Nathan & Iain won the 49er Worlds last night. It’s an impressive achievement given it was technically their second regatta together in the 49er.
So now comes the 29er Worlds, then the Moths. Anyone taking odds on a hat-trick?
U-Boat had a glamour first day of qualifying in the 49er Worlds. 1,2,7 puts him in 5th overall, but it’s still early days.
Go the mighty sailingbits compass bracket!
I had a question over the weekend from a girl admiring the Mach2, and it’s sailingbits.com sticker. She asked, “so what do you guys sell… is it like… sailing… stuff?”
Yes indeed.
I’ve never really been one for clever titles. Hence the one about shiny carbon parts. Keep it simple.
We have been busy putting together a whole bunch of new carbon components.
A new 49er compass bracket is available which fits neatly onto the new carbon 49er rig. Nathan & Iain and Euan & Sam will be using them in the Delta Lloyd Regatta this week.
Then there’s the modification to the popular Moth GPS bracket to fit the foiled bars on the Mach2, and the geometry of the Prowler wing frame.
And then there’s the new lightweight adjustable carbon spreaders for the Moth. They’re well priced and give you something else to adjust, or even just a way to pimp out your boat with more clear-carbon goodness.
But wait, there’s more…
Next up is the new deck compass bracket for the Mach2 and Bladerider, and our new carbon cams which minimise the chance of the cams falling off the newer small diameter masts. They’ll likely go on sale soon but might be in limited supply for the Worlds.
Then there’s the gucci carbon trapeze handles…
Gin has put some great footage of the Bladerider Dash For Cash up on Youtube.
The 18 footers are all gearing up for the JJ in Feb, with all boats sporting their new kit for the Nationals over the next few weeks.
We trialled our new big rig for the first time last Friday, and it is enourmous. We were flat wiring and depowering well before we would have with the old #1. Hopefully that is faster. We need a couple of sick easterlies to find out.
Sunday’s race was an all #2 rig affair, with a seabreeze coming in faily early and a hot day forecast. The breeze came in, but not at 25 knots, so all in all it was an easy welcome back after the break.
We started well with Euan on Souther Cross just below us, Seve buried and tacking out early, and the Project guys launching off the line with speed down low.
The Poms have been working pretty hard on their sailing and their gear since they arrived back in October, and it shows. They lead from the first cross and didn’t lose it til right at the end of the last work.
Upwind we made a couple of mistakes and lost a few boatlengths on the leaders, but rounded in 4th behind Project, SX and 7. Down the run we rolled 7 twice, but Pete decided to throw himself over the side at the bottom mark. 7 went through us and we lost touch with the leaders. It was all still faily close with SX finally getting the upper hand on the last upwind, before Project did a huge pitchpole in the big waves off Nielsen Park.
We banked a 3rd for the first race of the Nationals. Not bad, but still points we don’t want to be losing.
Photo: Ace Marine Photography
–
The Moth preparation for the Nationals has been coming along well. It feels like everyone has made a bit of a step up since SIRS.
John, Marty, Ben and myself trained in a nice Southerly last Thursday, with my changes proving themselves against John early on in the session before he found his legs.
In Saturday’s 6 or 7 races in a moderate East-Nor-Easter, John won a few, I won a bunch, and there were a whole load of very close finishes – one in which Marty and me crossed at the same time, and another when John almost cleaned up my rudder blasting into the line on port. Les seems to be 10%-ifying every time he hits the water, so in short order he should be well ahead. The last week also sees both Tacka and Nathan training with us to find the way around the boat prior to their first regatta.
Only a few days left to go now.
The 49er Association is fighting the good fight and running a demo weekend this weekend to try and build the local fleet(s).
The 49er class association is holding a two day 49er event at Woollahra this week-end to promote the class. This is a good opportunity to encourage some new people to get involved in 49ers.
The plan is as follows:
10am – 4pm on Saturday – meet at the club, talk by Nathan about sailing a 49er including the new rig, opportunity to go on the water and sail the old & new rigs in some short racing, and then a talk by YA on getting to the Olympics.
Sunday: 10am – lunchtime – opportunity to sail a 49er
And then in the afternooon, Club Racing (its a Club Championship week-end)So……….if you want to try the new rig, have a sail with someone really good or just generally support the class, please come down to Woollahra this week-end.
It’s a good chance to have a look at the new rig and have a go on one.
And we might just have the FX there to demo in case we can steal borrow another couple of 49er skippers at the same time 
