i swear this guy is just leaving his wins to the last minute just to add to all the drama. Pretty exciting stuff - PWA racing hasnt been this exciting in years
Albeau must be spewing
Severne racing with another bullet on the PWA
stoked to see Taty Frans killing it by NOT going down the "hold so much sail its ridiculous - i must be 100kg to win ! "
path and sailing off efficiency and gybing technique to post some sweet runs through the heats. its a bit like b Tomics SMART approach to tennis - very refreshing to see an intelligent approach.
What happened to the Aussies ? Steve Allen had some great rounds but looks like consistency got him in the end
Was awesome to watch...
Came down to the wire because in Round 7 he was in a winner's final with only THREE competitors (Gonzalo, Antoine Questel and Dunks) in which he would be easily faster than both but somehow managed to sail to the wrong first mark and when he realised had to start beating upwind very close to the mark and nearly didn't make it!
Then Dunks and Albeau were pushing so hard in the semi final to destroy each other on the startline they both went over early!!! haha.
As for the Aussies... Steve didn't have his gear the first 2 (maybe 3) days of competition; bags were lost in Miami somewhere. So that makes a big difference to his speed... I didn't really follow Jesper during the week but Rowen and me had ok events. Not my best results but not my worst. Very tricky to go fast in this place because its ultra-flat water so all the guys are hanging on to 8.6m in 25 knots so you're forced to go big to compete with them on speed.
Taty's tactics are actually super risky. He's got a much smaller sail and board which is definitely quicker when you're in clear wind but if you get in traffic at a mark you're not going to stay planing. So his tactic was to just annihilate the starts and hopefully be first to the first mark with clear air... hence the amount of over-early DSQ's he had. When he got it right he was flying! People were crashing in to him at the marks (or him crashing in to them) and the guy never falls off! Was amazing... haha.
Yahh it was interesting to see some lighter sailors doing really well in Aruba. Even on the flat water, that normally is a "fat is fast" area,,
Taty Frans was really fast. I don't think his smaller set up was "risky", but it is just was what fitting to him for max performance. His speed was just excellent and his jibes even better. Many times you would see him coming 20m behind a competitor at the mark and when exit the jibe be 20m in front? Tight jibes and great technical skills.
Gonzalo (around 80kg?) was also during very well with 4 top three results in the finals!!
Steve Allen was on borrowed sails from Rowen / Karin the first day, before his gear arrived. Mostly he would be in the front of the pack, but he always seamed to coming into some kind of trouble. His speed and efficient sailing is impressive though. Again I think he would be just over 80kg?
One of the most impressive sailors is still Bjoern,,, Not only is he fast but he never gives up. He stays in focus and is mentally strong in tight situations. In one heat he was dead last. Sure enough he was fighting back with awesome speed but even more impressive aggressive jibes, to make it to next round,,
I saw Sean O'brian sailing some great heats. I think better towards the end of competition. Rowen Law was doing well and was never far behind. With a few more competitions "under the belt" and racing experience, he will do good.
Isaac De Vries was there as well under the whole comp sitting on the beach cheering along. He broke a little bone on his foot when he trained in Maui, so had to sit over the Aruba event. Great to see he was still happy,, and we should see him at the next event in Furteventura.
James Dinsmore (UK) that was living in Perth for a while, did good in some heats as well and made a 15'th place in one round.
It sounds like all the boys are keen and motivated for more competition :)
Cheers
Jesper
Some photos from Aruba.
Isaac still smiling, even with the broken foot.
Rowen - good to see a beer in each hand (WA style)
James jibing.
Sean O'brian
Thanks for the report and photos, Sean and Jesper.
Hope the foot heals soon Isaac.
Well done to all the AUS crew on some great results and fingers crossed for the next event.
Hmmmmmmmm, that's actually an interesting question.
I can't imagine even the Bjorn's an Antoine's would be doing any record breaking speeds as the places we race are pretty bumpy and we're using gear that is A LOT bigger than you would want to use on a speed course in the same winds as we also need to plane out of the gybes in traffic.
I'm guessing in Aruba while we're on bigger sails like 7.8-8.6 we'd probably be going around 35 knots for the top guys and in a place that's nuking like Fuerteventura you might get up to 40 knots on 6.1 or 5.5 ??
I know most of the top guys like to do some speed runs on their production slalom gear while we're in Fuerteventura and I've seen speeds of 45 knots on Ben van der Steen's GPS when we were there last year on his JP small board and 6.2m NP. That's a lot bigger kit than you would use for speed and he did this in nasty chop!
@reflex, are we going to see a vid from the go-pro footage you got from dunkerbecks boom/mast for his 2011 LOC win?
i would watch that unedited for 30 odd minutes :)