Benson's DNA for the Euro's

Team Harken Racing's young Jack Benson has a new DNA A Class for the up coming Europern titles at Lake Garda. The new DNA's now come with a full Harken fit out including the new #2756 A Class traveller car.

Jack's new vessel

Jack has been spending his winter over in Europe racing and getting some great results in some big races. I'll give a better run down with what he has been up too a little later so watch this space. I can see this boy on a AC45 one day.

Nice signage

Cascade mainsheet using 40mm T2 Loop Blocks (#2148)

The all new #2756 Small boat traveller car for 22mm track.

If your in Darwin NT call into Jack's shop Nautical Supplies and pick up the latest Harken parts.

Brayshaw's Scheurer Design A Class for the Euro's

First photo of Team Harken Racing sailor Steven Brayshaw's new Scheurer Design A Class that he will be using at the up coming Euro's in Lake Garda ITA.

I so wish I had given this event more thought and travelled to it, it is going to be one great regatta and Lake Garda is very close to Harken Italy's HQ in Limido Comasco.

Good luck over there Steve.

2012 Zhik Winter Regatta (Wangi)

The Wangi Winter Regatta is back! Despite the rainy weather late in the week, 40 competitors gathered at WASC for 2 days of the Zhik Winter Regatta over the June long weekend.
A variety of 6 classes of boats, 'A' Class cats, Foiling Moths, 29ers, Tasars, OKs, Flying 11s and the light wind provided a challenge to Race Officer Tony Outteridge. At times the committee boat was finishing classes (Moths and Tasars) while another class (OKs) was in a starting sequence.

I somehow jagged a win!

On Saturday the sun shone but the breeze rarely went above 4 knots which turned the non foiling moths into expensive Sabots. In the A Class fleet we had some great racing and the welcome return of Roger Colman racing for the first time in over one and half years.

Sunday provided more breeze but cold showers! In the A Class fleet we had some tight racing again sometimes with only half a boat length between the places but we did also see that we are not very good with counting and losing track of the number of laps we are doing causing some funny moments.

Not as bad as it looks.

Local sailors were joined by sailors from Sydney, Central Coast and Southport.
Zhik was the generous sponsor making it worth braving the cold for all the winners, big thanks to them.

results below

Place	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 7	Race 6	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1	AUS898	A Class	C Cairns	GSC	14.0	1.0	2.0	5.0	2.0	1.0	2.0	1.0
2	AUS4	Brewin Sails	S Brewin	GSC	25.0	9.0O	1.0	1.0	1.0	2.0	9.0O	2.0
3	AUS969	Harken Racing	G Pellew	RPAYC	25.0	9.0F	4.0	2.0	3.0	3.0	1.0	3.0
4	AUS22	Spunspur	M Johnston	GSC	36.0	9.0F	3.0	3.0	4.0	9.0C	3.0	5.0
5	AUS914	Pistool	B Wicht	Kurnell SC	37.0	2.0	7.0	7.0	6.0	4.0	4.0	7.0
6	AUS941	Firefly Dance Club	J Jenkins	KLL	39.0	3.0	6.0	6.0	7.0	5.0	6.0	6.0
7	KA524	1984	R Colman	KLL	42.0	9.0F	8.0	4.0	5.0	7.0F	5.0	4.0
8	AUS977	Go With The Flow	R Griffiths	LMYC	49.0	4.0	5.0	8.0	8.0	9.0C	7.0	8.0

Edge'ing Around Rotto

The two Harken equiped Windrush Edge F18's doing a run around Rottnest Island in Perth WA.

This could end up being the Aussie version of the 'Round Texel' Race over in NED.
I love the idea that if it was run i would travel over to do it with my boat. There is talk of the next F18 Nationals (2014) being held in WA so if this was held around the same time it could work well.

To the Windrush boys, keep up the great work you are doing over there.

Sailor Spotlight (Mick Guinea & Viv Haydon) F18

I would like to introduce the two newest members of the Team Harken Racing crew.
From Townsville Queensland we have the F18 team of Mick Guinea & Viv Haydon.
Down the track Mick is going to send a few photos of tricks and tips for the Nacra Infusion F18 but if you see him on the beach up in Queensland go up and say G'Day and he will be more then happy to talk boats and even sell you one.
Below is a little insight to what makes them tick.

Harken Sailor Spotlight

Name: Mick Guinea & Viv Haydon

Age: Mick 30, Viv 21

Home Town / Club: Townsville Sailing Club

Class: F18, we also race on Wayne Millar’s MBD41 “Zoe”               

Years Sailing Class: 5 years in the F18 class

Favourite song: Mick: Pockets by Powderfinger. Viv: Hard Sun by Eddie Vedder

Favourite food: Mick: Chicken Parmy. Viv: A good steak

Favourite Place to Sail: Cleveland Bay Townsville

Most Rewarding result (where & when): Winning our first Nacra F18 Nationals together this year in Adelaide and 10^th in 2011 at Texel in the Nacra Worlds.

Why this class: The F18 is a high performance boat where you can race, and compete, against the world’s best sailors with a big budget.

Funniest moment on boat: The look on Viv's face at Texel last year, when in big waves and 25 knots I got washed off the back but continued steering whilst trying to barefoot water-ski back to the boat.

Who do you sail with (training partners): We have a big fleet of F18s in NQ currently, so we are regularly sailing against many boats, however we train mostly with Dale Mitchell from Airlie Beach.

Why Harken: The highest quality products that work and the constant innovation of new products.

Favourite Harken product: The 10:1 mainsheet system we use. (HC7668 & HC8454)

Goals: In the short term we are aiming for a top 20 finish at the F18 worlds at Long Beach, to defend our Nacra National title and a top 3 finish at the F18 Nationals.

Closing Comment: Multihull Sailing is about to boom again over the next few years. With the Nacra 17 in the Olympics, the AC cats and the Extreme 40s there is so much interest in the sport at the moment. I encourage everyone to get out on a Cat of some sort and get involved – you wont regret it!

Viv & Mick @ the Townsville Sports Awards

I have to say I do like Micks closing comments, it is very true that multihulls are going to become a bigger part of everyday life for sailors worldwide. We all need to embrace it and enjoy the ride.

Welcome to the team boys.

Zhik Winter Regatta (Wangi - 9-10th June)

The Wangi RSL Amateur Sailing Club will host the Zhik Winter Regatta on the 9th & 10th of June, 2012.

Eligible Classes are: OKs, Impulse, A Class Cats, Moths, Flying 11s, Tasars & 29ers.
Entries will be taken at the Club on the 9th of June.

Follow the links at the end of this article for the Poster and Notice of Race for this event. These are also available under the Regattas menu.

http://www.wangirslasc.yachting.org.au/

French A Class Catamaran Nationals

Last weekend the French Nationals were sailed in La Rochelle in almost perfect sailing conditions.

9 races in 5-18 knots.

The overall event was won by Chris Field who sailed very sharp and consistent. Harken team sailor Jack Benson from Australia was second, Arno Terra was third and Micky Todd fourth.

Jack was racing with the new ARC mast and a radial Brewin, Arno was using an ARC mast and an Ashby Stratis sail and Micky used his own sail and a Fiberfoam.

Arno & Jack @ the top mark

But the new 'French' Champion is Thiery Boisbouvier, second Luc Cantineau and third Antoine Koch. Yann Baglin and Luc hurt their score by getting a blck flag in the last race.

The top four French were racing their brandnew DNA's (The new DNA's now come with a Harken fitout)

Arno says he found out that the new longer curved boards are really quick downwind in the waves. It was really easy to keep the boat on the boards and I could sail faster and deeper than most others despite my weight.

Micky Todd

It was good to see how well Luc and Yann were going despite they picked up their boats only one week before the event. They were fast upwind and outsailed the other French downwind in a breeze.

The teams now head up to Garda for the Europern championships where other Harken Racing members Steven Brayshaw & Steve Brewin will meet up with Jack to compete also.

Good luck to the team sorry I could not make it up there with you.

For more infomation on the Harken fitted DNA's look here DNA Cats