Some Results and Reader Feedback

Hi

Sorry for the long break.  I have been involved in a project and have not felt like posting.

The Defi and the initial stage of the PWA racing are both behind us.
Andrea Cucchi won the Defi after 6 races.

I note that Denis Standhardt came in 4th.  I had to smile - Denis sails here every year in December and I have to say that he is a combination immovable object and irresistible force.  When I am out holding onto my 6.4m for dear life, Denis is screaming up and down on his Vapor 7.9.

I watched him almost sail over the toes of two kiters once, at top speed.  He was totally unfazed whereas the kiters came directly into the beach, packed up and departed.  Good man Denis!

Denis blasts past the first kiter

The second kiter's near death experience

Denis calmly cranks out his gybe and continues on his way.  Awesome!

The PWA, Costa Brava leg yielded a few interesting results.  Antoine won the event with Cyril second and Pierre Mortefon third.  Stellar performances all round.  Of interest to me is the fact that in the first eleven places, three are GA/Tabou riders.  No other sail maker and no other board maker has three places in the top eleven.  Ben came fourth, Cedric came in seventh and Ross was number eleven.

Cedric Bordes is perhaps my biggest surprise.  He usually sits way down in the rankings but I kept on seeing him featuring in the heats.  Initially, I thought that he just got lucky but as the heats and elimination rounds progressed, he was always there.  GA/Tabou have definitely made a breakthrough this year!  The kit works!

Kevin Do has been trying his new VMax fins and recons that he gets faster times downwind with the VMax2 than with the series 1.  He agrees with us here that the series 1 is slightly better upwind than the 2, but for downwind, the 2 is slippier, more controllable and generally faster.  He is also getting great speeds from his Vector Volt Carbon and will be spending more time evaluating this blade in the coming weeks. Interesting stuff.

Kevin reports that one of his VMaxes failed on him (it just started twisting easily in the hand) but that Select replaced it - no problem.  Nice one Select!

OK that's all for now
Talk to you soon (ish?)