18ft Skiff Mark Foy Trophy Part II

Well that was fun. 30+ skiffs and super tight racing. 2nd overall pity, stuffed it up with crash and bash race 6. Could've would've didn't. Won 6 from 11. Getting better though.

In the end we paid the price for too much inconsistency, exposed and ultimately Rob Greenhalgh, Dan and Phil caught up and overhauled us. They sailed well, with great starts and more consistent results. Well done them.

Great week though, despite the OCS and DSQ for crashing into everyone on the startline, nonetheless, and very very lucky to have sailed with Jack Young and Michael Coxon. Low stress programme, made easy with two yachties with calm, measured outlooks.

Last race and we were even on points with Howie, Felix and Matt. We sailed a great race to come out ahead and win our 6th race of the week.

Lots of great photos on the web. Christophe Favreau took a bunch, Ingrid Abery too. Killo and Christophe also put out a YouTube broadcast most days, through the Channel MarkFoyTrophy2009. Christophe also runs a cool blog.

The yacht club at Carnac, well fantastic, the skiffs have some great friends and they really went out of their way to help. Celia, Cedric, Francois et al.

Maybe next year we'll get to use the little rig, like in the poster!

18ft Skiff Mark Foy Trophy

Sunny and Hot here. and Windless. Apparently it has been windy, but actually every day since arrival the wind has turned it down a notch.

We spent the first two days rigging a new big rig, new mast, boom and working sails. All looks good, and then got out for the practise race on Saturday. Light winds, two ish on the wire and small pressure bands made for tight racing. We won in the end, but got a bit lucky with Active Air snagging the top mark, and then the set off mark, and Trevor running on to a few cray pots. Lots of fast boats, including Howie (Macquarie Real Estate), Graham Catley and Cult of Mason (Investec). We are rigged with GPS, so you can follow the practise race here.

Yesterday was scheduled for race one, but no wind until 5:30 when the RO abandoned with AP over N. Thereafter the breaze filled in to 10 - 15 knots.

Race results, reports and photos will be on the carnac site.

Windguru not looking positive, but hopefully we'll see some thermals with the warm weather.

2009 14ft Europeans

Well the 2009 14 foot dinghy European Champs was held last weekend in The Hague, on the west coast of Holland. We were part of the North Sea Regatta. This is a pretty big affair, but the beer tents etc still small enough to be intimate and non-Cowes like. Great weather, 13-15 knots on Friday and Monday, 9 - 13 knots Saturday and Sunday. Blue sky and relatively calm seaway. Out on the track we had massive tide, crazy really, one or two knots and either with or against wind as the weekend went on. Also being out on the course for up to 9 hours a day we tended to get all the tide.

5th overall, results didn't quite work out for us. We certainly haven't lost any of our straight line upwind speed, especially on Friday and Monday when the wind was up. The story of our weekend was poor starts, getting caught out on the wrong side on the twitchier middle two days, indifferent speed downhill, and even the odd capsize for good measure.

Well done comfortable Winners Alistair and Dan!

End to the Long Winter

January staggering home from the Petersen's in the early hours came across this chap, up in arms and a more than just a little frosty...

May. This is a beaut, a little bar near Waterloo, they actually sell motorbikes and odd bits and pieces. With the toilet behind the bar and downstairs tucked around the workshop, this place was a great hangout. Here with Jack Mac and Tom Palmer....

Easter at The Mews, with the Robos, Ris and Zeb....

April. Not sure why I haven't noticed it before, but here at Hyde Park Corner there's quite a moving New Zealand War Memorial. It's very well done, simple, elegant, and moving. Each cross is enscribed with text, pictures and images.... in the other corner of the Corner is the Australian equivalent. It's, err, bigger.

April, earlier that same day. The half of the Crazy Waltons, Seamus & Tim. Great stuff.

Easter, with Ris and Sandy....

March in the Snow, weekend away at Chamonix, with Deborah and Jarrod...

JJ Giltinan 2009

Back in London after a relatively successful JJ Giltinan 18ft International Champs. We placed 9th from 32 which was a fine result for a turn up and sail, Jack recovering from pneumonia etc. Plenty of skilled operators behind us who had hoped for more, so we can't complain too much. Lucky to be sailing with two great yachties; Jack and Fang.

The skiff is looking even better than last year, logo'ing on both sides of the main and spinnakers too. Nice.

Well documented, and well done to all top 6... down to the last race and super close... especially the winners Euan, Linksie and Trent.

Yet to have a look, but I'm told the sailcam.tv footage is really very watchable. Will and Mark were busy every night, very positive for the class.

There were a couple of world class photographers there, Ian Roman and Christophe Favreau.

Ian Roman / JJ Giltinan
Ian Roman / JJ Giltinan / Slam
Christophe Favreau / JJ Giltinan
Christophe Favreau / JJ Giltinan / Slam

Christophe has set up a French 18 blog.

Also I've got Franklin Tulloch from Earthbound Studios to put together a promo viral. The footage is from San Fran last August.

This year our regattas are

• Mark Foy Trophy & European Championships, Carnac, 27 June to 4 July


• San Fran International, 30 Aug to 4 Sept (Bridge to Bridge on Thursday 3rd)

Both events should be big, but the Carnac regatta in particular promises to be a high profile affair, maybe more than 40 skiffs. Double Bay are talking 3 containers, Auckland a container.

What are the SLAM skiff's goals? Clearly : to win! but also to build the brand and awareness of the 18 SLAM. This is year two, and as we build regattas we build awareness. Also towards the end of the year we'll have the skiff in Perth for some promo work.... speed runs from Rottnest Island to Perth, etc etc. Watch this space.

Fixiated

Fascinating Fixies, Fixiated, get it, a nice little home grown portmanteau.

Core driver is the shit awful commute in London. Walk to Earlsfield station -> overground train to Waterloo -> underground drain to Bank -> Bank to Liverpool St -> walk, coffee and work. All the way rammed in like the live sheep trade.

Bike options, plenty.... city road bike, bmx, mtb, preacher, but go watch Mash and the answer is clear... fixed wheel.... without the hard core face sandpaper ideally.

Started off at the high street shops Evans and Cycle Surgery. The entry level fixies generally come with flip-flop hub to allow freewheeling baby steps into this brave new world. Ok, that's the starting point.

Five minute walk and we're in uber cool Brick Lane Bikes, the ceiling littered with bike frames, all steel, the shop itself is more or less a work area. A few japanese shoppers give away how cool it is - they aways hang out in these niche affairs. Surly frame = £350. frame alone. moving on....

Down the road at the Truman area off Brick Lane and a shop called "The Bike Shop", what my mate called Ground Zero. Hard core, obscenely niche-esque, no free wheeling, no brakes, no handle grips, no branding.... Check it out;

Gun metal / Royce Hubs

Handbuilt by Lee Cooper in Coventry

Handbuilt Wheels

£1,600

Pedals no included

Prices across the board seem too high; steel frame, forks, two wheels ... how much can it cost to produce?? Prices start round £350 and go up to £2,000. So, what are the choices.

• off the rack, which tend to be a bit too much "commute", and not enough "fixie" for me. Also they're cheap components and shiny white or silver paint... scratch unfriendly.
• better production, like the Wilier-Pista, but at £850 a bit exie for purpose
• fixie pure, expensive and too hard core for me. The nicest production version is the beautiful Bianchi Pista, shown here 2008 for £400. If I wanted a pure fixie, for fun not commute then this would be the one, god damn it you could hang it on your lounge wall and put the Picasso in storage.

.... it came down to the Kona Paddy Wagon and the Charge Plug Freestyler, both are steel with a bit of colour, enough to look good even better with a few scratches. Their non-fixie elements (handles, brakes, saddle) are matt black and visually low profile / unobtrusive.

Finished up back at Cycle Surgery, went for the Kona Paddy Wagon 2009, they matched my www price of £440. Bargain, apparently.... Next stop is pimping, tricking, blinging her up. Brooks saddle and handle grip, Obama spoke stickers etc etc

Incidently, how many rich kids are on the streets out of work ????

http://www.vanillabicycles.com/

As of December 1st, 2007 the wait for a custom Vanilla is over five years.

bikesnob speaks about it

More Bike

Orbea Diem + Brooks saddle, panniers, handlebar tape + Garmin 705 + Shimano Dura Ace chainset, disc brakes = Rob's Cruiser

Note carbon fibre mudguards, seatpost & handlebars! ... some might say the irony could become overbearing.... http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/06/too-much-irony-too-little-time-elusive.html

18 foot skiffs : San Fran

Bejesus what a regatta. Blows away any other place and any other boat by so far as the render it the best week of any yachtie's sailing year without question... or at least I wanta do anything that's better!

In the end 3rd place, so on the podium. Two excellent boats ahead of us, to be fair Seven won by miles by virtue not of speed but crew work and boat handling - as Howie pointed out at his eloquent prize giving speech it is all about the crew - , and indeed a few real contenders behind who ultimately suffered from lack of consistency, plus Woody on Yandoo who had his worst regatta since I've known him, with a twisted ankle and bashed rib.... no place for the faint hearted and could happen to any of us. For our part three capsizes was a bugger, but probably everyone had at least that, and luckily we got better, as team gelled and boat tuned, and the last three races (except Bridge to Bridge) had us competing quite genuinely for first.... 1st, 2nd and then a 6th (lying in the mix when the jib block blew up). Plenty of work to do, plenty of ideas... all positive.

My word those downhill rides are totally mind re-arranging!

Bridge to Bridge I made a hash of the start, and quite frankly that's the race. Nonetheless 20 minutes of downhill out of control wild ride make it worth it regardless of result. The Bridge, a few knots of ebb, the thick sea fog, helicopters overhead, kites and boards everywhere... totally crazy. Here we are, lame start and all, yellow chute... note Gotta Love It 7 already GE-ON....

For more amazing shots see Christophe Favereau's website or visit him at facebook or on picasa.

Or check out Franklin Tulloch on youtube, which is currently here too. He's working on his amazing movie!

Here's a bit more video

Next Year!

Cowes Week : Extreme 40 class

We won. Won the Extreme 40 class at Cowes Race Week. Dave Alexander, Matt Noble, Tom Partington and trusty navman Charlie Dechaine.

The main event for these boats, the Extreme 40s, was the iShares Cup held immediately prior. We did a weeks practise in our boat Ellen MacArtur Trust, and were keen to compete in the iShares. Unfortunately we were not allowed to race, primarily I think because regatta organisers OC GRoup were cr@pping their pants about their boat being bashed up. Hugely dissappointing.

In the end Oracle France took the boat on Day Two (Sunday) since on day one they had smashed the bejesus out of theirs in a loose port / starboard with BT. The French were on port. Judging by the cracks in the hulls near the front beam join, the groaning and cracking noises coming from the front beam, the looseness of the rudder assembly (in sailing post-iShares) and the bent out of shape massive shackle on the cunningham block, Oracle France continued to push EMT beyond safe limits. Good on em.

So we watched the iShares and then sailed the Cowes Week races in the week after. The racing was in the morning, and in the afternoon took corporates out for jollies. Nice weather too, generally 10-18 knots, never quite getting up to the 20+ knots of iShares.

Four boats competed off and on, BT helmed by the lady herself Ellen, Volvo the dutch entry sailed by Tornado ex-World Champ Herbie, and Holmatro helmed by a dutch bloke who had apparently won the Round Texal Race.

And what about the boats? in 15 - 18 knots were we making 17 - 20 knots upwind, 22 - 26 downwind... so fast, and these were speeds we could sit at, not daily maximums. Sensation-wise though not a great deal going on, and really slow to tack / manoeuvre in general, but the speed is nontheless pretty wild.

i14 Worlds : Wrap Up

Blown out, no racing on the final day, second overall. Well done the winners Archie and Matt, and on one hand was pleasantly surprised by our result and whilst there were no expectations it was quite a fine finish, yet on the other disappointed we didn't get the last race to try and win what was a very winable proposition.... Great regatta, very sociable, and lucky to have sailed with boat and helm. Jarrod and I fight like sibblings on the water, but both with a common goal, and ultimately some super rides and ever improving scorecard make it all worthwhile. They really are fine boats, just a bit short!

Now on to the Extreme 40 iShares, got a crew of 4 with just the one bloke who can spell multi-hull. Should be a blast. Matt Noble, Dave Alexander & Tom Partington - so 1st, 2nd and 3rd from the 14 Worlds, plus the winners of all races (Tom and Andy P won 2 races). Matt has sailed a lot on high performance cats before apparently and Dave had a little cat as a kid, we had a few cats too... Mary, Susan, Roland and Barbara. We'll put her together and spend a few days practising and then take a view if we can be competitive against what is essentially a fully funded, fully professional circuit. Otherwise we'll be a corporate platform. We'll see. Very grateful to John McKenna and OC Group for the opportunity.