An interview with the first mixed team ever to win the Tornado World Championships!

Day 6

Speed Sailing on the River Trave

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

Day 3 of racing in the 2010 Tornado World Championships just didn’t happen.  No wind so no sailing.

Day 4 of racing in the 2010 Tornado World Championships was looking like the first day.  A good breeze from the north west at around 15 knots but dropping off before the start of the first race.

The first race was held in light and shifty conditions.  The Aussie boats didn’t have a great race with Brett and Ryan finishing the best in 8^th.   The wind picked up for the second race and four Aussie boats finished within 6 places with Jack and Thilo coming in 7^th, Adam and Jamie 10^th, Brett and Ryan 11^th and Paul and Dave 12^th.  Peter and Ethan had an altercation with another boat and had to retire from the remainder of the races.

The third race was difficult with the wind shifting 40 degrees on the second lap. Jack and Thilo showed their talent with a well deserved 4^th and Brett and Ryan finished a disappointing day with an 8^th.

The first ever mixed crew of Roland Gaebler and Nahid Gaebler finished a fantastic effort to win by one point from the fast finishing Greek pair of Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantin Trigonis who won the last three races. The German brothers Helge and Christian Sach finishing in third place.  Brett Burvill and Ryan Duffield finishing in a commendable 4^th.

Overall placings for the Australian Teams:

Brett and Ryan - 4^th
Adam and Jamie – 11^th
Jack and Thilo – 13^th
Paul and Dave – 20^th
Peter and Ethan – 29^th

View the final results: http://www.tornado-class.org/events/2010worlds/results.htm
A list of video clips, articles and photos are available on this site here or at http://www.tornado-class.org/events/worlds.htm

Day 2 of racing in the 2010 Tornado World Championships was as forecast with the fleet sitting on the shore for most of the day until being sent out in a light 4 – 6 knots of breeze coming from the north-east; a very different breeze from the previous day’s north-west. The race area had a choppy inconsistent wave which would make life interesting. At times you could compare the water to a washing machine with waves crossing and making life difficult. The breeze was patchy and the right hand side of the course seemed to pay off for most. Two races completed today.

Brett and Ryan - 6th and 4th. Slipping to 4^th overall after the Sach brothers finished with two seconds to sneek past into 3^rd.

Day 1 of racing in the 2010 Tornado World Championships was a perfect start to the championships with 15 – 20 knots of wind. Brett and Ryan 1^st day started with a 2^nd in the first race, a 3^rd in the second and they recovered well in the 3^rd race after breaking their Jib sheet on the first upwind to finish a credible 5^th. The two young F18 sailors Adam Beattie and Jamie Leitner showed that changing to a Tornado was not too difficult with two top ten finishes in race 2 and 3 but a DNF in the first race with a broken trapeze wire stopping them from being in the top ten after the first day with them currently sitting in 20^th position. The surprise has been myself and David Beeby who are currently sitting in 10^th position after a slow start. We were hoping to be in the top 25 so this is really encouraging considering Dave and myself have not sailed together on a Tornado before this regatta.

We now have 5 Australian teams sailing in the 2010 Tornado Worlds here in Travemunde. Brett Burvill and Ryan Duffield, Paul Raymond and Dave Beeby, both from Nedlands Yacht Club. Peter Gibb and Ethan Neaves, Jack Benson and Thilo Keller ( a german sailor) from Darwin Sailing Club and Adam Beattie and Jamie Leitner from Cairns Yacht Club.  This will probably make us the second biggest team behind the local Germans.

The Australian team have a good setup with an removal van making itself useful as a headquarters for the Australian assault.  Currently full of Dutch Hobie 16 sailors enjoying some Australian hospitality.  I think this means the Aussie and Dutch both like parties but this is prior to the serious side of the competition.  Once the sailing starts it will all be serious as the Australian teams feel we have some serious contenders to math it with the best in the world. The current Tornado world champions from Australia Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby will be missing but our teams will be giving all to try and keep the Aussie flag flying.

Currently there are teams from Germany, Greece, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Czekoslovakia, England and of course Australia.

Travemunde Woche (Week) draws crowds from all over.  There will be 150 plus Hobies competing in the Hobie Europeans for all Hobie classes, Finns, F18s, 18ft skiffs, Lasers and several other classes. At least a 1000 boats are expected. The waters of the Baltic sea at this time are year are perfect setting for some very good sailing conditions. Current conditions have been perfect for lead up training and crews are hoping for the conditions to continue.

The boys have been having fun with one of the boats giving it a humerous name.  I hope the principle race officer has a sense of humour.

Australia has taken first blood in the fight for Tornado world supremecy at the Flens super sail regatta at Kellenhusen in Germany sailing on the Baltic sea north of Travemunde.

In  generally light and shifting breezes Brett Burvill and Ryan Duffield took victory with a score of 6 points gaining 3 first places and a third along with their discard of 10th. Second place went to the Segel Meister, Roland Gaebler and third to Heiko and Thomas on the past Geman olympic boat.

Teams are now preparing for the World titles stating this weekend in Travemunde.

Australia is being represented by 5 teams. Paul Raymond and David Beeby have just a fantastic near new platform and equipment to launch their campaign, Pater Gibb and Ethen Neeves have one of Darren Bundocks former world title boats to play with, newcomers Adam Beattie and Jamie Leitner fresh from a succesfull F18 season are taking it on in Brett's spare boat and It looks like Jack Benson ( 3rd in this years A class worlds) from Darwin is teaming up with an A class German comatriot  for a tilt at the title. Brett Burvill and Ryan duffield have their Windrush Built Tornado ready to go up against the worlds best in the hope of improving on the 13th place from the last worlds.

Hurricane Nationals - Thorpe Bay Sailing Club - Essex, UK

After returning to the UK with a carload of the UK boys from Texel (followed by a good night sleep at Will Sunnucks place) John Ready collected me the following morning to head to Mersea Island (where john's dad lives, only 100m from the water.....well, on high tide anyway!) We met John last year at Lake Garda as he had transported the boat we leased from the UK to Italy for us.

Episode 2

After the trip up from Southampton to Harwich to catch the ferry, and a bit of time convincing them that we should be in the line with the cars as we are a mobile home not a freight truck we are on our way to the Netherlands. The 7 hour crossing is very foggy and often visability is only 100m or less. The horn is sounding every minute when the fog is like this. We get free satellite WiFi on the ship so spend time catching up on emails etc.

Episode 1

After arriving in the UK and hiring a car to make our way down to Southampton to meet friends and make arrangements for the EDGE to hit the water for its first event in the UK we discover that the Monday following our arrival is a bank holiday. This would not at first seem like a drama but as we were supposed to pick up our truck ‘Chateau Windrush’ from its previous owner ,a removalist business in Solihull things looked like they were about to be delayed.