MCNICOLYACHTING

on the road again!

2009-07-30T08:43:00.003+01:00

After Finishing up at Garda, I had a long drive to the Weymouth in the UK with the coach boat and two 49ers. I have done plenty of miles in europe over the last few years but I think it is fair to say that this trip was my most entertaining.

After Dropping Nathan and Lauren at Milan airport it was up through switzerland to France and then England.

about ten km's from the Swiss French border the Swiss Police decided to pull me over. They escorted me into a local police compound and gave the Audi and trailer a thorough work over!

Apparently putting a 49er on the roof and having one on top of the coach boat was not really to their liking... after a little negotiating and a few nervous moments it cost 300 Swiss Francs and three hours and reluctantly they let me move on!

Then it was up to Calais for the ferry crossing. As I stopped at the ferry terminal to wait in line for the ferry, I parked and had a good look over the trailer and boats only to find two Pakistani stowaway refugees tucked under the gear in the coach boat! They probably had no idea why I was so furious as they were lying on some of our sails, I was going ballistic! They did get the picture eventually and scurried off into the darkness, then the immigration police turned up, apparently they got caught a little later. I am told that it is a fairly normal thing to occur in Calais. They must have got in at the service station just down the road which I stopped to fill up for fuel... needless to say that it was an action packed 24hours!

after dropping the boats at Weymouth I am heading up to Royal Lytham and St Annes golf Club for the Womens British Open. I am Caddying for Nikki Garrett. Lets hope the English weather can be a little kind!

29er worlds

2009-07-30T08:37:00.002+01:00

After the 49er worlds finished, I stayed around in Garda to coach the Ausralain 29er team.

We had a very solid team with 5 boats, all having a good chance to finish high up in the regatta.

The weather was typical Garda 25-30 degrees and solid 'ora' breezes every day.

Racing was spectacular with 180 boats, 4 fleets and a very busy northern end of the lake!

The team did very well. We managed to finish 1,2,3,6,14. It was great to see the podium filled with Three Aussie boats!

49er worlds

2009-07-30T07:42:00.002+01:00

Well its been a busy couple of weeks.

We finished up in the 49er worlds at 19th place. I guess you could say there are some mixed feelings, you always look at areas which you could have done a little better. But generally I think we are both satisfied that we had a good regatta and got ourselves to a reasonably high level in a short campaign period. Thanks to everyone for the support throughout northern Summer.

As far as the regatta results went, Nathan and Gooby sailed a fantastic regatta, clearly the most consistent boat and thoroughly deserved their win. We have had a great time hanging out with them and all the Aussies during the worlds. Thanks must also go to Emmett, his coaching is invaluable and he keeps us on the straight and narrow in many other ways!

Not sure where too now, will have to spend some time considering options, but Bahamas is fast approaching (regatta Jan 2010) so will have to make a decision on that asap.

A good day

2009-07-14T20:30:00.003+01:00

Well today we finally got down to some racing. Garda has been a fantastic place to be for the last few weeks, but after all we are here to race a worlds and it was great to be out there competing.

We had a pretty typical Garda 'Ora' breeze built from about 12knots for our first race to 16knots later in the day.

Fortunately for us we had a pretty good day, we managed a 1,2,7 in three races to finish the day in 5th overall. Very early days but its nice to know all the work we have been doing is paying off at least a little. The boat is going fast and we hopefully will only get better as the regatta goes on.

But as they say tomorrow is a new day and we have to take it as it comes!

Enough cliches, you can see the results at www.49erworlds.org, or follow links from www.sailing.org.

Two more days of Qualifying then we get split into finals fleets, 25 boats make the cut....

Garda

2009-07-01T20:40:00.005+01:00

Training with Nathan and Gooby... always a race back to the dock!

Well this must be one of the best places to go sailing this time of year. It warm, windy, fresh water and sensational food!!

fortunately we have been reasonably diligent with the weight loss and we can enjoy a few of the local dishes. Sam and I seem to be comfortably under 160kg now so should be in the right range for a moderate to windy regatta here and if the first week is anything to go by we should expect a fair bit of breeze. Today has been the only day so far with less than 12knots during race time...

Anyway we don't start for another 10 days or so, so back to the training track for more practice!

some links :

http://www.fragliavelariva.it/

http://www.49er.org/

Kiel

2009-06-25T21:06:00.003+01:00

Don't have any photos of Kiel, not too much to see there!

We had a pretty tough regatta, not too much breeze, sailed all races below 10 knots and some below 6 knots. But no excuses!

We did not manage to qualify for Gold fleet, missing bey a few points after wasting plenty out on the race course in the first five races...

Then we sailed 3 races in Silver fleet which we had some consistent results and ended up on top of the point score for that fleet and therefore 26th in the regatta....

The Long and the short of it was that we had a little race practice and ironed out a few more things before the worlds, and now we are very much appreciating Italy and all Garda has to offer!

Will definitely have some photos of this place soon!!

some numbers...

2009-06-11T20:10:00.002+01:00

4 days,

19 hours total in the saddle,

345km distance travelled,

9011m elevation gained,

17318 calories burned,

0 flat tyres,

no crashes,

two worn out humans!

What a week!

2009-06-11T19:58:00.003+01:00

We had our final day in the Alps today, and the weather was sensational, 20-25 degrees blue skies...

We took on Col D'Izoard, started from Briancon, then south to Guilestre, then over the Izoard.

again the views were breathtaking, easy to keep your mind off the pain being suffered!

The Dauphine Race is coming along the same route tomorrow, they will do the Izoard also from the south and finish in Briancon, pretty sure they might be a little faster than us!

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8425243

more fun and games in the mountains!

2009-06-10T17:44:00.003+01:00

another tough day at the office....

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8419412

probably our best day weather wise so far, some incredible views from col de croix de fer.

the Alps day one and two...

2009-06-09T20:34:00.005+01:00

Alpe d'Huez day 2, nice view!

During time off in between regattas Tom Slingsby and I decided we needed to spend some time riding in the mountains. We have found a great B and B run by a very friendly english couple, Allan and Lynne, just outside Le Bourg d'oisans in the middle of the French Alps. We are basically at the door step of Cycling's Mecca Alpe d'Huez. This place is Cycling heaven and we are getting very well looked after, plus the beds are sensational!

you can find them at: www.bourgdoisansbandb.com

the view from the descent on the south side of col D'iseran 8 June

I have a Garmin GPS which collects all the useful information on our rides.

Day one: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8408342

Day two: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8414427

Needless to say the views are out of this world, absolutely surreal, if you can bring yourself to actually be able to breathe and take it all in, its hard work up here!

We have another few days here soaking up the fresh air, then I am north for Kiel week and Tom is off to Sardinia for the F40 worlds...

Holland Wrapup

2009-06-01T10:01:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we finished racing in Delta Lloyd regatta.

We finished in 20th place on the scoreboard, but as our first look at the European circuit we can take plenty away from the regatta.

Nathan and Iain won the regatta well, sailing a step above the fleet for the last four days. We have some work to do to push up towards that level, but very much looking forward to the challenge!

the last few days of the regatta were pretty much a light winds affair, we now know that 164kg is too heavy for these conditions so will have to be watching the waistline over the next few weeks...

Our next regatta is Kiel starting on the 19th June, www.kieler-woche.de/eng/englishdefault.php

Sam is away with the family in Greece for two weeks and I am preparing for a big bike ride, the Dragon ride in Wales on the 14th June, www.dragonride.co.uk/

Day 2....

2009-05-28T16:41:00.003+01:00

Day 2 Holland was a very different day to the first day. We had a much lighter day and managed three races. We are sailing in a 49 boat fleet so it is very busy on the race course and any mistakes are punished fairly heavily especially in the light air.

Anyway without getting into the nitty gritty, we had a pretty tough day. a 25, 10, 26. so fell back a little on the scoreboard.

To look on the bright side of things we worked out several do's and don'ts of the 49er fleet and should be much better off for the experience, and tomorrow's another day!

First Day at School!

2009-05-28T05:53:00.004+01:00

Well we made it through our first day relatively unscathed. Medemblik turned on some nasty weather with 12 degree air temp and plenty of wind 20-25kn gusting a little more later in the day.

We were in good shape in the first race, but I managed to capsize us in the first gybe.... then worked our way around the minefield to finish 23rd.

Second race saw an increase in the breeze and even more carnage, plenty of boats upside down, enjoying the balmy ijseelmeer....

Anyway we managed an 8th after only one small capsize, definitely got ourselves into some interesting positions with that much breeze around and boats crashing everywhere. sometimes you had to have one eye for the show going on around! ( thats us in the background above, sail number 1051)

So all in all not a bad day, a little disappointing to swim a few times , but we had little damage, and are ready to go for today...

results : www.deltalloydregatta.org/

The Tour Begins

2009-05-26T19:25:00.007+01:00

Well we arrived in Paris via Hong Kong, complete with a 4 metre mast package, 3 metre sail package and my bike box. We sent the remaining 80 kilos of luggage freight, and after a little french translating managed to get out bags from the freight department and we were off, in our new Citroen!

we had to get ourselves down to Marseille to pick up the new boat, put it on the roof then up to Amsterdam to get ready for holland regatta.

We managed to set up a bed in the back, in between all the bags and gear and had a gentle 2000km drive....

Fortunately all went well and we are now in Amsterdam, sailing at Medemblik each day. The regatta starts tomorrow, and we had a real taste of European wether today with 20-25kn and 12 degree air temp....

but the boat is in good shape and we are slowly finding our feet, and fitting into the time zone etc.

We have been really lucky to be staying with our friends Jarrod and Deborah Simpson here in Huizen just near Amsterdam. They have a great house with beautiful grounds and gardens, a great place to wind down after a days sailing! Grant Rollerson is also here, he and Jarrod are sailing the 14 here, getting ready for the Europeans, for which they should be warm favourites after narrowly missing out on the win coming in second in last years 14 worlds in Warnemude, Germany.

The regatta starts tomorrow, results can be found at www.deltalloydregatta.org/2009/.

Europe '09

2009-05-19T08:58:00.002+01:00

Well it has been quite a while since I have blogged, but I am hoping to keep a little more up to date with adventures over the next few months.....

I (we) are just about to head over to Europe for another northern Summer of sailing. This year it is in the 49er. I am sailing with Sam Newton, who is fast becoming one of the more sought after sailors in Sydney. Recently he has added to his ever increasing resume a Sydney to Hobart handicap win aboard Bob Steels 'Quest', this to go with heaps of match racing and skiff experience means he is a great guy to have on the front of the 49er!!

We have three regatta's planned., firstly Holland now called Delta Lloyd regatta, followed by Kiel Week and then the 49er worlds in Riva del Garda in July. There is no doubt Garda is one of the most spectacular places in the world to visit and to sail. It is certainly on my personal must do list for places to hang out and go sailing!

We fly out to Paris tomorrow with a short drive to Marseille to pick up our new 49er, then up to Medemblik to get ready for the regatta.

We have been doing quite a bit of sailing here in Sydney over the last few months, getting to know the new 49er rig. First impressions are that it is a really good step forward. Not only a good looking item of equipment, but definitely gives the boat a performance gain and I am guessing the extra sail area will help us heavier crews out in the lighter air!

Thanks to everyone for there help our the last few months, Clynton and the team from Bethwaite design, Carl and the guys from Harken and our friends at Sailingbits.com.

Looking forward to Sunny Medemblik already!!

Garda

2007-10-02T00:42:00.000+01:00

After Sardegna it was Garda. Lago de Garda is a very famous sailing / windsurfing spot up in the north of Italy at the foot of the Dolomites. I have been there quite a few times but it never ceases to blow me away with breathtaking views, great food, wine and the famous Italian culture!

We were there for the Star Europeans sailing from Malcesine yacht club on the north Eastern side of the lake. The guys had a mixed regatta finishing 13th but finished off the regatta on a positive note.

We were also lucky enough to eat at our friend Luca Modena's restuarant a few times while we were there. His place is right down on the water just south of Malcesine on the lake, the food is incredible and he always plays the perfect host...

Sardegna

2007-10-02T00:24:00.000+01:00

For the first week of September I sailed the Maxi wold Cup on Alfa Romeo. Sardegna (Sardinia) is one of the most beautiful places you can go sailing. Porto Cuervo was built by the Arga Khan in the 70's and is most definitely a must see port if you are ever cruising the Med!

We sailed through an around the straights of Madelena in between Corsica and Sardegna, crystal clear blue waters and sunny skies... Unfortunately our main rivals Wild Oats lost there rig during the second race so we were without a sparring partner after that. We won over the line and Morning Glory won on handicap...

The big man!!

2007-07-17T01:41:00.000+01:00

This is a photo of my buddy Will McCarthy holding the Americas Cup. He has been on the last two winning crews with Alinghi....

Rallye Europe...

2007-07-14T12:04:00.000+01:00

Just finished another memorable road trip. I was taking the Star and coach boat, from Cascais Portugal to Italy ready for the Europeans later in the year then dropping the car off in Munich before flying back to Aus.
So the Portugal, Spain, France sections were fairly uneventful, basically distance already covered last month. But Italy in particular Lake Como and the Alps was something else. Lake Como is one of the most photographed and filmed lakes in the world.

Waking up this morning and eating breakfast overlooking the Lake, mountains and Town of Bellagio on the opposite shore was even for a very uninspired tourist like me quite breathtaking. I then jumped back in the car and had a full day to be in Munich so managed a little touring through Switzerland, Northern Italy, Austria and finally Germany.

St Moritz was as expected, great views, beautiful lakes and snow covered peaks even in the middle of July, then over the Bernina Pass and back up into Italy via a small ski resort called Livigno. If you have seen the movie the Italian Job, the Dam and lake where there is a scene of the truck going over into the water was filmed here… As always in the Alps there are cyclists everywhere training and touring, plus in places Swiss Cows complete with big cow bells, some even wandering around the road!

Austria was more of the same, but I think I like the feel of Italy more, the combination of language culture and food is hard to beat!
Then it was the German Autobahn and some serious pace on the way into Munich. The roof racks on the car were having a hard time staying on at 240km/h, apart from the constant noise at that speed, everything felt reasonably normal, other than the extra hint of adrenalin when someone looks like pulling out from the right hand lane!
Maybe next time I will make it back in winter for some skiing. Very easy to imagine how sensational some of these places would be when there is heaps of snow around!

The Alps

2007-06-30T11:06:00.000+01:00

On the way to St Tropez I spent some time travelling through the French Alps.

I wanted to see some of the famous places and alpine passes the tour de France passes through.

I did a lap from Grenoble, Alp d'Huez, over col de Croix de fer, over col du Galibier, then down to Briancon.

Huez is one of the more famous tour stages, Lance won a 14 km time trial there a few years ago. It rises from about 700m to 1700m over 14km with 24 switch back hair pins and a few ski lifts to negotiate, might also be fun to do some skiing there in Winter. I did see a few pro teams training as well as heaps of tourists taking on the mountain...

Galibier was 2645m above sea level and as you can see from the Photos well above the snow line. The tour comes through here in mid July only a few weeks away, it was well below 10 degrees, there were still quite a few tourists riding their bikes over the mountains, I would love to come back soon with my bike and a bit more time....perhaps one day to do la Marmotte race which is basically a 176km loop from Alp d'huez over this loop and back, only about 5000m vertical!! perhaps a little more training required for that one!!

Afterwards It was back down the hill to Nice to spend the night with my Great Uncle Charlie who lives in Antibes and then meet up with the guys on Alfa to get to St Tropez for the Giraglia Race....

Valencia

2007-06-02T23:40:00.000+01:00

Now its some R and R in Valencia, I am staying with Will McCarthy and his wife Louise. They have two young girls Caitlin and Natalie. We had a small sample of the local criminal mind today. I went for a run along the beach (you can see the cup boats circling only a mile or so off the sand) and instead of taking the house key with me decided to hide it in a pot plant at the front of the house. Well 30 minutes later I returned and it was gone!! not only did I have to sit in front of the house for 3 and a half hours guarding it before Lousie and Will came home, but had my tail firmly planted in between my legs explaining the situation to them. I do feel for the poor bastard who trys to break in and rob us, Will is a very large human (one of the grinders on the Alinghi Cup boat) and would take great pleasure in demonstrating that it was clearly the wrong move for anyone to think that he is not the boss around here!
Incedently the Kiwi's won again today, looked pretty comfortable and they now lead 2 - 0 in a best of 9....

On the road again...

2007-06-02T23:30:00.000+01:00

Okay so I think it is fair to say I have spent some time behind the wheel of late. After successfully tackling the US it was time to take on Europe. After the regatta finished in Holland we needed to get the whole show down to Portugal some 2500km away. Unfortunately the setup with Star and coachboat on the trailer only can really manage 90km/h so there was certainly plenty of time to enjoy the soothing tones of Dutch, French and Spanish radio. I only had one run in with the Police. The Spanish guardia civilia fined me for having my ipod headset in while driving.... no amount of conversing was going to change the outcome and the 3 of them made it very clear that I would not be allowed to carry on without coming up with the cash... I hope they enjoyed their friday night at the local pub!!

Portugal seems to be much nicer place than Spain, so should be all good spending three weeks there for the worlds from the 16th june....

Medemblik

2007-06-02T23:23:00.000+01:00

Just had a fine week sailing in Sunny Medemblik, Holland. (about an hour north of Amsterdam)

It was the first hitout for our Star team's Euro campaign 07. We were breaking in a new Lilia Star boat and a new BF coachboat.

(see picture) I can't say the week was a raging success as the results were not spectacular but we did acheive some goals of bedding in the new toys and generally coming to grips with the task at hand over the next few weeks. Iain and Dog have an opportunity to qualify both themselves and the nation for the Olympics at the World Championships in Portugal next month, so fingers crossed!

Auckland 18 regatta

2007-05-03T09:40:00.000+01:00

After a brief stop in Sydney, it was back on a plane to Auckland. The Kiwi's have been trying to get a fleet of 18 footers going over there for a while and they had organised a regatta at the end of our season so we could all make it. Auckland is very similar to Sydney geographically, with the harbour, bridge city etc, but on a smaller scale. It is a great place to sail as there is a strong tidal influence making the racing quite strategic trying to figure out whats going on both above and below the water. Our aussie fleet send over two containers of boats, I think the fleet ended up at 13, all in all a pretty good turn out for a new regatta.

Sailing with me on Club Marine were Herman Winning and Peter Harris. Although we are all really good mates, we have never all been on the same boat together. I had faith though that Herman's high level of fitness and Peters strong diplomacy skills would pull us through.
Seve, Sam and Rob sailing their boat gotta love it 7 were also in NZ and would be hard to beat coming off a second place in the Giltinan back in Feburary.

We managed a pretty consistent week with 2 firsts and 5 seconds. Seven had 5 ones, a five and an eight, so in the end we were tied and they won on a countback. Great sailing a little bit of everything with breezes from 6 to 20 knots. I hope the Kiwi's get their fleet up and running and we can make it an annual event.

It wouldn't be right not to mention the after hours activities that took place during the regatta. As it was a fairly low key event, some of the boys tried to take post sailing partying to a new level. The long and the short of it is that the Auckland Central Police station is not a very classy estabilishment at 1am, nor are the bouncers at the Loaded Hog particularly interested in being target practice for the world pot plant throwing championships. Fortunately after a day or so to sober up the local magistrate saw fit to only fine the offending character and we may be allowed back into the country at a later date.
Definitely upholding all the traditions of the 18 foot skiff class, perhaps even a performance the local 12 foot skiff boys could be proud of!!

Palma

2007-05-03T09:03:00.000+01:00

Well, a lot has happened in the last few weeks, I feel like I have been permanently on a plane, but on the positive side have had a really good time in some pretty nice places. I am a little sick of airlines losing my luggage, twice in two weeks is a little annoying, but my bags did turn up eventually, even after some interesting 'spanish' conversations with the lovely lady at Iberian Airlines...

After finishing up in LA and putting the star boat away in storage it was off to Spain. I have been lucky enough to have been asked to sail on Alfa Romeo the 100 foot super maxi owned by Neville Crichton.

http://www.alfaromeo.com.au/default.asp?action=article&ID=232

It is a really impressive 'toy', basically you sit there for most of the day in awe of the power and size of everything involved, the loads are quite incredible. Touch wood I haven't lost a finger yet! Have a look at the above site, there are some great photos of the boat in Europe last year. The schedule for this year is equally impressive, I am hoping I will get asked back to sail on the boat for the whole season, fingers crossed.

The Palma regatta was a reasonably low key event, with mainly cruising Wally boats and swans as the opposition, but was a good opportunity for the new guys to get to know the boat and prepare for the season. The TP52's had a fleet of 9 boats which was good to watch.

We did do one longer passage race about 50 miles around the Mallorca coastline. Great fun, I don't think Mallorca is quite as nice as Sardinia or Corsica, but the Med is a pretty nice place to be, especially cruising along upwind at 11 knots in a Super Maxi!

The flight back to Sydney was always going to be a long haul, especially going via Madrid, London and Singapore. I then had six hours in Sydney to do my washing before flying to Auckland for an 18 regatta, no rest for the wicked!

another short drive...

2007-04-11T19:09:00.000+01:00

This time it was only 4 states, 1500 miles, 21 hours...
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California

It was also definitely a case of four seasons in one day, after leaving Dallas in the middle of a cold snap (it snowed on Easter Saturday) and seeing snow on the ground at a gas station in Odessa West Texas, it warmed up considerably in New Mexico and Arizona.
I continued to be quite intrigued by the places I was passing. El Paso is right on the border of Mexico, as you drive along the 10 interstate you can see the some what less luxurious Mexican housing over the other side of the border. Quite weird how a border divide like that can make so much difference, especially to this Aussie who is not used to any neighbours!
Also not far away on the map was Roswell, New Mexico. I did consider stopping there to see if I could find any aliens, but decided I am way to cynical to believe....

After what felt like forever it was down the hill back into LA, my timing was perfect, rush hour, 8am Monday.... bugger. Still driving across the US is something I will remember for quite a while.

I have a few days here cleaning up the Star Boat then flying to Palma on Thursday Morning...

5 states, 1150 miles, 17 hours... Welcome to Texas

2007-04-11T18:44:00.000+01:00

After Tampa it was a long drive across the US to Los Angeles. I have been meaning to 'drop' in on Amy and Matt, friends who are living in Dallas, Texas, so what better way to break up a long drive.

During the drive I went through 5 states, Florida, Alabama, Mississipi, Louisiana and Texas, as you can imagine the music I was listening to on the radio was quite an experience in itself, I definitely have a new appreciation of country! I know Australia is a big place but America is almost as big and absolutely full of people and places. It is quite staggering how such a big area can be so full of people. (no wonder they need all that extra oil from the middle east)

I made it to Texas in time for Grace's ( Matt and Amy's daughter)1st birthday. Amy had all sorts of fun things organised including a petting zoo in the back yard. Quite hilarious to see a sheep, pig, rabbits, goats, chicks and guinea pigs in the back yard, the kids all loved it!

I also had to buy some good old Texan cowboy boots. After checking out several thousand pairs at the local shop we decided that Lizard skin Luchese's were the go. Then it was out on the town to check out the local night life. Dallas is sometimes referred to as the New york of the south, definitely quite a big stretch, but all the locals seemed to enjoy strutting around playing the part. I also managed a little celebrity spotting, the guy who won the academy award last year for Capote was in the night club...

As you may know the US is quite religious, despite my immediate concern of being struck down by lightening, I was persuaded by Matthew to go to church seeing as it was Easter Sunday. And yes it was quite an experience, more casual than expected, but I take it that religion is a very popular activity over there.... At least I had a moment to contemplate the 1500 mile drive coming up to Los Angeles.

It was great to see Matt, Amy and Grace, the Texan hospitality was sensational, can't wait to visit again soon!

Star Western Hemisphere's Tampa Florida

2007-04-11T18:21:00.000+01:00

These fine looking machines are Olympic Star boats. For the last few months I have been working with Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey, trying to help them reach their goal of Beijing '08. They are both great people to work with and I am learning heaps not only about star boats but life in General! It has certainly been a slower pace than most of the sailing I have been involved with in recent times, but it always proves to be quite demanding. As in most Olympic classes the competition is fierce and margins are small. We recently competed in the Western Hemisphere Champs in Tampa. For our team it was an important regatta as opportunities to fulfill national criteria are running out leading into selection for 2008. Given the category of this regatta a top three finish would qualify the guys for the Australian sailing team and mean they are on their way to Olympic Selection, not to mention a large chunk of government funding....

The regatta venue although on Tampa Bay, was acting much like a lake, very fickle, shifty conditions not exactly ideal for sailboat racing, but a difficult mental challenge to overcome, as they say, it is the same for everyone...

After some interesting races, with places changing at the drop of a hat, the guys managed to finish in third place overall, we did achieve our goals for the week and continued some good form shown in Bacardi Cup in March. 4th in Bacardi and 3rd in Tampa are both great results, good form leading into a European season. Next Month its Holland regatta in Medemblik, Kiel, Germany and the worlds in Caiscais Portugal....

More Mammoth!

2007-03-28T00:24:00.000+01:00

Just got back from Mammoth, had another 3 days up there with Mike and Howie (Sailing buddies from LA). It snowed a little last Tuesday night so there was a little more snow than last week. Apparently this year is well down on the previous two seasons, I can only imagine how good it can be when it snow 400+ inches in a season!

I am still blown away by the views. Yosemite National park is just over the hill, you can see the Minarets (rugged 13,000 foot peaks, photo) which border the park from the top of Mammoth. We also did a little exploring up a few valley roads, I'm sure the mountaineering is world class, almost worth coming back in summer for!

www.mammothmountain.com

Now it is back 'home' to Long Beach for a few days. On Wednesday I am off to Florida for another Star regatta, the western Springs in Tampa. Then a road trip from Tampa to LA to bring the Star boat to the west coast. Looking forward to seeing Texas and getting myself some cowboy boots and a ten Gallon Hat!!

Well worth a look

2007-03-22T19:15:00.000Z

Howie sent me this youtube link, a good one to get you in the mood for skiing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd8AJdcnw4A

FIRST ENTRY!

2007-03-22T05:37:00.000Z

Well here goes!
I have just spent the last while skiing in Colorado, a big statement, but definitely one of the best weeks of my life so far. I managed to ski 6 resorts in 8 days, so plenty of travel, but some amazing views and quite a deal of time spent pondering life on the chair lifts admiring the view...
I spent time staying with the Vincze Family in their amazing house in Breckenrige CO. I sailed 14's against John (photo below enjoying the hot tub!) last summer in California and he made the mistake of inviting me to his place to do some skiing. As I had some time to kill in between Miami regatta's I turned up on his doorstep. What I didn't count on was John and his wife Nicki's hospitality, during the course of the week I was treated as family and showed all the good runs! I was absolutely blown away by their place in Breck, 45 acres at 10 000 feet up above Breck town, with breathtaking views of the Valley and mountains, something you don't see every day, especially in Australia. I even was lucky enough to have a few runs with PK, John and Nicki's 4 yr old daughter, scary how good she is at that age! ( I hope PK remembers the golden rules I mentioned to her, like: Mummy is always right!)
We managed some runs at Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin and Vail. I also spent a day over the other side of the hill at Aspen, I went skiing with my friend Alex who was brought up there and showed me around Snowmass. We had drinks at a really cool little bar right below Aspen mountain, then dinner with her mum and friend Cristy, great company for a birthday eve dinner... definitely a little surreal to spend your birthday in such a way, but something I will never forget. Difficult to descibe how lucky I felt!

Then it was off to LA to see my 'other' family Howie and Julie.
I lived with Howie and Julie last year for 5 months while we sailed the I14 in the Long Beach Worlds. We had planned to go skiing at Mammoth for the weekend and we flew up there in Howies Helicopter. Seeing California from 1000 feet really is the way to go. We flew past Mount Whitney, the highest in the US at 4418m way above anything I am used to seeing, the land goes from desert to mountains very quickly, quite different from Colorado, but breathtaking never the less....
We spent two days blasting around Mammoth, and althought the snow wasn't perfect, the weather was, blue skies and people skiing in t-shirts, so very difficult to complain!
This weekend it's back to Mammoth for some more fun( I think they had 6 inches of snow last night), then next week over to Florida for more Star sailing.... will keep you posted