Signing off from New Zealand

World Champion Kimberley Lim from Singapore in the middle

Well this is our last blog from the 2011 Oppy Worlds here in Napier, New Zealand.

Its a great day today, no rain and about 15-20kts of wind- perfect for a regatta!

Thanks to Tony and his wife for letting us use his shed.

Thanks for all you support, see you next year.

End Game ......Nearly

Hawkes Bay is home to many vinyards, we went to Vidal vinyard thanks to Piero in Scotland and had a tour of the barrels and lunch to celebrate Carole's birthday, there are many other famous wineries, including Church Farm, Elephant Hills, Clearview, Mission, Sacred Hills and many more.

The sailing..................................

As Iwas looking out of the window onto Sunny Hawkes Bay, compete with 15kts of easterly sea breeze, late this afternoon I was thinking about the 2 aborted races earlier today, the first race in a fickle 3-4 kts which was abandoned at the boats started to drift about.

Good job for Jamie as he was OCS, Jo was in to top 10 just behind Singapore, Matt was about 20 in his flight and Sarah and Milo were in the 30's.

Then the race officer set a new start further out to sea in a current which was more than 6 boat lengths a minute wind with tide.

This time the fleet struggled to cross the line at all, and even though he let all 3 flights go, the time limit for the windward mark was going to come into play.

Matt was in the top 10 approaching the winward mark, but that was that the time limit was reached and N over A was displayed and we towed all the sailors several miles back to Napier.

We derigged the boats and got our damage deposits back, Matt had an interview with the man from the Independent, and we are now packing.

We are having a Kiwi BBQ at 1800 and at 2030 there'll be the prize giving.
Matt stayed at 21st.

More news later.

Hello Again- Who Crashed My Ship

Daddy wasn't the car parked just there?

Hi sorry for the none news no internet, it been like Wales on a wet misty, horizontal rain, 30 kts here today, until the front passed and the wind dropped to 20kts and the vis improved. The wind was a gusty offshore number, with a 1 metre swell coming into the bay against the wind so it was a bit weird.

We had 3 races and some good results. Matt had the best of the day with a 26,9,3 to move upto 21st.

Jamie, started with a 5 but was munched on 2 starts scoring a 28 and 48 to be 89. Milo had a good mid fleet day today, to improve. Jo didn't enjoy his day with a 27 and a couple of shockers.

Sarah nearly got 2 starts sorted but struggled to get right, in the last race there was a bet with the coach that she couldn't get into the top 10 and proceeded, to wipe the floor with the fleet, leading by 10 boat lenghts at the winward mark, reach and down the run, and finished a great 4th.

Dean Barker came and gave the sailors a chat about the Americas cup stuff which was good, Jamie even had his hat signed by Deano.

Tommorrow is the last day, 2-3 races and a good easterley is forecast- pictures below more news soon.

It was wet again

Jamie about to be suncreamed up by mum.

Milo doing jaw exercises before going afloat

Matt finishes third in the last race of the day

Sarah finishes 4th in her last race of the day.

GBR on TV

Hi everyone, nice and sunny here today in Napier. Sin won the team racing final from Peru and Thai [who beat us yesterday in the last race] came third.

Check out http://www.optiworldsnz.org.nz/ for the round up which features GBR team racing.

Jo ready to do battle

The team tuck into great Kiwi sandwiches.


Alan has been out and about early morning often with Ravi, and once with big Iain, and now has over 200 miles under his belt, this is a famous junction in these parts.

Friday is a lay day and the forecast is for good easterlies of the Pacific for the last 3 days of the worlds with some rain again.- heres hoping to good winds.

Team racing - so close

Light winds today and sometimes sunny and sometimes cloudy, we shared a coach boat with Spain and it was good fun afloat, we were even joined by NZL. 7 hours afloat today for 4 races.

Team Spain Barcelona and Real Madrid fanatics.

Our first race was against Bermuda, and capitano Matt, led the team to victory, or so we thought. The results board said we had won, then were were told we had lost. I had a detailed sums game with Matt and Jo so we knew we had won, I sent a deputation to the Chief Umpire, and he went tpo the finish boat to check then came back and said we had definately lost, so Jo explianed how we couldn't have lost so the Chump went back to the finish and then came back and said we had won - they could count after all. The Team GBR support team on the shore could be heard celebrating on the shore.

Lycra tops are all the rage and this one is HKG's Callum from HKG sporting a red number with a dragon on it.

Then came NZL, with TV crews and media stuff, we accidently beat NZL, mainy because Leonard did a mark trap on Matt 4 boat lengths out and matt went to windward and got room, Sarah did some great tacking too.

So then in race 3 we were up against the Argentinians, a race we could so easily have won, and got through to the finals. But we lost it on the finish even though Matt was dishing out penalties everywhere.

Finally we had to go into the losers final against Thailand, the plan was to make sure that there were 2 behind going to the finish if we couldn't outsail them. They were too smart and narrowly beat us on the finish. So 4 races, 2 wins and 2 losses, a draw but we didn't quite get into the finals by 2 points, on countback in the pool of losers for 16th place.

Tonight we went to a cultural evening and all the dads joined in with the boys doing a stone skimming competition.

More news coming soon.

Jamie and Milo in the spa bath

Milo and Jamie celebrating Xmas Kiwi style [ picture sanctioned by Ravi]

Ouch that Hurt

Guess where this country is and why is it so named, Ps, its not big.

Ok so you get the drift, 3 kts and strong current, grey and cold- yep its the same place we were at yesterday.
We should have known better, the wind tended left but the precieved wisdom was middle right, oops.
A 1 race day in a 1 race bay. Jamie kicked off with a 20's to rocket up to the early 60's after the drop came in [ discard], good effort. Sarah had a great start but went right when the wind went left and was DFL. Matt went right with purpose and vanished completely only to reappear in Brisbane several days later, at least it was sunny.

Now the go for it twins of Milo and Jo were really up for it, so much so that they joined about 30 others who were OCS- big oops. We have been through the tracking for 9 hours and all have learn't a lot.
So today is behind us, Matt early 30's and Jamie early 60's still with a big drop to come. with the rest following on.

Jamie can't find anything even his hydrophobic top, which is afraid of the water. So Jen tidied up his room, note the neat shoes at the bottom of the bed. Milo was accidently left in a drawer, but at least he is tidy now, and can find most of his 3 watches.
So we are team racing in the morning, first up against Bermuda, Matt is the capitano. If we win we get NZL next who have a bye and if we lose we get a bye to the third round. Its double elimination, lose 2 and we are out.
More news later.
Ps, there is an article on Independent online- sport - sailing about GBR.