Issue date
After two weeks of racing around the North Island against 22 other yachts Tony Wells and Rob Shaw sailed Blink to overall line honours and 2nd place on PHRF in the Round North Island two handed race. Congratulations Tony on a fantastic campaign and a great result.
Also doing well in the race were Merrick and Bec Davies on Wedgetail (4th on line and 11th on PHRF), Jon Osbourne on Midnight Express (15th on line and 12th on PHRF) and Simon McVeagh and Matthew Steven (16th on line and 13th on PHRF).
Commenitng on the race Tony Wells said ...
"Blink was fastest boat around the NI in total elapsed time. Initially we had thought we were pipped in overall standings by Bushido in RNI 2014 but we weren't as we sailed faster (and longer) in the RNI. It came down to headsail handling problems affecting us in the last beat to windward in winds up to 48 knots (90 kph) and 4m waves.
Blink is a faster boat than Bushido, but our inexperience with getting the best out of her - a result of the inevitable problems with a brand new design meaning we had minimal 2-handed practice and only had her properly ready and available for racing for just over 2 months pre-RNI - combined with the Bushido team sailing so very very well, kept them in the game. Bushido nailed their sail changes, tactics etc. pretty much all the way around. They were clever enough at the corners and strategically to always stay in touch, and when we had problems they could catch us.
I've lots of thoughts / notes, photos, some video to post which I'll get around to posting soon. Not as much as you'd think of video and pics, though... Between sailing the boat as fast as we could, some proper sleep deprivation, trying to work out tactics etc, the prior intention to take lots of pics/vids faded into the background a bit."
Check out the story of Blink's race here
