A big hello from 'greater Wellington of the Americas', the fab city of San Francisco. There are parts that look just like Wellington...honest...
So windy, so warm, so cold, I can't remember when I have been fried to a crisp while freezing......Mark Twain was right when he famously said" the coldest Winter I ever had was Summer in San Francisco".
 
After the usual shambles of the 'Practice Race' yesterday, the Opening Ceremony was mercifully short but perfectly formed, the flag bearers marched in from the 28 Nations, we all applauded the quick speeches and went in to enjoy a buffet meal and a chance to chat to our fellow parents, competitors and the Race officials. It was a great pleasure to see, and meet, Doug Elder, the Kiwi Chief of the Jury ....us Kiwis, we are everywere.
....

Rob Burns sent us this report after the NZL boys 4.7 North Americans success

A big hello from 'the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free'
 
After a few days of visiting family and experiencing American life we have moved from Seattle down to San Francisco and Taylor and his Team mates, Ryan Amlehn of Nelson and Liam MacDonald of Auckland have been on the water working hard trying to get a grip on the San Francisco currents.. Trent and Keith arrived over the weekend so we have yet to see them.
 
The first few days were spent at the VERY flash St Francis Yacht Club, after hearing what their membership costs, I will never complain about paying our pittance. The people there are nice though, there are two major rules, no hats and no cellphones ringing and it was a huge surprise and pleasure to meet our PM at the Club, Taylor and Ryan were stoked that John Key came over and asked for a photo with them.
This weekend we had the North American 4.7 and Masters Laser Champs at the Treasure Island Sailing Centre, about 40 minute down wind sail in a fast Laser in 25 knots ...which is the everyday afternoon wind strength.
We expected all the Internationals to be there but the Laser people wouldn't let the charter boats go down there, it was another US$300 for an extra charter from another supplier ....thank goodness for a favorable exchange rate and first in to get the last couple of boats. The regatta was really good, the organisers from South Beach Yacht Club did a great job , they even feed us really well too, hamburgers and pizza for dinner, Danish and OJ for breakfast ....and beer.
The fleet was nearly 40 on the first day, 31 on the second but tough racing, Ryan and Taylor were first and second both days and Overall.
Ryan pulled out of the last race at the top mark and Taylor won by at least 100 metres. The race before Taylor thought he was OCS and went back.....I was on the Committee boat and sighting the line and the number called wasn't his. He went back and recrossed, started a 100 metres behind everyone but was on Ryan's heels at the finish to come in second. Ryan is 15 kilos heavier than Taylor and every kilo counts in this breeze. Liam is lighter again than Taylor, sailing well to finish 7th overall against the American and Canadian top guns. Some of the competitors from the full rig have turned up here for the 4.7's and they are big boys! Still you have to sail smart and fast not just be big but weight does help in these 25knot conditions!

San Francisco is a great city to be in, easy to bike around (a random person gave me a mountain bike), great guitar shops and we even rode the cable car down hill tonite after running up the 'world's crookedest street'. Food is relatively cheap and most of us are in walking distance of the Club.....it's going to be a great Worlds!
 
A huge thank you to all our supporters that helped to get get Taylor and the Team this far.
 
Happy sailing
Rob

More top results for South Island sailors with Ryan Amlehn (Nelson YC) and Taylor Burn (Queen Charlotte YC) coming 1st and 2nd at the North American 4.7 Laser Champs at South Beach YC, San Francisco. In the 6 race series Ryan won all the 5 races he competed in, with Taylor winning the remaining race and 2nd in most others. A truly commanding performance from the pair.

Liam McDonald (Murrays Bay SC) was 7th to put all NZL sailors in the top 10. The 33 boat fleet was mostly made up of sailors frm the US and Canada.

These sailors will be joined by Keith Inglis and Trent Ripley as they move on to the 4.7 World Champs, also in San Francisco starting today 26th July.

North American 4.7 Champs Results

Sam Meech blitzed the field in Rochell to become the 2011 Junior Standard World Champion.

Check out the stats ...

A 147 boat fleet ad 12 races sailed.

Sam scored 8 x 1st's, 3 x 2nds and a 5th. He got to drop a 2nd! A phenomenal gross total of 19 and net 12 puttng him 9 points clear of Alex Mills-Barton and 18 ahead of Martin Evans, both from Great Britain.

Sam has been training with Andrew Murdoch in recent months, which doesn't seem to have done any harm.

Spencer Loxton finished 30th, including 2 x 2nds and a 4th

Micahel Cate was 56th including 3 top 10s but 2 DNFs meaning a 28 and 39 counted.

Articles at  sailworld.com

All results at:  http://www.srr-sailing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/w_final_standard_s...

Photo care of John Bullot and sailworld

Molly Meech and Michael Cate from the YNZ Youth squad travelled with coach Ian Neely to represent NZ in the Laser Radial at the ISAF Youth Champs at Zadar, Croatia on 7-16th July.
Light airs were the big challenge for the first 2/3rds of the regatta. Both sailors recorded their best results as the breeze strengthened.
Michael finished 8th in a fleet of 49 with a mixed bag of results, getting himslef in the top 10 with a run of 2, 8, 3, 2 in races 8 to 11.
Molly was 12th out of 49.

Other top 10 NZL results were 5th SL16 mixed crew cat, 6th 29er, 9th womens RSX sailboard
A rundown on NZL results at sailword
Offical reports and results at ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship

Michael heads on to La Rochell in France for the Under 21 Laser World Championships 16th-23rd July and Laser Radial Youth World Championships 24th - 31st July.

Another great result for Josh Junior who was third Laser behind Groteluschen Simon and Phillipp Buhl - both from Germany.
Josh managed this with consistency, two bullets, and all but one of 9 races in the top 10.

Andy Maloney had two 2nds and a 4th, but other results in the teens left him 12th overall.

The Kiwi women Radial sailors were back at Takapuna training, electing to miss Kiel this year.

All results at http://race-results.kielerwoche.de

The 2011 Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth was always going to a major ranking regatta for the NZ sailing team in the run up to the Olympic year. A chance to benchmark within the team and with the best sailors from other countries.

So a 2nd for Andrew Murdoch in the Laser was a fantastic outcome, reinforced by an 8th for Andy Maloney. Sam Meech 19th, Josh Junior 23rd, John Bullot 29th and Spencer Loxton 42nd.

Sara Winther kept her head to make the mdeal race and finish 9th overall.

Great NZL results in other classes

• Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie won the 470 womens (whoo hoo!)
• JP Tobin 2nd RSX mens, with Tom Ashley 9th
• Dan Slater 6th Finn
• Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel 8th SKUD18
• Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk 9th Star
• Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders 10th 470 mens
• Peter Burling and Blair Tuke 12th 49er

Reports and results at www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk and sail-world.com

Miranda Powrie's campaign is on track with a great result qualifying for the medal race at the Delta Lloyd regatta.
She tells the story best ...

A good article summarising Sara's career (so far) at SailWorld.com
http://www.sail-world.com/NZ/index.cfm?SEID=0&Nid=83427&SRCID=0&ntid=94&tickeruid=0&tickerCID=0

She's making it a habit.

Following on from gold in the Prince Sofia Regatta in March, Sara has won again in Heyres at the Semaine Olympique Francaise.
She had a 5 point lead over Frances Sarah Steyeart lead going into medal race, then started badly, only slowly clawing back during the race. But after a strong final downwind to the finish she surged past two boats on the last wave. Just enough to secure victory with two points.
In the same strong fleet Miranda Powrie was pleased with a 15th in her first year back in the class, making improvements in first beat tactics but losing ground downhill.
Mike Bullot was the best of the NZL men with a 8th overall and 6 of 11 races in the top five. Josh Juior was 12th, Andy Maloney 16th, Andrew Murdoch 23rd and Sam Meech 55th (and a 1st in his final race).

More details at

• sarawinther.com
• mirandapowrie.com
• The event site sof.ffvoile.net
• www.yachtingnz.org.nz