G is racing again -- RC44 Cascai Cup

"G" at the bow of Katusha.  Click photo to go to story.  Photo: Nico Martinez

Dual King's Cup bow on Xena, Matt "G" Kelway is back on the RC44 circuit. That's him at the bow of Katush there in the piccie, for which link here.  Earlier RC44 racing shots see here.
Hat-tip to Stevo, for the link.
LATER.  Katusha sitting fourth.

Fabulous Arial view of Hong Kong

Click on photo above to go to the link.  IFC2 centre-right, where Jing works
Top left: ICC, 108-floors, with world's highest hotel at top: Ritz-Carlton

Thanks to Grant and Iris who have sent along the above link for a really stunning moving 360-degree panorama of Hong Kong.  Get it Full Screen, then "Hide Controls" for best view.  Best on your desktop, not your iPad or iPhone!

Grant and Iris add:  Hi Peter and Jing and  "Xena" Crew:  Have an Awesome race H.K. to Subic.  Thought of you both .. can see R.H.K.Y.C. and "Xena's" mooring.
Amazing www site for "Xena"s Blog.

PF: Thanks Grant & Iris and all best to you!

And now for something completely different... Black Eyed Peas, Fergie and Slash...

Fergie Loooves Slash!... Click to go to Vid.  Turn it up, turn it up!

Check it out, check it out, check it out!  What a half-time show!!

(We saw Slash when he came to Hong Kong 2010, with son John, who plays his stuff.  Yet to see the yummie Fergie....)

The New J2 unrolled

Left to right: genoa for Lionheart (J-class), Mainsail for Rainbow (J-class),
Xena J2, AC-45 jib.... "we are in esteemed company"

Email today, from the mighty Magnus:

Peter/Jing,

Attached is the new Medium jib freshly unrolled - as Matt says, it is

looking pretty good!

To the left of it is a genoa for the J Class Lionheart, behind it is the

mainsail for the J Class Rainbow, and to the right is an AC 45 jib - you are

in esteemed company!

I trust that you are both well,

Magnus

Magnus T. Doole
Design Manager
North Sails New Zealand

Pit on his way: anyone for Kudu Biltong? Yum!

Email from my South African sailing mate, who joins us for the Subic race: (anyone got some wet weather gear he could borrow?  Size: medium: see at left)

Hello Peter,

Just a last mail before I am on my way. I have to travel to Germany and am coming to Hong Kong, after visiting a client in Bangkok. Surely I will call you after my arrival which is the 29th (for the APLF). Have booked me into the Cosmopolitan Hotel just for the days of the fair.

As well I tried to sail before I fly, but due to business obligations I did not get a chance. But certainly you and the team will get me going again quickly. Looking forward to this joint adventure. Hope I do not get sea sick, like during the first two days after leaving Antigua.

Is there anything specific? I see night temperatures are pretty cool; I need to bring some warm stuff?
As I come from SA through Germany and Thailand I am afraid I can not bring Biltong! That will be confiscated.
Is there something you would like to have and I could bring but will not be a problem?

Looking forward to meet all of you.
Best regards
Pit 

And this one is?...

Cess, guessed the last one, so what's this?

Test sent by Noel aboard Xena

sent via predict wind satcom email

Entry List: Premier Cruising

As always, click to enlarge.  Original here.

Sydney 38 Nationals in Oz

Been meaning to post these for a while.  "Our" Gordie -- he was on Xena for last year's San Fernando race and is owner of the mighty Mustang in which we did Cape to Cairo last year -- here in the 2012 Aussie Nationals with his boat Zen (ask me about "zenning out" in Africa sometime....).
Like all good one-class racing, it's very close...
Here with our own Drew Taylor's dad's Chutzpah, is Gordie's Zen, fighting it out at the bottom mark...

And just nipped 'em.... Zenning it...

And....
The Mighty Mustang!

The mighty 'Stang, with Table Mountain in the background, September 2011

Kia and Peter

Peter (M) sent along another couple of photos, a bit late to include in the earlier crew photos post, but they're cute, so here they are:

Kia. Note the logo: Volvo Ocean Race, kewl!

Peter below the fold..

Predict Wind Routings

This is what the PW routings will look like.  A week from start and up to day of race, I'll send out by email, to our brains trust all crew...(also Commanders Weather).

Now includes currents

Woops, what's this?....

Who? Where? What?...

Rolex China Sea Race: Crew Photos

Photos of all the Crew for this year's Rolex China Sea race: Reprising some old photos and a new one from Peter and Kia, in no particular order.  I'll get to some captions in due course, off to the gym now..

Peter Moore and Kia Tan, coming up from Singapore, where they race regularly.
Where is this, I wonder?  Looks a bit like Thailand.

Rick, our eminence grise, was 2010 CSR Chairman.
And this year's chairman as well...

... and Jing was chosen as the face of Asian women yachties..

Stevo in Phuket, King's Cup '11... Our Crew Boss in cracked sheets mode...

... and cosying up to Jing at Tina's place, Samui, 2010....

... and with the Sail.TV babe.  Stevo loves doing press interviews.... not!

TC Suits up, Samui 11

Richard navigates, and .... 

... Cess contemplates.....
Not on our CSR crew this time, but she's too gorgeous to
leave out!  Oh.. and married to Richard, above.

Michael ("MC"), trims the main: with Xena on every single race!

Pitt Sussman, mate from transatlantic and Cape to Cairo
at the Cape of Cape Town, September 2011, joins us on
Xena as he'll be in Hong Kong on his croc business.

Stevo in full "wind whisperer" mode, Samui 2011.
I was highly envious of the Kiwi zinc cream, even unto
having contemplated theft...

Richard gets serious in Samui

TC trims the spinnaker and wind whispers..

Jing contemplates the meaning of life... (is it... sailing?...)

Noel, does mid bow and now bow... wow...

Crew at Samui 2011.
Great photo this, taken by Mike (not MC), in poled-out dinghy

TC Joins our crew

TC at King's Cup 2011, wearing "the" bandana...

You'll all be pleased to know that the inimitable TC, "wind whisperer" par excellence, has joined our crew for Subic, having been a "maybe" for a while due to work issues, now resolved.
Cheers TC, and welcome back aboard!

There are multihulls... and then there are Multihulls

Click pic to go to Vid

Check this out: Banque Populaire (trimaran, which recently raced round the world in a record 45 days) passing a catemaran in the Atlantic, the cat doing around 10knots in 25 knots of breeze, Populaire doing 37 knots...

Then check this out, the same event taken from the cat, Happy Cat, a Lagoon 421, which was doing the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.
There are some links on the right of the YouTube with Populaire doing 42 knots...
[sorry I can't embed these vids.  For some reason I can't embed any more on this site, whereas I can on my other blog sites...]

Subic Preps catch up

3Di, Yummm

[Our preps for the Rolex China Sea Race]
We're getting a new J2 -- North's new 3Di technology(*).  I'm looking forward to deploying the beast...
Paperwork in hand, pre-scrutineering check being done Friday, then the full Scrute next week sometime. I see five entries so far in our division, including Sunshine, the Swan 55 (1.123), which has dropped three pips, while we have gone up four (1.219), since we last met. Other old foes are there too, Aussie Maid and Moonblue 2.

Bits and pieces of hassle are: water heater has blown its gasket (again), so we have to order gasket from the manufacturers in Italy.
If you're thinking: "what the hell, I'm a tough offshore sailor, let's just do without hot water"; well, no, because the engine doesn't work without the water heater running fresh water through it: it has to do that to get to be cold water at the inlet. (I'm looking at a work-around for that, as this is second time gasket has blown -- remind me to tell you the story of the Kiwi and the Eskimo Inuit...).

Earlier: the jib track cracked on the way back from Phuket, after days of 35+ knot winds and high seas, so we've had to replace that.

And the hatches have worn with UV, and are leaking -- just normal Simon at the Boatyard tells me, for the distance we've done -- but still, all need to be re-waterproofed...  Noel's working on those.

Here's a simple lesson to all would-be yacht owners from all this: all the stuff that's gone wrong, mostly is peripheral stuff: A/C, inverter, water heater, genset, electric toilets, autopilot.... The fewer of these you have on your boat the better. If you're buying a sail boat, buy a sail boat. Don't buy a boat with all the gear.  I'd happily toss most of the extra gear we bought -- most, if not all of it, from European manufacturers -- over the side and be done with it...

I know, I know --  people told me that before we got all the gear.... It seems you have to go through it before you realise.

I yearns for a simple boat, a boat with sails and a tiller...

OK: now we're going to have to have a day out on the water to do our safety stuff, MOB, etc.  I'll write separately in email about this...

*************

(*) Re 3Di technology: Steve Manning owner of Walawala 2, says after winning Singapore Straits: "... a combination of not only the boat, but also North Sails 3Di's.They are so stable and keep tremendous power in them. There's no power lost in the gust when the fabric stretches. All the gust gets converted to forward energy.' [story here)

Pip's tragic adventure

I've held off posting this for a while, then Pip said she'd not mind if I did.  Pip, for those who don't know, was our crew on Xena in the last KC.
I asked her if she'd like to join us for the Subic race this year and she told me that she'd just had a traumatic experience in the Philippines in mid January and didn't feel she could come to open water for a while and also she was also going to Vietnam over the Easter break. A press report here.
I'm now posting this, with her permission:
First, the immediate response (back on 30th Jan):
I'm afraid that I am going to Vietnam over the Easter break.
Unfortunately I was involved in a pretty horrific incident in Boracay last week where our boat capsized in big sea. 12 people were rescued or were washed ashore but the captain perished - four of us ended up on a rock Robinson Crusoe style waiting for rescue which luckily came in the form of a parasail boat 4 hours later, the other 8 clung onto various bits of wood and were washed ashore. Its all over the media if you google boracay boat capsize.  Although I refuse to let this experience put me off sailing I think I should stay a bit closer to land for the next few months, so if you're doing anything that is closer to home please let me know.
Cheers,
Pip
The full story, click below to see it.