Estate Master Sailing

Malcolm Page and Matt Belcher had the best scores in the 470 Gold fleet racing today at the Delta Lloyd Regatta, with a 7, 9 and 1 in the three races. They backed that up with a fantastic win in the 7pm Medal Race, sailed in a beautiful 12 knot nor’easter. They had great pace, put themselves in nice positions and avoided mistakes.

They finished in 6th overall, 20 points off the lead. Malcolm said “Very happy with our progression this week. We started to find our rhythm as a team. The last 2 days of racing showed this… But results were not the main focus of this week. The objective of stepping ourselves up as a team to the top of the world was the main focus, and I believe we have done a great job in this direction.”

“From here we go to the 470 Europeans in Austria. Although this will be lake sailing and will probably lack good wind/racing conditions, it will be another top level regatta to hone our skills against the world’s best. All our regattas in Europe are for us to prepare for the World Championship in Denmark later this year.”

In the 49ers, Estate Master Tactician Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen posted a handy 2, 3, 6 to advance to the top of the board with the Medal Race schedualled for tomorrow. They hold an 11 point lead over the quick Italian brothers Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello.

In the first race of the day today at the Delta Lloyd Olympic classes regatta Estate Master tactician Nathan Outteridge and crew Iain Jensen won by what many think is the largest margin ever seen in this level 49er racing.

49er coach Emmett Lazich said: ‘I’ve never seen a boat so far ahead at a Grade 1 event. They started well, then just played the pressure up the middle and carried a good puff down the first run too. At the end they were 2 minutes in front in the 32 minute race.’

Nathan said ‘Yea, we were smoking today – two 1sts and a 10th.’ They move up to 3rd overall.

In the 470s, Malcolm Page and Matt Belcher also had an excellent day, scoring 3, 4, 1 to top the fleet for the day. They move up to 15th, held back by their earlier double false starts.

Mal said: ‘We changed our starting techinique a little, so we were not getting pushed over the line. This helps to not get letters in the score card! We raced very well today and had our chances to win all races. But we stayed consistant and did not try to throw the dice too much.

Estate Master mainsheet hand and Laser coach at the Delta Lloyd regatta, Michael Blackburn, was also pleased to have all of his four sailors make the Gold fleet for finals racing which starts tomorrow.

Many think that in Olympic sailing the political powerhouse classes are the Finn and Star. The Finn fleet even used to include the current IOC president Jacque Rogge. The Star was even ousted from the Olympic roster, but lobbying got it back in.

However, we now know the fleet with the strongest union is the RSX sailboard.

Yesterday at the Delta Lloyd regatta most classes completed 3 races and some in the Laser did 4, bringing total on-water time for some sailors to 10 hours – quite a long workday!

However, the sailboarders did just two 30 minute races (as determined by their class rules)!

Meanwhile, Estate Master team Mal Page and Matt Belcher had some good scores but were caught trying just a little too hard in the third race of the day and received a second black flag penalty. However, the team is little concerned about scores at this stage in their program.

Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen improved markedly on their first day scores, with a 5, 9, 1 yesterday to lie 9th overall in the 49er fleet.

“It was a much better day out there for us today,” said Outteridge. ”It’s different sailing in such a big fleet of 50 boats, you make one mistake and suddenly you’re back in the 20s so we just kept chipping away.”

“In the last race we finally got a bit of fresh air up the first beat and were in the top three at the first mark, from there on we kept on sailing through them and it was pretty nice to find some fresh air out there.”

In the 470s, Mal Page and Matt Belcher scored an OCS and a 6th day 1 of the Delta Lloyd Regatta. Mal said ‘It was windy, but sailable. We were going fast enough, but our lack of preparation and lack of competition showed today. We were not taking opportunities when we saw them.’

‘It is great to be sailing again with the best boats in the world.’

‘My arms a little longer from today. The Estate Master spinnaker had lots of pull. I think maybe at my age I need to get some ratchets on the front two sails!’

‘Obviously the start of the regatta was not good, but that is not the point of this regatta. Its more for competing and remembering how to race. To start the preparation towards the Worlds later this year.’

Meanwhile, EM tactician Nathan Outteridge and crew Iain ‘Goobs’ Jensen had a tough day in the 49er, with equipment problems in one race (malfunctioning trapeze harness) and unlucky capsizes and a spectacular cartwheel in the second.

The forecast is for moderate winds tomorrow and ‘a lot of sun’, according to the organisers.

The Estate Master crew will fly exclusively with young airline Etihad to the Farr 40 World Championship in Italy in June.

Established in 2003, Etihad Airways is the flag carrier airline of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Etihad is based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.

This will be Estate Master’s second Farr 40 Worlds. Their first was last year in Miami where the team finished 16th in the 33 boat fleet, learning a great deal in the process.

Skipper Martin Hill said ‘We’re really excited to be able to attend this year’s Farr 40 Worlds in Porto Cervo and very proud to announce we’re going there with the help of a World-Class airline in Etihad. Etihad are no stranger to global competition having won over 30 awards since being named ‘The world’s leading new airline’ in 2004.’

EM sandwiched off the start on Day 1 - Sam Crichton ©

The Estate Master Sailing Team finished 2nd on the 2008-09 Australian Farr 40 Circuit – which is good – but were a disappointing 4th in the season ending Hamilton Island National Championship.

Winner of the nationals (and the Aussie Circuit) was Guido Belgiorno Nettis in Transfusion. Kokomo (Lang Walker) was second and White Cloud (NZL; Brett Neill) was third with EM just a point behind.

“I am particularly grateful for the encouragement and support of Lang Walker and Lisa and Martin Hill and I am pleased my fellow Middle Harbour Yacht Club member can join me on the podium of the 2008-09 Australian Farr 40 Circuit”, commented Belgiorno Nettis.

Frustrating would be one word that comes to mind when describing the final day of racing in the Australian Championship as the nine teams sailed in a soft 6-9 knot easterly with a rolling swell. Estate Master managed to correct many of their speed and positioning errors of days 1 and 2 and only a doubtful false start penalty from the race committee prevent them from being boat of the day.

Estate Master finished 3rd in a wet and cool Farr 40 sprint series this weekend on Sydney Harbour. Unusually for Farr 40s, all of the 8-race series was held inside the heads in gusty and shifty conditions which produced some dramatic lead changed and damage to some boats.

Sputnik, skippered by Ivan Wheen, won the regatta by two points from Transfusion with Estate Master a further six points behind.

The Estate Master crew was up against it with slow starts to each day but came back strong once they settled in and finished the regatta with two race wins. Skipper Martin Hill was extremely pleased with the crew’s team work and their mental toughness in difficult conditions.

Estate Master are in equal first place with Guido Belgiorno-Nettis’s Transfusion in the Farr 40 Australian Grand Prix series after 7 regattas.

Nine boats from Tasmania, NSW and New Zealand raced the series and all will be on the start line again next weekend for the 2009 Hamilton Island Farr 40 Australian Championship.

Estate Master winning the final race of the Sprints

Estate Master trimmer (and Olympic Gold medalist) Malcolm Page was last night named Australian Institute of Sport Athlete of the Year for the 3rd time in four years.

Mal shared the award with skipper Nathan Wilmot as well as fellow Olympic 470 Champions, Tessa Parkinson and Elise Rechichi. Page and Wilmot’s AIS Team of the Year award was the pair’s third, having won the award in 2007 and 2005.

The teams’ coach, Victor Kovalenko, was also recognised by the nation’s peak sports body with the Coach of the Year award.

Adding further to the tally for the sport, The Australian Sailing Team, which is supported by Estate Master skipper Martin Hill, also won AIS Program of the Year.

Page had to miss Farr 40 training last night due to the awards, but is expected to be fresh for this evening’s training.

The 10-member Estate Master Sailing team used to produce a large garbage-bag full of rubbish every day we went sailing.

We’d eat and drink and in our need to concentrate on sailing the boat to the utmost efficiency, we’d just throw all wrappers, bottles and scraps into a big garbage bag which went into a bin on shore at the end of the day

Of course we all recycle stuff when at home, but somehow it seemed ok to put recyclable bottles in with the garbage when on the water, especially when we were in competition mode and didn’t want the fuss.

Now, thanks to eco-crew member Andrew Verdon we produce 1/5 of the rubbush each day by simply separating out our recyclables and putting them in the recycle bin at the end of the day. We saved 120 water and sports drink bottles from going to landfil in the previous 3 weeks alone.

It’s hardly revolutionary, but in a sport that is seen as ‘green’, it’s probably something we should have done a while ago and certainly encourage all yachties to do the same.

Of course, the next step is to find an efficient way to re-use the bottles rather than throw them away.

Flying a new Bladerider Moth, Estate Master Tactician Nathan Outteridge had a spectacular win on debut at the Moth Australian titles in Geelong this week.

Nathan had just a few days of practice in the Moth, most recently favoring to apply his talent to the A-Class cat where he finished 11th of 90 at the World titles earlier this month.

Near the end of the regatta Nathan confessed ‘I can’t seem to win a race but I’m good at coming second.’ However, by the last race Nathan found a little extra speed and won it and the championship from Brit Simon Payne. The fleet featured 40 starters from 7 nations.

‘I’ve was consistent and I didn’t make too many mistakes…, when I did they didn’t cost me too much,’ Outteridge added.

‘They are awesome boats to sail, it will be hard to go back to the 49er after this. An Olympic campaign is so intense, with this class I’m just enjoying sailing again.’

Next on Nathan’s calander are the Farr 40 Nationals in February. He will fully return to the Olympic 49er class following the Farr 40 Worlds in Sardinia in June.

Nathan Outteridge wins the Moth Australian Championship, Skandia Geelong Week 2009 Andrea Francolini / Skandia