34, or even 36, 37 knots. Such a pace doesn’t seem to be unsettling the crew of Groupama 3 who are confident in the boat’s structure, which isn’t suffering impact from the sea. Furthermore this tempo with over 700 mile days across the water should last the whole weekend, or even longer! Indeed from Sunday evening, the giant trimaran should pass the longitude of Cape Leeuwin (SW Australia), and by Tuesday Tasmania will already be in their wake… A crossing of the Indian Ocean in a little more than eight days in prospect then! Should this prove to be the case, the crew will have a good handful of miles on the reference time and look set to explode the WSSRC record between Cape Agulhas and Southern Tasmania, set by Orange 2 in a time of 9d 11h 04′…“We look to be on target to maintain this pace as far as Tasmania, or even as far as New Zealand. We may have to … Direct Link
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Groupama 3: Shooting across the Indian @ Sail Karma
Oman Sail’s new A100 ‘Majan’ left Muscat (Oman) last Saturday (6.2.10) to begin the journey of tracing out the route of the new Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race course that links together the Middle East, Africa, Australia and … Direct Link
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Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race: First Cape, first leg.. Next stop Cape Town @ BYM Sailing News
