Anyone knows if any US television station will bring some from this.
Or
maybe some web video somewhere. Greg, any good Aussie links for this.?
Christian
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?SEID=284&Nid=16405
Thu, 17 Feb
2005
![]() |
|
'Belle Property flying' by Robert Palmer |
The 18 Foot Skiff JJ Giltinan World Championship 2005 is only days away
from commencement, after a full summer of lead-up regattas including
the Australian Titles, State titles and Short Course Championships.
Held
out of Double Bay 18 Foot Skiff Club, all the international teams have
arrived to go head to head with Australia’s finest skiffies. From this
Friday and during the following week, over thirty crews will be
charging around Sydney Harbour pushing their boats and selves to the
limit.
One year and one month after Englishman Rob Greenhalgh
and his crew on RMW demolished the Aussies in the 2004 World
Championships, RMW is back to defend it’s title.
After putting
in copious amounts of extra work to lift their level to a standard that
really set the bar for the rest of us, Greenhalgh is starting to reap
the rewards after signing a deal to do the up-coming Volvo round the
world challenge.
'It’s been really, really busy with the
preparations for the skiff and the Volvo race, but I wouldn’t have
missed coming back out to Australia for this,’ Greenhalgh said.
A
lot is to be said for this year’s competing crews awakening to the
challenge set by the British last year. Howie Hamlin (2002-2003 World
Champion) and his team from the USA have put a brand new boat on the
water and boy they are quick.
In a polished performance they
won a one-off race earlier in the season and last Sunday, they led the
whole way around the track, only to be run down at the last minute by
Australian Champion Michael Coxon on Casio Seapathfinder.
Hours
of work has been spent by Australian teams in John Winning’s factory
upgrading their vessels in a bid to take a chunk out of the RMW pie.
Eight
new boats have been launched this year with the new carbon little rig,
two spreader big rig and all carbon wings. All have variances in sail
shape (some opting for the bat wing approach) and mast configuration.
A
number of the new skiffs have jumped on the North Sails development
program, including John ‘Woody’ Winning on Yandoo (SSangyong), Sean
Langman AAPT, Daniel Phillips on Omega Smeg and Coxon with Casio.
Certainly
these four boats, under the guidance of the senior Michael Coxon, are
on the pace and winning races. Coxon Jnr. recently won the Australian
title and is looking like the Australian boat to break the reign of
international domination.
Of course, veteran Winning knows the
Harbour better than the dark midnight walk to the bathroom, while Omega
Smeg is consistently showing phenomenal spurts of boat speed.
Hugh
Stodart sailing Asko, last year’s third place getters at the Worlds,
have a new boat and are already on-the-pace. With radical Ullman sails,
it seems the only problem they have is their starting.
Stodart
and his crew have been playing catch-up from the gun; however when it
comes to the crunch, their experience and pace will certainly put them
within striking distance come this Friday.
Maytag has launched a
new boat under the control of Tony Hannan. The veteran skiffy
hand-crafted his own sails, opting to go very flat with his spinnakers,
steering clear of the bat winged mainsails. Hannan is an ever present
figure in the after race standings and will certainly keep the hotshot
internationals in line.
At the forefront of the class
development program, Anthony ’Jack’ Young managed, in his spare time,
to put together a new boat under the Computer Associates logo.
Always
a well-finished product, the Computer Associates skiff has individual
sail configuration headed by Phil Harmer, who sails sheethand. Quantum
Sails have certainly jumped into the Harbour with a couple of predators
lurking, but it seems their floaties are well molded to their
environment! If it blows, the Young crew is certain to be among the top
bunch.
Youth in the class
At the beginning of the season,
it was emphasized by the senior 18 sailors that youth is the life blood
of the class, and that this year they really want to see a few of them
performing/winning races.
Learning from some of the champions
and past champions listed above has given rise to performances from
John Winning junior (Panasonic), John Sweeny (Churchills) and Micah
Lane (Belle Property). These three juniors have been taking on the
seniors with gusto and courage.
Being a member of the Belle
Property Team and this season enduring countless hours preparing and
fixing our skiff, one fundamental lesson we have learnt is getting the
‘fundamentals’ right.
Euan McNicol and Craig Ferris helped us
enormously in tuning our mast with an even heal tune and mast
configuration. Once we got the masts right, we were able to get our
luff rounds cut appropriately, hence providing a strong platform to
experiment from and not be concerned about falling off!
It seemed normal, getting caught up with what colour mainsheet to go
with, rather than where your mast rake is at!
It is not all smooth sailing for the youngsters; there are some hard
lessons to be learnt, namely;
Avoid breaking your mast in the fork of a tree when towing the boat
from the park
Recording data before it is too late
Persisting in asking for help
Shouting
is not an effective way of communicating (except extreme situations)
and hours to be spent gaining respect before you can move up in the
park!
Both John Winning Junior and Micah Lane (not to mention their crews)
have put hours of work into their boat and rigs.
Belle
Property has shown solid form in fresh conditions tussling with the
most experienced, while Panasonic has consistently rounded the top mark
first time, in the top bunch.
Without doubt, we will see the
younger crews dance with the best, at some stage taking lead position
from their older more experienced cohorts.
The 2005 JJ Giltinan
will be the most competitive to date, with nine different winners this
season from the Australian fleet, with the international experts thrown
into the mix.
Picking a top five at this stage is nearly
impossible, because of everyone’s improved form, however, at the risk
of being speared by a spinnaker pole in mysterious circumstances;
RMW,
Casio, USA, AAPT, Rag and Famish. It will come down to crew work,
tactical insight and youthful talent versus experience, stamina,
courage and determination. Who will win the 2005 JJ’s?
Represented countries are; Australia, United Kingdom, America, New
Zealand, Switzerland, Netherlands.
www.18footers.com
Editors
note: My money is on Rag and Famish – 'young Hanger' may be young, but
he too, knows the Harbour like the back of his hand and has good crew
backup.
by Jack
Macartney
|
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
|