Round the island Champions and 2nd overall in Exteme sailing series Asia

It was brilliant to get back on the helm of a multihull again, and in my opinion nothing beats an extreme 40! I teamed up with skipper Nick Maloney again (jib/kite trim) on bt, this time sailing with Olympian Will Howden on mainsheet and Andy Doer on Bow. The guys did a great job of instantly gelling as a team and we were very pleased to take a small points lead after day two of racing ahead of European I shares cup champions Oman Masirah skippered by Pete Cumming.

Day 3 was perhaps the highlight, along with 300 boats, ranging from lasers to 50ft race boats, we raced around the island of Hong Kong. The extreme 40’s set off last, but within twenty minutes of starting we had already caught up the two hour headstart of the slower boats. Gybing our way through gaps in the fleet between the island and mainland hong kong. We held third spot behind the two Oman boats for the first 40 minutes before the first transition zone between the gradient northerly brease and the more southerly sea brease, we decided to stick close to the headland while the fleet headed offshore looking for stronger wind, our tactics paid off slightly and we led for a short while, along with team china and masirah. At the next “transition stage” it was masirah who best transitioned from the downwind brease to the new upwind wind direction, quickly sailing away as they moved into stronger winds. We began a great fight, constantly changing places with team china as we raced towards the western channel close o the finsh. As we approached the final leg the wind was really shutting down. We headed inshore on the northern side looking for wind with china slightly ahead, we both passed masirah who had to settle for third. We trailed team china right upto the final 400metres when we best judged the final wind transition, furling our kite and maintaing speed to pass team china, and win the final sprint to the line!

The final two days were back to short fleet racing. Masirah sailed excellently, to retake the lead from us. We struggled on the start line, and they took advantage starting well and slowing us down if they got the opurtunity. We rallied to win the final “double points” race, finishing comfortably ahead of third. We are now revved up to learn from our mistakes and go one better next week in Singapore!

Extreme Sailing series Asia

After calling time on my 49er campaign, i am really pleased to have been asked to get back aboard the bt extreme 40 for the events in Hong Kong and Singapore.
With the Tornado definately removed from the 2012 Olympics, and a disapointing finish at the 49er worlds despite very encouraging results in the lighter airs events, i decided to resign from Olympic campaigning. I had a great ten months learning to sail the 9er, but would need at least another ten to get our boathandling to a level to compete in the olympic fleet. With Olympic selection process already begun and UK sailors already dominating the International fleet it seemed the right time to move on.
Racing in the extreme 40's is a great substitute for Olympic racing so im looking forward to joining up with the guys on tuesday......