We hope you enjoy reading Nick’s account of Asians and well done to the New Zealand sailors on their achievements.
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The team assembled in Abu Dhabi over several days from 23rd October. Charter boats were received and rigged and the quality was generally very good, four Nu Blue and one Winner, however one of the boats needed to be replaced due to a mast step issue after initial trainings.
The weather was 33-36 degrees every day, which certainly got some getting used to, the team was keen to get back to the hotel for a dip in the pool every evening. The team did one day training in the afternoon sea breeze on the 25th, with measurement on the 26th. It was a good experience for the sailors to take their boats through the stringent IODA measurement checks. A scheduled day off on the 27th saw the team visit the F1 track at Ras Island for Karting, perusing the huge Ras Mall, and a smaller group visiting the desert for a 4wd experience, which included falconry, a BBQ and belly dancing. A great time was had by all.
Two more scheduled days of slightly longer and more intensive training followed, as the team built into the regatta. The planned rest day on Monday saw the team heading out onto the water for the practice race instead, to experience the race committee boats, marks and course location. The race was started, with the team heading straight back to shore without finishing. The first day of qualifying saw Finloe and Sofia in yellow flight, Blake in blue flight and Will and Jake in red flight. In an unusual quirk of the scoring, this configuration didn’t change for the whole qualifying series. The 12pm start time set by the race committee proved ambitious, as every day the overnight (offshore) land breeze dying out around 11.30am and slowly swinging around to the northwest.
The daily sea breeze didn’t really become established until around 1.30 or 2pm, which left the window for sailing in the light and choppy conditions relatively short, as dusk fell around 5.30pm. Despite this, the race committee managed to get the qualifying series of 5 races completed on the morning of the team racing day, Thursday 2nd November, by electing to sail in the morning land breeze out on the main race course, which provided a solid 10-14kts of shifty breeze in flat water, enjoyed by the Kiwi sailors.
Mixed fortunes in the qualifying series saw Jake, Will and Blake Sail well in early qualifying to make gold fleet for the finals series, with Sofia and Finloe narrowly missing out on the silver fleet, to round out the regatta in bronze. The team racing championships was scheduled between the qualifying series and finals racing, to be held in the lagoon adjacent to the yacht club, with excellent spectating from the air conditioned sailors lounge. The first attempt at running racing ended in an abandonment due to no wind after the start of race 1.
This meant that the team racing would be sailed the next day and the finals fleet racing reduced to one day only. Our sailors battled valiantly, but unfortunately lost both opening races and were first back to the beach, closely followed by team Australia, whom also lost both opening races.
As there were no other teams from Oceania, this led to both teams sharing the podium for 1st place in the teams racing Oceanian Championship. The final day of racing, for the fleet finals series, was scheduled for four races and luckily conditions were favourable, with a great NW breeze from the morning.
The gold fleet racing was predictably tough, results as follows: Jake Dickey 44th (2nd Oceania), Will Fyfe 46th (3rd Oceania), Blake Batten 52nd, Sofia Turner 109th (4th in bronze fleet) and Finloe Gaites 149th after missing the finals racing due to illness. No doubt our sailors will have learnt a great deal from this experience one way or another and will now be looking forward to the forthcoming season and travelling again to represent NZ next year.
Many thanks to all of those involved in making this trip a success, including coach Andrew Brown and stand-in coaches Jim Turner, Wade Tresedern, Sam MacKay and team racing coach Tim Sneddon, Country Manager and mentor Jim Turner, NZIODA and sailors parents.
Nick Gaites, Team Leader
Results:
Oceanian Overall Winners
First: Augustus Buividas (Australia)
Second: Jake Dickey (New Zealand)
Third: Will Fyfe (New Zealand)
Oceanian Overall Boy Winners
First: Augustus Buividas (Australia)
Second: Jake Dickey (New Zealand)
Third: Will Fyfe (New Zealand)
Oceanian Overall Girl Winners
First: Harper Spacey (Australia)
Second: Sofia Turner (New Zealand)
Third: Maya Cantwell (Australia)
Oceanian Tea Race Champions
First: Australia and New Zealand (TIE)
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