President's Cup Regatta - Boracay

After competing in the Langkawi and Singapore Straits Regattas in January, the Hi Fi team travelled to Boracay in the Philippines to compete in the President's Cup.


Last time we competed in this regatta in 2007 the venue lived up to its reputation as an awesome place to sail and this time was no different. With winds about 12-20kn, flat water, beautiful sunshine and the famous friendly hospitality of the Filipinos competitors couldn't fail to have a good time.


One of the strongest fleets this year in Asia turned out including three tp52s, Jelik, Karakoa, Subic Centennial, Ambush and Full Metal Jacket. The local boats Karakoa and Subic Centennial are always strong competitors here and along with Jelik have won this regatta over the last four years.



Race 1 was a passage race with a long beat and long run followed by a short reach back to the finish line off the idyllic leeward side of Boracay island. Jelik stretched out and we ended up with a second behind Frank Pong's team on handicap.


Day 2 was two windward leewards. Despite having 4 people in our crew sick with a mystery virus and our bowman being in hospital for the day we managed to get around the track ok and we were happy to come away with a close second and a fourth. It was hectic racing with short legs and 3 complete laps putting a premium on clean crew work. We had some great starts and stayed out of trouble away from the chasing tp52s. All in all a great days racing.


Day 3 and another passage race this time a slightly different course with a lot more reaching. We had a difficult start and got involved in a dubious port and starboard incident with Foxy Lady resulting in us having to do a 720. Despite this we still rounded just behind the other tp52s and set about overtaking them along the leeward side of Boracay. We managed to pass everyone except Ffree Fire and went on the wind. With some committed hiking from the team we were soon in our usual spot of second on the water behind Jelik and set up for some reaching, hoisting our genoa staysail.

On the long reach back on the windward side of Boracay we managed to stretch out from the other boats and after a short kite run to the finish it was another win for Hi Fi.

Day 4 dawned extremely wet. The beaches were empty as we headed out to the boat. The race committee sensibly delayed the start and after the rain cleared we had another two great windward leewards in 15-18kn winds. Some of the teams had boathandling issues in the stronger breezes, but Hi Fi managed to come through unscathed and we scored another couple of good results to take out the President's Cup for 2009.

Limit Photos Rolex Sydney Hobart 08

Well a lot has been written about the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart. Suffice to say it was a fast race, we finished in just 1 day 23 hours and had a great result on handicap. We were happy to be third round Tasman Island and beat our sistership Loki on time and over the line. Here is a selection of photos from the trip down.

Hi Fi back in action for 2009

Here I am in sunny Langkawi for the Royal Langkawi International Regatta. We arrived on Sunday for the regatta which started Tuesday. So far we've had four races and as usual the points are quite tight. Unfortunately it's a disappointingly small fleet of five boats in the racing class. So far we've had three seconds and a third putting us even on points with Quantum and one point behind Jelik after a drop.
Awesome sailing conditions up here and the heat and sun are a marked difference to where I was last week down in Hobart.
Photos and more reports to come.
Sam

Limit - into the racing

Well it's been a hectic couple of days at the Limit Sailing Team. We raced on Tuesday in the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge. It was an awesome day on the harbour and a great fleet of boats on the start line. We had a cast of thousands on board (ok 28 people!) and sailed pretty cleanly through the traffic to come out with a third on IRC.

Wednesday was a day of preparation, we achieved a lot and continue to work through the job list.

Thursday was day 1 of the Rolex Trophy. It was great conditions for our first serious day out on the windward leeward race course, a light nor' easter building a little in the afternoon. Only six boats in our division but a competitive fleet nonetheless, we came out with a third and a second, to be tied on points with Ragamuffin and Yendys at the end of the day.

The Australian Sailing team coach Mike Fletcher was out on his RIB coaching us and took the following photos.

Rolex Trophy racing continues through to Sunday.

Limit sea trials

Just arrived in Sydney after delivering the new Limit up from Melbourne. We left on Tuesday and had headwinds most of the trip and didn't arrive in Sydney until late Friday night. It was a great test of the boat and crew in preparation for the Hobart race, we had three reefs and a storm jib up at times and slammed off plenty of waves. Apart from a few issues down below such as leaks and bunks the boat passed with flying colours and we got to look at all our race sails on the way up.
Now it's into race preparation mode for the big boat race and rolex series starting Tuesday.
Photos and more updates to follow....

Hi Fi 2nd in King's Cup 08

Well the last three races weren't so good for the Hi Fi team. On Friday we had two windward leewards and came out of it with two thirds. This dropped us back from first to third on points, one point behind Island Fling.
On saturday we knew we had to win and beat Island Fling by more than a place to win overall. It was a lighter breeze and the race committee set a long windward leeward course. We had a great start and match raced all the way round the course next to Island Fling knowing that we had our time on them all the way. Unfortunately there wasn't much we could do about the other boats in the fleet and we ended up third in the race, while Quantum won and took out the King's Cup 08. We had a great day and ended up second overall.
All in all a great weeks racing in Phuket, awesome weather, good company and good parties.
The Hi Fi asian tour now takes a short break before the next regatta in Langkawi in Jan.

race 5 king's cup

Another awesome days sailing at the King's Cup in Phuket. The race committee sent us on a coastal race around the islands. Conditions were moderate about twelve to fifteen knots fading to eight to ten as the morning wore on.
The start didn't go well for us, we were called OCS with Island Fling and had to round the pin again. However we quickly found our spot in the fleet and hung onto Fling on the reach. Stevie Benjamin didn't give us much room to find clear air on the long beat but it was good clean racing and we rounded the top mark close behind Fling.
After a long run with the a1 and spaysail we went into the gate and hoisted the a5 for the reach into the finish. We couldn't hold it all the way and eventually hoisted a jib.
We ended up with a first and are now leading the regatta by a point from Island Fling.
There are three races to go, today is meant to be windward leewards.
Sam standing by in Phuket....