Skipper Martin Hill congratulated the team on a great performance and a great step up in performance from last year’s worlds where they finished 9th.

Now the team will have some time off Farr 40 sailing – Mal returns to the 470, Nathan returns to the 49er, Hamish is to do some Star and yacht sailing and the rest are back to work! The next season kicks off in October.

Full regatta reports are over at Farr 40 Australia.

The crew took a day off today and will do a final training session tomorrow before the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds start on Wednesday.

Second was Kokomo, skippered by Lang Walker and third was Transfusion steered by Guido Belgiorno-Nettis.

Estate Master featured a revised line-up including tactician Hamish Pepper, main trimmer Darren Jones and trimmer Scooter Hinton. Coach for the regatta, Malcolm Page said the boat was going great upwind.

‘What a great day, but we had to fight every inch of the way,’ Hill said. ‘The lead changed between the three top boats – it was very tight – you couldn’t let your guard down,’ he added.

Aside from the Farr 40 nationals next March, the crew are working hard towards the Worlds in the Dominican Republic in April next year.

Trumping a fleet of 40 Tasars in the 45+ age group, Martin said ‘Good speed, good height, a great regatta, really happy! It was my first dinghy regatta since I was about 19!’

Having spent a lot of time in the Farr 40 over recent years, Martin took up the challenge of the two-hander with gusto, dropping 5 kg in body weight and getting used to sailing a boat a lot flatter.

It’ll be Martin’s first foray into a serious dinghy regatta for some time and he’ll be ably assisted by 470 Gold Medalist crew Malcolm. Both eagerly await the challenge which is supported by Etihad and Ronstan.

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The team sat in 4-5th place during the qualifying stages of the regatta and then pounced during a light and variable day of the gold fleet racing before finally sailing a smart medal race to secure the title.

Estate Master tactician Nathan now stays on in Garda to sail the 29er Worlds, this time crewing for girlfriend Lauren.

We had a great start in the first race and held a long starboard tack to the favoured left side to be 7th around the top mark. With good placement from tactician Nathan Outerridge, Estate Master picked off another two boats on the next beat.

While we were a small notch off Barking Mad and Nerone in boat speed throughout the regatta, we learnt that we could hold our own against the rest of the fleet when we had clear air.

Skipper Martin Hill said ‘Wonderful, top 10 at the worlds – we’re really happy to have achieved our goal at this regatta. We are aiming to crack the top three next year and to be number one in 2011 when the Farr 40 World Championships are in Sydney.”

Training race off Porto Cervo. Photo by: Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

The Estate Master team are enjoying a day of relative rest here in Porto Cervo ahead of the Day 1 of the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds. The forecast for tomorrow is for a 15-20 knot NW breeze, a regular at this venue. The forecast for Thursday is for winds about 12 knots, but more Westerly.

Tactician Nathan Outteridge said “I’m really looking forward to racing in such a high quality fleet. The fleet is full of great sailors but I think we have a great chance of making the top 10 ten in our second Farr 40 worlds.”

The final entry list boasts 26 boats from 10 nations, including the USA, Australia, Greece, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom and, of course, Italy. The best guess is that winds will continue to lighten throughout the regatta as the Mistral breeze fades.

The Italians will be very hard to beat on their home waters and have been a regular sight at the front of the practice races we’ve done. Unfortunatley, the Audi Invitational Pre-Worlds regatta was blown out on the first day and then cancelled a little early on the second day when a squall went through, so we don’t have a strong guide to our current form.

Estate Master has been stored on the hard over the winter and Jimmy and Deano have flown over (via Etihad of course!) ahead of the rest of the crew to work through a long list of jobs including putting the mast in and rudder on.

Coach Emmet Lazich said “It’s an amazing start to their new partnership. Winning the regatta is not bad when they were aiming for a top 10. It’s a significant milestone too, since they both have qualified for the Australian Sailing Team for 2010, allowing them to focus on the worlds this year.”

Nathan now heads home for two weeks before flying to Porto Cervo in Italy with the rest of the Estate Master Sailing Team for the Farr 40 Worlds which begin June 24.

Then, Nathan and Iain go to Lake Garda for the 49er worlds, July 12 – 19.