Geelong tune up

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

So after the 16 hour drive, we finally made it to Geelong.

I got my boat together this morning and went out for the Zhik photo shoot at around 2.30. I was about to go in when Rohan pulled up in his RIB and offered to set some marks for a few sprint races.

Bora, Rob (from Hobart) Lockie and Andrew Brown sailed in most of the races with a light to medium seabreeze blowing.

It was good to line up and check my boat speed. I seemed to be right on the pace in that stuff. Actually I thought I was a little quicker downwind but didn’t win any races after a few poor starts and other mistakes.

So all in all, I’m happy. The water is perfectly flat here, but it’s gusty and shifty. I think the tactics will play a big part in deciding the overall winner.

Tomorrow should be fairly light again, and I’ll probably go for a quick sail before my afternoon rest. The real fun starts on Tuesday….

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4 Comments to Geelong tune up

    Mark Hayward on January 19th, 2009

  1. Hey buddy, thought you might be keeping us updated via your site. Hope all goes well. Watch those starts and mistakes.

    good luck

    Oh here is the URL of an article about the championships…http://www.sail-world.com/news_archive_f.cfm?Nid=52330

    2. luka on January 20th, 2009

  2. Thanks Mark… Off to a bad start with 2 swims in today’s windy race finishing 19th. It’s probably the worst race I ever sailed…. but tomorrow is another day.

    2006 world Champ Simon Payne won with Australian Olympic sailor Nathan Outteridge in 2nd.
    The wind is shify and gusty so, playing the shifts is proving crutial to doing well.

    I hope to be in single digits for tomorrows 3 races….

    3. grant on January 21st, 2009

  3. great effort to Dave, 3rd behind Simon and an olympic competitor. What are your impressions of the Mach 2 ?

    4. luka on January 22nd, 2009

  4. Mach 2 looks great. Not a fan of the gantry, but the rest of the boat is well thought out and foils are low drag and small. The boat has probably been optimised for stronger winds expected at Gorge and Belmont, but I have no confirmation of this.

    They have sold a few so far and I can’t see Bladerider competing with their VRX. The only issue still is the price. Buying their foils might be the best way to get the speed, but at $4000USD they are not cheap.

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