MURRAY HARBOUR PEI

The Feng Shui racing team from New Zealand comprising of Anatole Masfen, Matthew Kelway and Andrew Mills has lifted the 2016 Etchells Open European Championship.  All the members of the New Zealand Feng Shui racing team were from Auckland and it looks like their chemistry was brought to the fore on the tricky and breezy conditions in the Solent.

This race has over 50 fleets participating that include World champions, Olympians as well as American Cup winners. The British National Champion, Ante Razmilovic, came second in the race and the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club Connecticut, USA team under Steve Benjamin came in a close third. The last race of the series saw the former Etchells World Champion and the current America’s Cup winner John Bertrand winning the race. (more…)

The yacht club at Chichester had a great opening where about 33 boats were present. Indeed, the weather condition also held though it might not be described as perfect. Races were held, three in number. There was a forceful wind that even capsized a few of the boats but the wind dropped after that as the race three was coming to an end.

The course was trapezoidal in design and there was a smaller 4.2 rig topper along with full rig 5.3 boats that were part of the race. The races gave the new members of the club a chance to improve their skills and to join in and experience the thrill and uncertainties of the races. (more…)

GC32 Oman Air of Oman Sail started their Extreme Sailing Series 2016 season with a magnificent showcase of foiling putting them at the top of leaderboard on the first day in Muscat. Oman’s ancient sea port Muttrah is just twenty kilometers north of the Al Mouj Golf Course race track in Muscat. Oman Air, with Morgan Larson’s new look crew, swept a grand win.

After training only for a few days in the new GC32, the squad appeared to have made a strong and exciting bond that underpinned a 2nd win in the next race plus 2 further victories to post an emphatic score of 4 wins in 6 races.

The breeze refreshened to sixteen knots before propelling Race Director Phil Lawrence to call off the coastal race to Al Mouj that made for ‘some tight, challenging and fun’ racing in front of the audience in Muttrah, the place where Nasser Al Mashari, the Oman Air bowman, lives.

Larson told that it was really magnificent to sail in a brand new location in Muscat, in front of the city. It was a great call by the race director as the conditions were really great – it was challenging, fun and tight. He added that going into that day, they were not that confident but everything came together. They require to build on where they are at now. This is a long season so for them, they need to just take the perfect steps without cutting any corners, and even if in the short term they do not get it right, they need to for the long term.