SailJuice Blog

On the eve of the 470 World Championship in Holland, double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers has decided to let go
of his quest for Olympic gold at London 2012 following a frustrating regatta season.
 
Rogers teamed up with his current crew and best friend Pom Green in the 470 class after the Beijing Games, where he earned his second silver medal.
 
Rogers and Green, who won the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships together in 1995, have called time on their 2012 qualifying campaign and will not join their Skandia Team GBR teammates at the 470 World Championships, starting in The Hague (NED) on Monday (12 July).
 
Says Rogers of their decision: "We've both worked incredibly hard this year but juggling responsibilities that we didn't have in our twenties has made
it harder

When she started squad training on the Clyde off Largs as a 12-year-old, little did Scotland’s Charlotte Dobson ever expect that she would race a crucial world championships event on the same stretch of water.

Over the subsequent years Dobson, now 24, spent many formative hours in the Largs Channel, sailing just some of the hard miles which became the foundations of a Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship bronze medal, last month’s silver medal in the Laser Radial European Championships in Tallin and her current ISAF ranking of third in the world.

So when the Laser Radial Women’s World Championships begin on Friday (9 July), no-one will be feeling more at home on the start lines than Skandia Team GBR’s Dobson, who grew up in Helensburgh some 15 miles up the river – as the seagull

Australian Olympian Glenn Ashby won his seventh A Class World Championship sailed in Cesenatico, Italy, from a fleet of 100 entries.

With another extremely light day going into the last race of the day (two races scheduled, though last one cancelled due to lack of breeze), Ashby, who crewed for Darren Bundock in the Tornado multihull class at the 2008 Beijing Games, had a two point lead over fellow Aussie Steve Brewin.

Ashby, who coached fellow Aussie James Spithill and the BMW-ORACLE America's Cup crew to the Cup win, choose to tackle the race head-on today and sail his own race starting at the pin end.

The Victorian sailmaker had a clear start and was first at the top mark with Steve Brewin following in fourth. Brewin was able to get back to second, but Ashby hung

Great result for a new team at Kiel Week. Two-time Olympic Champion Sarah Ayton and Saskia Clark cemented their new partnership with gold in the 470 event – a first World Cup medal for Ayton since starting her campaign in the double-handed dinghy this season. It proved a testing event all round, with light winds disrupting all but the first day of racing for most classes.

Ayton and Clark led the 470 class from the outset of a regatta where patience was key.   After three races on Saturday’s opening day, the 470 class then saw just one more fleet race before advancing to Wednesday’s final medal race, in which a fourth for Ayton and Clark was enough to hand them the regatta victory by four points over Sweden’s Lisa Ericson and Astrid Gabrielsson.

Their win

Nice to know that Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 Formula One World Champ, has discovered a passion for sailing.

“Sailing is really cool,” says Lewis. “Whenever I go on a beach holiday, I rent a small catamaran just for a bit of fun. I was introduced to sailing a couple of years ago in the Solent and it was unbelievable. I saw so many parallels between sailing and F1.”

Lewis’s induction to sailing came aboard Hugo Boss, the round the world racer skippered by Alex Thomson. The 2008 World Champion took to it like the proverbial duck to water, even if it took him a while to find his sea legs.

“I was on the boat for about four hours,” says Lewis, “and was on the verge of being sick the whole time! Luckily, Alex kept me

Britain’s Paul Goodison and Charlotte Dobson ensured a double podium celebration for Skandia Team GBR today, each taking a silver medal at the Laser European Championships which concluded this afternoon in Tallinn, Estonia.

Goodison, the current Olympic and World Champion, narrowly missed out on taking a sixth straight European crown in the Laser Standard event, missing out to Croatia’s winner Tonci Stipanovic on the final day of action.

But for Laser Radial sailor Dobson, her silver in Tallinn marks her first time on the European Championship podium and, coupled with her silver at the ISAF Sailing World Cup event in France five weeks ago, is a timely run of form heading in the Laser Radial World Championships which will be held on the Helensburgh sailor’s home waters in Largs next month.

“I’m really, really pleased,“

Current Olympic, World and five time straight Laser European Champion, Paul Goodison, will be gunning for a sixth consecutive title as the 2010 Laser European Championships get underway in Tallin, Estonia this weekend (6-11 June).

With some 155 Laser Standard sailors from 36 nations set to compete across the six days of racing, Goodison will have some tough competition to overcome if he is to successfully defend his coveted title with the likes of in-form Austrian, Andreas Geritzer and defending European Silver medallist Javier Hernandez of Spain, in the side lines eager to knock him off course.

The Skandia Team GBR star has started his season in fine form however picking up a win at the Hyeres World Cup Series event in April beating Hernandez, who is also World number two, by 18 points.

Grant Simmer has been appointed as CEO of Team Origin, the British team currently competing at the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Simmer, most recently the managing director and design co-ordinator for Alinghi, takes on the new position with immediate effect. He joined the team today in La Maddalena.

Simmer commented: “I am delighted to join Team Origin and am looking forward to working with Sir Keith [Mills, team owner], Ben [Ainslie, skipper] and all the team to develop and execute a plan to overcome the other Challengers and lead us into the next America’s Cup Match.

“Fortunately Team Origin appears to have great strengths and leadership in each department. Mike Sanderson, who has now left the team, played a key role in managing the team through some difficult times and the team is in pretty

It was a test of patience for all on the second day at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, as the light winds across the Ijsselmeer led to long delays to racing yesterday.

But it was worth the wait for Skandia Team GBR’s 470 development squad duo of Hannah Mills and Claire Cumming, who made the best of the evening breeze in their two races to take the overall lead.

Mills, a former Junior World Champion, and crew Cumming took a fearless tactical approach on the racecourse, and had a third and an eighth to show for their efforts.

“I think it was a day to be punchy at the corners rather than conservative in the middle as the wind seemed to fill back in towards the edges of the course,” Mills explained. “Also, when you

I've done an interview with Ray Davies, tactician on Emirates Team New Zealand, at the Louis Vuitton Trophy. Here's a snippet:

The tactician has one of the death or glory roles on the boat. It's very often the tactician who takes the plaudits for executing a plan well, or who carries the can for making a fatal decision that kills off all hope of winning a match. It's a stressful job.

So how come the tactician on Emirates Team New Zealand is known as ‘Smiling Ray Davies’? Well, because his name is Ray Davies and because he smiles a lot, despite the pressure of the job. He smiles as he quietly squeezes the life out of his opponent on the race