Pattos alternative universe

Interesting to know some people actually read this stuff... Link... http://scott.projectsomewhere.com/2008/12/01/echo/

So for the doubters out there in blog world... heres my finished wings in all there shining glory... and YES we will be at the JJ... representing the SFS

This has got me thinking lately... yes i know dangerous stuff!!!! About all my years at the League, the great friends Ive made and the great enemies, the many sponsors and corporate activities, the magnificent Sydney Harbour and its Islands where no 2 days of racing are ever the same, the fantastic locations in Europe I have sailed 18s as well as the many friends from different countries, the icons of the 18s like Peter Sorenson and Trev Barnabas ive raced against

My reasons for skiff sailing have changed dramatically over the past years, once it was for the glory of the race win or the odd title win, now, its just for fun... ye its still serious and me and my young team of Benny and Sam will be fighting hard at the upcoming JJ Worlds, the boys are very new to skiff sailing but are super willing and keen to learn and improve their skiff knowledge, both on the water and off in all aspects... thats probably helped me the most over last few months of very crazy and strange events that have happened around me... most notably with the conviction and gaoling of a great friend and past skiff crew from many moons ago... Jeffrey Gilham... for you mate after 15 years of never ending hell, the fight has just begun... again... but thats another story in its self and not really for this place and time

Whilst I will never be remembered at the League for winning a JJ, close on occasion but no cigar...my time there has been super eventfull including 3 memorable years as a board member, and its got me looking at all the old pics of the many shapes and sizes of all the unique skiffs of the past... and ye why not... i mite even do some pic on this blog of all those years and different beasts, just to see the fashions and fads come and go, the many sponsors that have made my skiff years possible, the great ideas, the stupid ideas, the rebuilds, the endless hours and hours and late nites of skiff prep, the crashes, oh ye and the injuries... and not to forget the big nites of partying and drinking... theres nothing like ending the day of skiffing and salt water with countless Rums... thank god for Bundy, what would sailing be without it

At the end of the day I sail skiffs cause i love it, noone can ever say its for the money, unlike some pro sports people of today, its the thrill, its the challenge of boat prep and tuning, its the mental process, its the planning and execution and the many people involved in sailing. Im not out to prove anything to anyone, im just happy 2 young guys are interested in learning more about sailing... actually to tell the truth im still learning with them, and thats probaly the great thing about sailing in general, there is allways something new to learn, thanks guys

Now bring on the JJ... see you on the water

Art Lovers??

Hmmm!

This is what happens when you have to sit around recovering from another (and fast) trip to hospital, too much spare time!! not for long though, should be back to work and hopefully some skiff racing in the next week or so, the docs did a great job

Ah well, but it does look sorta cool, something a bit different at least

Now for the real pics, all from the same day on the Bay, the much trusted seabreeze.com quoted around 8-10knts from the N/E, the perfect flat water conditons of the Bay and river made for nice easy skiff conditions, just what we needed for the first official test of the new carbon wings, and the first time we've sailed the skiff this season, still nothing is ever perfect and the crew wants some more minor changes... foot straps and more grip on the shiny new carbon wings, and maybe a new kite!!

But really we dont know how all this will help us in the super wavy Sydney Harbour conditions or against the big fleet at the League, hopefully in the near future!!

Sailing Pics

At last some actual sailing pics, well one anyway and ye it is a bit on the fuzzy side, but im happy all our new changes and new carbon wings survived and proved to be a massive improvement over last year, I can actually feel the boat lighter on my shoulders carrying to the water, not sure Tims back agrees with me though

Yep thats GRSC in the background on the beautiful Botany Bay, but hey im very biased, i grew up sailing the bay and if I had a choice I would sail there everyday

We have more pics but having some issues retrieving from the camera, hopefully soon and a little clearer

So finally we have had 2 perfect test days, both with the big rig, one low end pressure one very up range around 18knts, apologies to the young kids in all the Sabots at GRSC, I hope we stayed out of your race area enough, we did try to stay away but sometimes a little difficult on the narrow sections of the river mouth, we did get a very nice thankyou from one of the race officials for keeping clear

Many thanks again to Tim and Kylie for your sunday arvo time away from the kids

Now all we need is our original team of me, Sam and the much travelled Bendo to get together and do some racing, oh and for me to stop getting sick and going to hospital, but there is light at the end of the tunnel as they say, another few weeks of sail recuts and gear updates and we are set to test the League guys finally, all I have to do is convince my doctors that im fit and well enough for racing, ok maybe not fit but well enough!

More pics to follow soon, maybe some video once we are back racing on the Harbour

Top Secret Crew

The team has finally got their first chance at testing out all of the many changes done to the skiff over the past few months, and the results are all very positive, no broken bits, no dramas, just a nice casual cruise around the Bay in a lovley 10-12knts from the NorthEast. Just what we needed to confirm the changes are a great success, now all we need to do is get our asses into the Harbour one sunday and really see what we can do against the League guys. First off I think we will be doing our usual satday SFS racing to get the minds and bodies back into race mode, then test out the quick guys from Double Bay.

Still waiting for the pics back from my brother on the chase boat, would be nice to see what it looks like now after all the mods... hopefully in the next few days!! As they say "pics, or it didnt happen"

But our top secret weapon for the year is the super lite weight crew. Now this could really start a new trend of fly weight crews at the League!! Take 150 kgs of fat slow crew off our boat and who knows where we could end up

Big thanx to Tim and Kylie for helping the team get up and going on sunday, big effort guys thanx a bunch

Team Update

After looking good to get our feet wet for the annual Brass Monkey regatta at our home club on Sydney Harbour a few weeks back, its all turned a little pear shaped for the team... with serious lack of funds and my short but unexpected trip to St.George Hospital the team is yet to come together and test out our many off season changes... ah well, still plenty of time before the first League race

We did manage a rig tune day a few weeks back that turned up some major problems with our big rig numbers from last season... hopefully that will see us with some more upwind pace, but without some much needed time on the water its all theory at this stage... hopefully this weekend

While the team bides its time the guys at Sailing Anarchy have been talking up the coming skiff season form guide... Link here...http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=78904

Funny enough we do rate a mention... all beit not very complimentary, to be expected really as we have the oldest skiff in the fleet and are the only SFS skiff to be regularly racing against the mega bucks teams from the League... makes for some interesting reading with news of the Gotta Love 7 team with new hull as well as a new skiff for the Rag guys... and some left field stuff from the the RMW guys in the UK... makes for a very mixed and interesting season

The good news is we have teamed up with our long term team supporter Dirty Dog Eyeware... http://www.dirtydogeyewear.com/flashHome.asp

Great to have them with us again after 5 years together now... and being able to use there new Wet Glass technology on the skiff while racing around the Harbour makes for much easier veiwing of the conditions with constant sea spray in the eyes... the water simply beads off... very cool... add this to the Polarized lenses and it makes for a much easier day out on the water... no more sore red salty eyes at the end of the racing weekend... big thanx to Adam and his team at Dirty Dog

Hopefully by this time next week we will actually have been sailing... and with pics to prove it!

See what the doctor has to say first... not that I listen to them anyway!

Crazy Hungarians Part 2

As mentioned in an earlier post, more info about these crazy Hungarians... the guys emailed me with these interesting stats... ... 2008 Kekszalag... or Blue Ribbon... fastest wins!!!!
Lake Balaton 150km west of Budapest... largest lake in Europe... 70km long
Race distance... 150km... basically once up and down the lake
Entries... 575!!!!!!!!! Yep thats rite... everything from the huge Liberas with 12 guys on trap...RC44s and Assos to small lake yachts about 15ft.... and four HUN 18s... ah and no cats
Start Time...9am... Finish Time...12.30am...15.5 hours in about 5-8knot wind all day and night... code zero used for very light upwind
Result... 5th over the line... after the 4 big Liberas... 2.5hrs after the first Liberas
These guys are definitely serious about their skiff sailing, with the lake freezing over during winter... when they go ice sailing... the boys are straight into training as soon as the lake starts to thaw... water temp around 3 degrees... and we say its too cold in Sydney in winter for skiff sailing
Huge effort guys... maybe with a little more breeze the boys could finish before dark next year... and maybe get the big win!!!!!!!

Speedy Unrig???

Ye it mite be fast to unrig like this but i wouldnt recommend it... im guessing a little expensive also... and thats no way to treat another of my old 18s sold off to Europe many many years ago

Nasty beach break there in Travemunde in far north Germany these guys had to deal with and not a very pretty outcome either... bad luck guys... hope it all goes back together again soon... at least there where lots of skiff guys there to help at the end

Crazy Hungarians

Well you would have to be to do this!!!!!!!

15 hours on an 18!!!!!!!

My great mates from Budapest sailing in the famous Blue Ribbon on Lake Balaton... on my old skiff from Sydney... and doing well to come home 5th over the line very late at nite

Link... http://www.skiffsailing.hu/

Truelly incredible to sail an 18 for this long... great effort guys... not sure many 18s in Sydney would show this much dedication or insanity... not sure which is the best word for it

More info to come soon

Sex Sells

Well apparently thats the excuse!!!

Petra Niemann has sailed for Germany in the last 3 Olympics and the German Olympic girls have got together to promote their individual olympic sports by getting the gear off for Playboy mag in the land of the deutsch. Link here... http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/olympics/article1558405.ece

Specially love the extra touch of the old sail cloth in the background

We stayed in Petras apartment in Berlin 2005 for a month when we where sailing the 18s in Europe with her boyfriend... lovely girl... great sailor... but i never thought she would do this!!!!! Well done Petra

And hopefully it does some good for sailing in the media... it is after all what the seem to want and what everyone keeps saying these days... Sex Sells!!!!!!!!!!

New Carbon Wings

Finally our home made carbon wings are all done... only taken me about a year but im sure the huge weight saving over the old alloy wings will play a major part in getting the boat up to pace with the League guys!!

shiny new carbon looks cool... ye!!! Just need to add all the various fittings, nets and control lines and we should be able to get them wet this weekend if all goes to plan... and me and the boys can finally shake those winter cobwebs off... looking forward to the season start in about a month and we are well on track for Brass Monkey in 2 weeks

New pic

This has been long overdue on our "todo" list from last year and the added splash of colour looks pretty cool too.... The new paint job from last season never got finshed perfectly and we had the problem of many paint "edges" of all the joins in clolour... so after about 2 hole days of wet and dry and buff its now show room shinny and silky smooth... which hopefully is a bit quicker than last year

Pics and Vids

Ok they are from last year but i do have to start somewhere

And heres the link for our Youtube video as well... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ynBxtBce60&feature=related

New Team Blog

Welcome to our new skiff blog

Hopefully you will enjoy your time here as our skiff team does battle against other skiffs at the SFS and the League

We will be regular bloggers with lots of pics and videos so come back soon as the new sailing season is only weeks away now.

The team will have some new crew line up this year and new naming rights sponsor announced soon... stay tuned

The annual SFS Brass Monkey regatta is our first competetion for the summer... Link here... http://sydneyflyingsquadron.com.au/bm/default.htm
Will be interesting how our teams off season boat work has improved our performance from last year... or not!! We still have some new sails and carbon bits to come, so all in all should be a very interesting year