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!!!!!!!