Swiss Win World Police Sailing Championships

(Hong Kong, China)-  Imagine working "the beat" in your local city as a police officer on a daily basis wondering, hoping, wishing that nothing goes wrong so that as one of the chosen few in your police force you can travel half-way around the world to sail in J/80s off the magical island of Hong Kong! Wow, not only would it be a privilege to participate amongst the world's elite in law enforcement, but it would have to be one of the most thrilling experiences of a lifetime to earn your "credits/ stars" (or whatever is required) to be part of the four person team winging across the world's continents and vast expanses of oceans to sail amongst fellow enthusiasts who also love wind and water.  To be sure, target shooting skills were NOT on the agenda, just sailing, fun, beer, cultural activities and a few parties tossed in to keep everything in balance.  Who wouldn't want to participate in this event if you're on any police force anywhere on Planet Earth!?  I guess the Americans didn't heed the call, their loss, as much is to be learned from their contemporaries around the world.  Looks like the Swiss, Austrians, Germans, Dutch, English, Aussies, Irish, and Hong Kongers had a ball!  In fact, the Swiss had so much fun, they decided to win it all, with the Switzerland (St Galler) team and the Switzerland (Lucerne) team taking 1st and 2nd, respectively, on the podium!

The hosts for this year's 12th World Police Sailing Championships was the Hong Kong Police Sailing Club.  The event was held in the waters of Hong Kong Harbour and surrounding areas using the versatile J-80 Sailboats.  The seven-day long event was epic, fun, gorgeous, amazing and the schedule of both sailing events and social entertainment each night ensured the sailors had lots of war stories to tell to their mates later.  While the Hong Kong Police SC were the principal hosts, they could not have pulled it off without the enthusiastic support of the three primary sailing clubs in the area contributing their fleets of J/80s, including Royal Hong Kong YC (and usage of their Middle Island harbour facility), Hebe Haven Boat Club and the Aberdeen Boat Club.

The sailors were treated to an adventurous series of both passage races as well as windward-leeward courses over five days of racing.  Monday saw four W/L's off Royal Hong Kong YC's Middle Island with drinks/dinner at Aberdeen Boat Club.  Tuesday was a passage race from RHKYC to Hebe Haven YC with drinks at Hebe Haven BC and curry buffet dinner at Aberdeen BC on Middle Island.  Wednesday offered the sailors three W/L races off Middle Island with an evening soiree at Hebe Haven BC.  Thursday was Lay Day-- the crews needed it by now-- but the shopping was frenetic!!  Friday saw one W/L race, then a passage race from Hebe Haven YC to Royal Hong Kong YC followed by drinks/ dinner at RHKYC.  On Saturday, the last day saw a classic "Harbour Tour Race" with evening drinks, prize-giving at the Hong Kong Police SC HQ (courtesy of Carlsberg Beers!).

So, the natural question to ask is "how is it possible that anyone could combine so much sailing and entertainment in one week"??  Perhaps that question could be answered by veterans of some of the world's more renowned race weeks (like Key West, Cowes Week, SPI Ouest, Block Island, Capri, Newport, Rolex Big Boat, Palma and others).  Nevertheless, some of the world's best police officers managed to sail fast, smart and kept themselves out of trouble (on the water, that is).  Leading the pack home by a "squeaker" was the Switzerland (St Galler) team on the great yacht "JAILBREAKER" (appropriately, enough).  Their team of Geisser, Rieser, Fritsche, and Pasche won by only one point after eleven races, dropping a 14th in the last W/L and a 7th in Race 2 and winning the last race to seal the deal over their countrymen in 2nd place.  Easily sailing the most consistent score in the series was Switzerland (Lucerne) sailing JIVE with the team of Schumacher, Vogel, Koller and Oehen.  Their low point score of 33 was not good enough, since after two drops their 19 pts was just one pt back from the gold.  Third sailing JELIK 6 was the Netherlands (Team Amsterdam) team that consisted of Migchelsen, Sikkens, Derjik and Vanderveen with 23 pts.  Rounding out the top five was the top Hong Kong Team #1 sailing JOSS that had Tait, Leung, Armstrong and Lau sailing aboard in 4th and in 5th was the top German Team #2 sailing JELIK 7 with Uden, Weissenbom, Knospe and Eden as team-mates.

Congratulations to all thirteen teams that participated for making the effort to participate and travel so far to such an extraordinarily fun, exotic sailing adventure! Plus, great appreciation was expressed by all to the three sailing clubs- Royal Hong Kong YC, Hebe Haven BC and Aberdeen BC for graciously supplying their J/80 one-design class sailboats.  Finally, kudos go to the Hong Kong Police SC's band of volunteers that helped organize the event.  Everyone is looking forward to sailing next year, hopefully, with some Americans and South Americans participating, too!   For more World Police Sailing Championship sailing information

New York YC Wins Cumberland Cup Team Race Sailing

(London, England)- The Cumberland Cup, the international 2-on-2 team racing contest sailed in J/80s and hosted by the Royal Thames Yacht Club in London, started the three-day event in windy conditions on the Queen Mary Reservoir. As the only major international keelboat event regularly hosted in the UK's capital, the Cup attracts global competition. This year, teams came from Royal Northern & Clyde YC (Glasgow, Scotland), Eastern YC (Marblehead, MA), Southern YC (New Orleans, LA), Island Royals (London, UK), Seawanhaka Corinthian YC (New York, NY), New York Yacht Club (Newport, RI/ New York, NY), Royal Perth YC (Perth, Australia) and Royal Thames YC (London, UK).

Principal Race Officer, Gillian Smith, took the decision to run a round-robin format of racing to give all teams the maximum amount of time on the water. With races lasting around ten minutes, and with speedy crew changes, the momentum was maintained throughout each day of sailing.  The short, box-shaped course enabled teams to put their team-racing knowledge to good use producing exciting starts, tight mark roundings, neck and neck finishes and even a few man overboard situations.  Stu Saffer, team captain of the New York YC team, commented, “The race against Royal Perth YC was particularly exciting. The vigorous pre-start, resulting in one boat being OCS and a man overboard, meant the NYYC got lucky! We are looking forward to meeting a fully-manned RPYC boat next time around!”

With racers of international experience, the standard of team racing was understandably high as Mark Lees, helm of one of the RTYC boats, said, “We’ve had our first three races, which have all been very close as the standard of team-racing is exceptionally high. We’re frustrated because we’ve only taken one win, but remain positive as we know where we’ve gone wrong, and we’re looking forward to getting some wins under our belt.”

By the end of racing on Day One, 19 races, out of a round-robin of 28 races, had been completed with the New York YC leading with a 4-0 record, followed by Seawanhaka Corinthian YC (3-1) in second and Royal Northern & Clyde YC (3-2) in third.

The second day dawned warm and sunny with a gentle northerly breeze of 10 knots – ideal team-racing conditions.  Having completed 19 out of 28 races on day 1, the Race Committee started racing as soon as possible, completing the first round-robin before moving on to a second, complete round-robin, the aim being to maximize the amount of racing time for all teams.

The lighter breeze enabled teams to engage in some very competitive team racing.  Eastern YC's team captain Larry Ehrhardt said, “The lead changes four or five times in a race with the finishes being pretty nail biting in most instances. The light air is really giving us a chance to race aggressively, which we love”.  Remember, in 2-on-2 team racing, last place loses-- a very difficult scenario to control while team racing!

The Race Committee took the decision not to use spinnakers, giving teams a further opportunity to focus on team tactics. The teams were unanimous in agreeing that this really added to the team-racing element of the competition as opposed to focusing efforts on boat-handling skills.  At the end of the first round-robin, NYYC and Seawanhaka YC were tied with 6 pts apiece, third was Eastern YC, fourth Southern YC and fifth Royal Northern & Clyde YC.

The third and final day was greeted with glass-like water and zephyrs of breeze – ideal conditions for allowing sailors a chance to recuperate from an enthusiastic evening program the night before.  Racing continued as soon as a southerly breeze filled in and round-robin 2 was resumed. Using a box-shaped course, with starboard mark roundings and no spinnakers, enabled teams to focus on tactics and produced some aggressive – and very competitive racing.

At the end of racing on Saturday, New York YC was dominating the event with ten wins out of 11 races. However, hot on their heels was Seawanhaka Corinthian YC with eight wins out of nine races, closely followed by Eastern YC. With another 16 races to go to complete round-robin 2, the lead was very much up for grabs and racing started on Sunday with a vengeance.

New York YC continued with their run of top results and, by race #45 had only dropped one result. The Race Committee, led by Gillian Smith, stopped the second round-robin at race 45 which represented a clean break in the program with all teams having completed the majority of their races. Race 45 itself saw Seawanhaka Corinthian YC take on Eastern YC – a match that would find a finalist to go up against the team from New York.

The race took around 25 mins with frequent lead changes, luffing matches and very tactical mark roundings. The team from Seawanhaka grabbed victory on the final leg and thus earned their place in the final against New York YC. Eastern YC therefore claimed 3rd place in the Cumberland Cup.

The final was a best-of-three match between New York YC and Seawanhaka Corinthian YC with the first victory going to NYYC. It was all to come down to the next race and it proved a worthy battle. NYYC clinched another victory on the finish line and thus sealed their overall win and claimed the title of winner of The Cumberland Cup 2012.

Stu Saffer, team captain of NYYC, commented, “The race was intense. We had a hard time against the boys from Seawanhaka. They raced well and got us into some tight corners. However, we pulled the two races out of the bag in the end and are really pleased with our win”.

After three days of competitive, intense racing all the teams were keen to thank the hosts, Royal Thames YC and their race officer team and Queen Mary Sailing Club for providing a fantastic race venue.   Gorgeous Sailing photo credits- Claire Matches   For more J/80 Cumberland Cup sailing information

J/80 Special Race Package

(Newport, RI)- For the Fall Boatshows, there are a select number of J/80s available on a Fall promotion special of $51,900 including Triad Trailer and Waterlines faired keel!  Have fun in one of the world's strongest International One-Design keelboat classes.  At this fall's boatshows, learn why the J/80 has taken Europe by storm (Spain, France, England, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Italy) and strong one-design J/80 fleets in America, Hong Kong and China.  A strong class leadership and passionate sailors around the world make for great sailing on three continents.  Contact your local J/Dealer  or J/80 Class leader (http://www.j80.org).

  

J/80 Boston Boatshow

(Boston, MA)- Check out this beauty, the recent cover girl of the March issue of Sailing World, now resplendent in all its glory at the Boston Boatshow this weekend.  Come on down and talk shop with our J/Dealers Hill and Lowden and other sailors at this show.  Rich and George will be able to fill you in on recent developments on the J/111, leading events in New England this summer- like the J/105 North Americans in Marblehead, and some new products that are in the J/Boats development pipeline!  Find out why the Russian Sailing Federation has chosen the J/80 for their Russian National Sailing Championship in Lanzarote, Canary Islands again in November 2011 (story below)!  Any questions?  Call J/Boats or contact Hill-Lowden at ph- 781-631-3313 or email- hilllowden@aol.com.   For more J/80 Boston Boatshow information.   

Asian Games J/80 Tour de Force

(Guangzhou, China)- South China's host city of the Asian Games is one of the top ten cities in China.  For most Westerners this may mean nothing.  However, taken in the context of most cities around the world, Guangzhou is in the world's top 20!  Or, perhaps for many of you, a more sobering thought taken in the context of history, over half of the world's top 20 cities are in China-- and Beijing is not the biggest! 

Taking place on the water off the Shanwei Water Sports Centre is a remarkably well-organized and efficiently run regatta with a fabulous technical tour'de'force of media employing every imaginable means of technology to bring it home to the Chinese masses- live on-water video, helicopters, remote control drones doing live video and so forth.  Nothing is spared to ensure the event is brought to the living rooms of those in the Asian/ Middle Eastern World.  Remember, the "Golden Triangle" comprised of Japan to China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and points in between comprise over $20 trillion USD in GDP today....hmmm, a bit more than America.

Sailing in this event are an Olympic cross-section of classes, including Lasers, Optimists, and Hobie 16s.  Plus, J/80s for match racing.  So far, the Malaysian Team is doing quite well in the J/80s match racing.  Not far off the pace are the Singapore and Chinese teams.  The list of teams competing in the event include China, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Bahrain, Singapore, Malaysia and India. According to Jim Johnstone in Xiamen, China "we got the J/80s ready for the Asian Games this past week.  The list of countries participating in the event will someday read like a "who's who" for top Asian sailors.  The event so far has been very good, the area that they are sailing in is quite windy this time of the year.  Best compared to American sites like Corpus Christi, Texas where it blows 20+ knots each day and it's relatively warm.  The teams have had two brand new 3/4 oz conventional spinnakers blow-up and one T-bone, but we are dealing with those things. Since there are only 8 teams it is not hard to pull two boats out of the rotation and switch on the dock." 

The 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, opened in dramatic style with a ceremony which drew on Guangzhou's rich maritime history, held in a purpose built arena, located on a small island on the Pearl River. Sailing is one of the 42 sports in this multi-sport event, held every four years in Asia, allowing athletes from all over the Asian continent to compete.

Perhaps most remarkable about this event is the degree to which national sailing authorities (NGO's) in Asian nations take national pride and success in such endeavors as seriously as they do.  It does not take one to scratch the tablets of world history very deeply to appreciate their perspectives in the age of discovery and exploration in the 16th century onwards.  Asia was at the cross-roads of powerful commercial interests and sailing ships, captains, navigators, navies were integral to their successes or failures over the course of time.  Seems to many that they're learning from such experiences fast and accelerating quickly past many of their friendly Western friends not only in the sport of sailing, but in business and culture, too.

Indicative of this change is how sailing is perceived by leaders in the Middle East and Asia and how strongly, in fact, they support sailing as a sport and activity for their growing middle classes.  Leading up to the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, a number of sailors and their sponsors in these countries issued some very interesting statements supporting such endeavors.  Read more about their sailing initiatives in the Sailing section here on the Asia Games 2010 site.