News

The wind played dirty tricks all day in Palma on sailors and race committees who had to juggle with big shifts and different pressure. From 4 to 20 knots, and reaching 40 in some gusts, the wind turned around the bay playing with everybody's nerves! However, the show was on with the bay covered with white caps and the 800 boats that raced their first day in the event.

So where to begin? After our Miami trip in January, we had a good month and a half at home, getting in lots of off the water training (or in Jo’s case – also some on the water paddle-board training), lots of meetings and planning, making sure we are on track and organised – this is a rather big year for us with over two hundred days overseas. We even managed to fit in a little sailing – at the NZ 470 Nationals and Oceanbridge Sail Auckland, where we had some rather fun battles with the New Zealand boys, Paul and Dan, it was a case of match racing from 3 min to go every single start – awesome fun!!

New Zealand’s largest single-class regatta, the 2015 Toyota Optimist National Championships, starts at Worser Bay on Easter Friday. Over 200 sailors from four countries will compete in 14 races over five days of racing. Familes will be bringing dinghies from as far away as the Bay of Islands in the north and Dunedin in the south. Others have chartered boats from our sponsors, SailOne and Force Racing.

Over 1.200 sailors from 65 countries are in Palma de Mallorca to compete in the 46th edition of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia IBEROSTAR. This international regatta has become a regular feature for worldwide sailors who will race in the 10 Olympic events, the Formula Kite, the Dragon and the 2.4 Paralympic class, from the 28th of March until de 4th of April in the beautiful bay of Palma.

The Jollyboat class convened at Manly again for the second year running from the 20th-22nd March to hold its National Championship. This year, in contrast to last, to be greeted by a brisk Easterly and mountainous seas.

Now that the Cricket World Cup is over the focus can turn to the most important trans-Tasman battle of the year. Over Easter, the Kurnell Catamaran Club on the southern shores of Sydney’s Botany Bay is hosting the 2015 Maersk Line Paper Tiger Catamaran International Championships.

The Timaru Yacht and Powerboat Club members Les and Beryl Baker have achieved a major milestone with their Noelex 25 trailer yacht Skid Mark – clocking up 1000 nights spent on board - amounting to close to three years worth of night’s afloat.

After spending the New Zealand summer training, preparing and competing domestically the NZL Sailing Team are Europe-bound getting ready for some northern hemisphere competition.

From the blessing of the site, the opening of the Race Village, MAPFRE’s winning of Leg 4, The New Zealand Herald In-Port Race, Cyclone Pam, the delayed departure of the fleet and the breakdown and handover of the Race Village, it’s been eventful, it’s been fun, it’s been engaging, it’s been diverse and it’ll be back in 2018.