The Worlds Stars arriving for the PredictWind A-Cat Worlds 25

Sailing superstars on the A-Cat fleet (yes, I do realise you are ALL covered in his category, but you are not all here are you?!) are arriving at Milford Cruising Club in Auckland.  A lovely club set in parkland and quite possibly one of the friendliest venues we ever had.  Nothing is too much trouble for Andrew the Commodore and his dedicated crew.

After a gruelling 17hr flight leg from Dubai, where 1 hr of fitful sleep was had, added to the 6hr flight from Birmingham, your correspondent was actually on the water, in a 1m swell and 11-13 kt winds, to chase down a few of the guys out training in the afternoon.  A few Polish lads, Jacek Noetzel, Michal Kaszczuk , Kuba Surowiec, Landy and his boy, Kiwis Dave Shaw, Hamish Hall-Smith and Mike Drummond and The French frigate of Emmanuel Dode plus a few who were too far off to catch up, so apologies for no name check lads!  Hamish, a boat breaker by his own admission, had his port foil case top burst off, so after dumping his port foil on my rib to save it from the oggin, he ran home to stick it back on again.

The rest, particularly the Sopot lads, seemed to be having fun, although even Jacek, a Sturmmeister himself, said it was pretty rough.  However, all landed back on the beach safely, using the best technique of all foils up and secured, 75m out, then run to the bow and holding the forestay.  The boats will then just drift ashore in a nice controlled manner.  Please note this technique, all those who are landing in the surf.  It's a winglet saving technique, believe me!