Chris Wren's Firefly 850 on board

Some great onboard footage from Chris Wren's brand new Firefly 850 Frequent Flyer racing in the St Helena Cup at Manly Queensland.

Looks like Chris and his crew had some great fun. Here is some onboard footage of how the race went down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6viElk3GMo

 

North QLD boys ripping it up in Thailand.

Wave of success for Townsville sailors

Team Harken sailors Mick Guinea & Viv Hayden are the Thailand F18 National Champions.

AFTER defying a dodgy boat and giant storms for a Thailand triumph, Michael Guinea and Viv Haydon have sent an ominous warning to their sailing rivals.
The Townsville duo could not have started their preparations for a whirlwind month of title defences - including their Australian F-18 Nacra crown - much better after clinching the Thailand National Championship last week.
By winning that, Guinea and Haydon were also awarded the annual Varuna Cup.
Given that they were on a borrowed boat that required "plenty of work" and that major storms cancelled two races, Guinea could not have been happier.
"It's good because you can get yourself into a bit of a rhythm," said Guinea, who along with Haydon is also the reigning Queensland champion.
"Sailing in different waters against different people (and) that time on the water and practising manoeuvres, that's where that is valuable."
More than anything, winning in Thailand proved that long-time crewmates Guinea and Haydon still function well under pressure.
Despite claiming the first two races at the two-day regatta, an infringement penalty in the third race meant they had to clinch the fourth and final or kiss the title goodbye.
But the North Queenslanders held their nerve, winning by about 30 seconds.
"We just had to beat this one other guy, so we just turned it into a match race," Guinea said.
"If he tacked, we tacked with him and covered him all the way around."
It capped a massive 12 months for the pair, but Guinea said the hard work was only just beginning.
"We've had a really good year, winning the state titles as well, and a few other regattas along with the regatta in Thailand, so it's been good, but we obviously want to defend the (Australian) title as well," he said.
That starts for Guinea and Haydon at the end of the month when they attempt to defend their Nacra National title in Hervey Bay. That is followed by the F18 Nationals in Newcastle and then the Nacra World Championships on the Gold Coast.

ANTONY STEWART | December 18th, 2012, Townsville Bulletin

Hobie Cat World Titles 2013

The IHCA Council would like to give sailors a preliminary notice for the 2013 Worlds for the following Hobie classes; Hobie 14 Dragoon Tiger  Wild Cat The World Championships are set to take place at Travemuender, Germany. The tentative dates scheduled would be 19-28 July 2013. These World Championships would be a bring-your-own-boat world championships. The IHCA thought it was important to give as much advance notice as possible so sailors could plan their holidays and begin to organize transport of their boat.  The IHCA has not yet finalized the necessary contracts for the events but is only waiting for ISAF approval for the World Championships. Stay tuned for more information.

Link to the IHCA Newsletter

www.hobieclass.com/default.asp?MenuID=News/10772/0/T

Multihull Nationals (Wangi)

2012 APC Logistics Multihull National Regatta are currently underway at Wangi Sailing Club in NSW.  A great fleet of multis have turned up for the event from Australia wide.

Race briefing underway

Three races have so far been run in a good 18-20kt E and SE breeze. The strong breeze has seen a couple of breakages mainly the mast on Bare Essentials. Foxy had a ream beam break but sorted a new one for the following day.

Fleet on the beach

Two Tribes

Opps

Results

Series Results [OMR] for Division 1 up to Race 3

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Type	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		N888	Indian Chief	Darren Drew	RMYC	Grainger Raider	4.0	1.0	1.0	2.0
2		V1	APC Mad Max	Tony Considine	RMYCvic	Grainger Cust	7.0	4.0	2.0	1.0
3		N36	Malice	Malcolm Richardson	Port Douglas Yacht C	Nacra36	9.0	2.0	3.0	4.0
4		013	Two Tribes	Clive Kennedy	WASCnsw	Egan 9.9 Cat	12.0	5.0	4.0	3.0
5		1011	Turning Point	Zebb Peters	MYCQ	Grainger 10 Cat	13.0	3.0	5.0	5.0
6		GR297	Wilparina II	Robert Remilton	Goolwa	F9R mod	18.0	6.0	6.0	6.0
7		101	Lukim Yu	Peter Barrow	RMYC nsw	Nusa Tiger 9	21.0	7.0	7.0	7.0
8		V3	Bare Essentials	Tim Pepperell	MYCV vic	Grainger 8 Mod	27.0	9.0C	9.0S	9.0F

Series Results [OMR] for Division 2 up to Race 3

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Type	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		V4	Frassld	Shaun Fishley	MYCV	Corsair 31	3.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
2	2.0S	V306	Sknot	Craig Unthank	Hastings YC Vic		14.0	5.0	2.0	7.0
3	3.0S	124	The SPC4	David Fisher	Palm Beach SC		14.0	7.0	4.0	3.0
4		064	Boatox	Linda Renouf	PBSC		14.0	4.0	6.0	4.0
5		BB2U	Big Bird	Stephen Barton	RMYCnsw	MTB Tri	15.0	6.0	3.0	6.0
6		125	Gneisenau	Ross MCOmish	Goolwa RYC		19.0	9.0	8.0	2.0
7		M23	Startijenn	Johan Betrom	RMYC		22.0	3.0	14.0F	5.0
8		047	Hot Option	Mike Willcocks	LCSC		23.0	8.0	5.0	10.0
9	2.0S	W102	Foxy	Shane Russell	WASCnsw	Lynx 8.8	30.0	2.0	14.0S	14.0F
10		13	The Tribe	John Hardy	RSAYSsa	F82R	30.0	14.0F	7.0	9.0
11	8.0S	75	Louie da Tri	Paul Nudd	WASC nsw	Sprint750	32.0	14.0F	10.0	8.0
12		SA737	Su Mare	David Eldridge	RSAYSsa		32.0	11.0	9.0	12.0
13		W110	Tribelle	Kim Hooper	WASC nsw		35.0	10.0	14.0F	11.0

Series Results [OMR] for Division 3 up to Race 3

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Type	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		78	Raw Fin	David Knezevic	Middle Harbour 16ft		3.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
2		HA320	Rainbow Connection	Leon Alexander	RMYC Vic	TT680	6.5	2.5	2.0	2.0
3		36	Beans	Steve Walter	WASC nsw	Windrush600	9.5	2.5	3.0	4.0
4		608	Tradewind	Allan Rees	WASCnsw	Windrush 600	11.0	4.0	4.0	3.0

Team Harken Boys @ the A Worlds



The 2012 A Class Worlds were a big breeze event (totally the opposite of what I thought they would be) but with what mother nature threw at the organizers they did a great job to get the event run.

 

All the Aussie & Kiwi boys did us proud and pretty much took over the top ten.

 

Team Harken also did us proud coming away with a win by the crazy man from Dutch land Mischa Heemskerk, the newly crowned World Champion.

Mischa is a great sailor and just loves it, no matter the wind strength he is ready to take it on.

 

The Aussie Harken Team had some great results and gave it their all, their results are below;

Steve Brewin 3rd

Jack Benson 7th

Stephen Brayshaw 22nd

 

Jack Benson AUS 13

 Jacks quote for the event is

Big breeze and big chop its like riding a pony up wind

Ride that pony I say!

Stephen Brayshaw AUS 25

Mischa Heemskerk NED 007

Jack Benson, riding that pony!

So till Takapuna NZ next year.
Could very well be my first A Worlds as I'll be there.

2012 A Class Worlds Winner is?

Mischa Heemskerk Wins 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship
 

When the going gets tough the tough get going. The going got tough at the 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship, with extremely high wind speeds and difficult conditions throughout the week, but after five races it was Mischa Heemskerk of the Netherlands who emerged with the win. After taking a third and two seconds to put himself two points clear of Brad Collett after day one Heemskerk won both races on Wednesday to take home the championship.

Regatta organizers were skeptical that they could get the five races required for a World Championship in after day two was abandoned and with Hurricane Sandy parked off of Cuba, so on Wednesday PRO Billy Richnow moved the first warning signal up to 9 a.m. in an effort to squeeze two races in before the breeze fully turned on. Heemskerk, Collet, and previous World Champion Steve Brewin had dominated in the heavy air on day one, but at the start of race three it was Nathan Outteridge winning the pin and holding a sizable lead at the first windward mark. Outteridge maintained his lead for two laps with Heemskerk closing on him and with Collett and New Zealand’s Murray Philpot sitting fourth and third respectively. However Outteridge and Collet both miscounted their laps and attempted to finish on the second leg, losing considerable ground and allowing Heemskerk to move into the lead. Outteridge went hard right on the final leeward leg and made a big gain, edging Philpot at the finish, but Heemskerk got the gun.

The new World Champ in great form on Day 1

The breeze built considerably in the intermission between races. After holding at around 18 for most of race one, gusts of 24 and 26 knots were reported during the first windward leg. American Lars Guck won the pin at the start of race five, and rounded second behind Heemskerk at the first windward mark closely followed by Philpot and Outteridge. However due to the increased wind speeds the race committee were forced to shorten course in the interest of safety, finishing the fleet at the leeward mark and sending them to the beach. This caused some confusion among the competitors, and while Heemskerk was well in front and got the gun easily, Guck gybed for the leeward mark and didn’t realize his mistake until Outteridge and Philpot had got by him.

Other than Heemskerk the big winner of the day was Australian Andrew Landenberger. By taking a fourth and a fifth with Collett and Brewin both finishing deep each time Landenberger moved into second place after winning the final race on day one.

Brewin finished third with a score line of 1, 1, 9, 7, 8, two points ahead of Collett who he edged at the finish twice in five races. Philpot moved into fifth after scoring a second and a third in the final two races. However the real victor was Heemskerk who was simply looked more comfortable in the conditions than practically anyone else. He only won two races, but he also never finished outside of the top three in his new DNA. Consistency wins regattas, and Mischa Heemskerk was the most consistent sailor at the 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship. Full results can be found on the event regatta
http://www.aclassworldchampionshipsusa2012.com/ along with links to event photos and videos.
Full Results at http://www.aclassworldchampionshipsusa2012.com/race-results-daily-information/

Thanks to Will Clark for the report and videos. Great job.

Rank	Name	Cat	Nat	Bow	Sail #	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total
1st	Heemskerk, Mischa		NED	21	7 NED	2.0	3.0	2.0	1.0	1.0	9.0
2nd	Landenberger, Andrew		AUS	56	308 AUS	8.0	6.0	1.0	4.0	5.0	24.0
3rd	Brewin, Steven		AUS	58	4 AUS	1.0	1.0	9.0	7.0	8.0	26.0
4th	Collett, Bradley		AUS	84	10 AUS	4.0	2.0	3.0	8.0	11.0	28.0
5th	Philpot, Murray	GM	NZL	59	1 NZL	22.0	8.0	4.0	3.0	2.0	39.0
6th	Drummond, Mike	GM	NZL	111	945 NZL	7.0	11.0	15.0	16.0	9.0	58.0
7th	Benson, Jack		AUS	75	13 AUS	12.0	14.0	6.0	24.0	17.0	73.0
8th	Coutts, Allan		NZL	41	261 NZL	11.0	17.0	12.0	17.0	23.0	80.0
9th	Parker, Graeme	GGM	AUS	67	967 AUS	18.0	15.0	14.0	14.0	22.0	83.0
10th	Funk, Brad		USA	70	292 USA	28.0	20.0	13.0	15.0	14.0	90.0

2012 A Class Worlds (Day 1)

 Mischa Heemskerk in the Lead after Day One of 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship.

Islamorada, FL (October 22, 2012) - Consistency wins regattas, and after three races at the 2012 Ronstan A-Class Catamaran World Championship Mischa Heemskerk of the Netherlands has been the most consistent sailor, taking a third and two seconds to get two points clear of Australia’s Brad Collett and five points clear of current world champion Steve Brewin. The A-Cat fleet launched today from Islamorada’s Islander Resort in winds gusting from anywhere between 15 and 20 knots, a difficulty level that spaced the fleet out considerably. A number of sailors stayed on the beach, and a number of masts went by the wayside, but despite tight racing at the top Heemskerk emerged on top after three races.

Brewin seemed to be well in command after two races. The current world champ led practically from start to finish in race one despite hitting the first windward mark and having to do a penalty circle. He was followed closely by Heemskerk with Blair Tuke taking third just ahead of Collett after port tacking the fleet with Ian Storer at the start. In race two things were more wide open, with Collett leading at the first windward mark and Heemskerk taking over the second time around. However it was Brewin who came out with the win, scooting past Collett in a photo finish with Heemskerk a close third.

In race three things got more interesting. Andrew Landenberger was first around the up the initial, and led from there on to take the gun. However Brewin was close on his tail with Collett right behind him and Heemskerk deep having started at the boat – the pin was favored for most of the day. But while Heemskerk climbed Brewin had some trouble at the final windward mark, going around the offset instead of the windward mark and losing a number of boats. He eventually finished tenth, bringing his total up to twelve after three races. Collett sits second at nine with Heemskerk currently in the drivers seat at seven.

 

Benson & Brewin talking after racing

The forecast is for winds to increase throughout the week and regatta organizers were pleased to get three races off, though a significant number of breakdowns did occur. American Lars Guck broke a tiller extension when he got separated from his boat on the first beat of the day and was unable to finish race one. Australian ex-pat Ben Moon’s rig came down during race two, and again right after he finished ninth in race three. Meanwhile Australians Nathan Outteridge and Steve Brayshaw both had to retire after race two, with Outteridge having lost a dagger after taking a fourth and sixth, and Brayshaw busting up his main beam after taking two fives.

The fleet was very spaced out throughout the day thanks to the aggressive conditions, but very few breakages occurred after race one since most of the breakdowns that were bound to happen had already happened by that point. Heemskerk, Collett and Brewin were around the top throughout the day, but racing is still wide open, as evidenced by Landenberg getting in there in race three. Forecasts are for the breeze to keep building, and with an emphasis on boat handling anyone who can keep their boat upright and going in the right direction has a shot.

Report from Will Clark.

 

Rank	NAME	NAT	BOW	SAIL NUMBER	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	Heemskerk, Mischa	NED	21	7 NED	2	3	2	7.0	7.0
2nd	Collett, Bradley	AUS	84	10 AUS	4	2	3	9.0	9.0
3rd	Brewin, Steven	AUS	58	4 AUS	1	1	9	11.0	11.0
4th	Landenberger, Andrew	AUS	56	308 AUS	8	6	1	15.0	15.0
5th	Benson, Jack	AUS	75	13 AUS	12	14	6	32.0	32.0
6th	Drummond, Mike	NZL	111	945 NZL	7	11	15	33.0	33.0
7th	Philpot, Murray	NZL	59	1 NZL	22	8	4	34.0	34.0
8th	Coutts, Allan	NZL	41	261 NZL	11	17	12	40.0	40.0
9th	Parker, Graeme	AUS	67	967 AUS	18	15	14	47.0	47.0
10th	Batenburg, Christopher	AUS	73	20 AUS	14	16	25	55.0	55.0
11th	Harbour, Graeme	AUS	28	8 AUS	29	18	11	58.0	58.0
13th	McKeon, Simon	AUS	13	958 AUS	10	22	30	62.0	62.0
23rd	Outteridge, Nathan	AUS	106	973 AUS	6	4	DNC	123.0	123.0
24th	Brayshaw, Stephen	AUS	11	25 AUS	5	5	DNC	123.0	123.0
29th	Moon, Ben	AUS	50	11 AUS	9	DNC	10	132.0	132.0
40th	Parker, Chris	AUS	63	983 AUS	25	DNC	31	169.0	169.0
47th	Mercer, Wayne	AUS	47	962 AUS	52	24	DNC	189.0	189.0
56th	McAllum, Luke	NZL	89	256 NZL	65	47	DNC	225.0	225.0
70th	Griffits, Robert	AUS	26	977 AUS	61	DNC	DNC	287.0	287.0
72nd	Johnson, Ian	AUS	24	48 AUS	DNC	DNC	DNC	339.0	339.0
72nd	Dowling, John	AUS	39	9 AUS	DNC	DNC	DNC	339.0	339.0