Author: Liam

ISAF Sailing World Championships is the much awaited sailing event which was inaugurated in the year 2003. Ever since then, it is organized every 4 years. The 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship is the 4^th edition of this event. The city of Santander situated in Spain is hosting the championship this time from the 12^th to the 20^th of September, 2014.

This world championship is important for all the participating teams because the sailors and the teams will get the ultimate opportunity to quality for the Rio Olympics which are going to be held in the year 2016. Team New Zealand is surely looking forward to the sailing event so that more New Zealanders can enter the 2016 Olympics sailing competition.

On the inaugural day of the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship, Thomas Saunders was the only New Zealander who was able to perform exceptionally well. The Tauranga sailor stood in the 11^th and 5^th position because of which he reached the 15^th position in the overall standing of the ISAF Sailing World Championships. He surely proved to be a remarkable sailor during the first day of the championship.

Along with Saunders, Sam Meech (another Tauranga sailor) also performed really well. Meech got the 12^th and 6^th position because of which he stood in the 17^th position in the overall standing.

Andy Maloney got the 18^th and tenth position in race one and two respectively and stood in the 35^th position in the overall rankings. On other hand, another Kiwi- Mike Bullot stood in the 23^rd and eleventh position in order to get an overall ranking of 43^rd.

Women sailors like Sara Winther, Susannah Pyatt and Ali Nightingale have stood in the 20^th, 23^rd and 76^th overall position respectively.

However the heavyweight sailors of Team NZ are going to be in action on 14^th and 15^th of September, 2014.

People are now talking about super yacht Serene, its a 440 foot yacht of Yuri Scheffler, Russian vodka titan, that is now being chartered by Microsoft’s Bill Gates and his family for US$ 5 million a week. The yacht as well as its Medina residents are now off the coast of Sardinia in Italy, as per recent reports.

This big US$ 330 million yacht, with its crew of fifty-two, cruised into port at Pier 90, Seattle, around a year earlier. It is undoubtedly one of the largest private yacht to ever to come to Seattle and it would not be coming this year. With its twenty four staterooms, large indoor saltwater pool, 2 helicopter landing platforms as well as storage for a huge submarine, this is a great place for someone who can spend a lot of money.

A post on the plain sailing.com facebook page revealed that it also has cold and hot Jacuzzi along with a jet stream exercise pool. The upper deck swimming pool is fifty feet long. There are bars, lounges, spas, a powder generating snow room for children, elevators, a cigar lounge, many galleys, wine cellars, a theater, hair salons and a room called Nemo which has a glass bottom to view the waters underwater. There is smaller dining areas, a plethora of grills and pizza ovens and a grand dining room. There is also a spiral staircase that reaches 6 out of 7 decks.

Denzel Washington underwent a two week long detox following a month of partying hard aboard a yacht with his wife. A leading entertainment website has reported that the fifty nine year old Hollywood actor’s July events landed him in an OC residence, the place where he drafted the help of a detox pro, nutritionist, chef and personal trainer to relieve his body of toxins he assimilated on his vacation.

Reports suggests that this has long been a part of the actor’s daily routine. An insider stated that he does this health cleanse every time he is about to go back to work and start his conditioning and nutritional program. Always cleans up after the family vacation in prep for work. There is nothing new in it. The actor’s new film hits theaters on 26th September.

In the meantime, a lifeboat from Wells, on North Norfolk sea coast, was launched on Saturday to serve a 28 foot yacht that had run into difficulties. The bilge keel Yacht named Amigo with two persons on-board was on its way to Grimsby on a Northerly they ran into mechanical problems, and was not making any headway. After that the reversed its course and began to proceed toward the ‘safe port’ of Wells.

At 17:20, Humber Coastguard asked that Wells all-weather Lifeboat be set in motion, as they were not certain that the yacht would make a safe landfall and steer its way to the safety of the port.

The national sailing team of New Zealand have successfully rounded up the current season of the ISAF Sailing World Cup bagging 4 medals at the last regatta in Hyeres. Polly Powrie and Jo Aleh, who were gold medalists in Olympics picked up the gold medals in the 470 fleet for women, while the throughout consistent champion pairing of Blair Tuke and Peter Burling, post quite a great week bagged the gold. These wins got gold back to back for the crews. In the previous year’s World Cup in Palma these two fleets also aced their respective fleets.

Andy Maloney, the young Laser sailor picked up the silver in Hyeres, battling it out quite closely with the Aussie ace, Tom Burton. Alexandra, Maloney’s sister matched her brother with a silver medal in 49erFX class along with Molly Meech, her partner. These results have put the Kiwis in one of the top position in the regatta, at par as Poland and Australia. Talking about their performance, Powrie commented that Aleh and she, the present world champs and ISAF female sailors of the year are quite pleased to draw such a glorious end to the season. Together they had put in a great performance and are really glad to head back home next.

Tuke and Burling were quite excellent weeklong, while the rounded off the regatta in a spectacular way with 3 great races on the last day.  Taking about the win Burling commented that he is quite excited to win the race, while they had a substantial lead, it was however mathematically possible to not win. So they made it certain that they do the job right in the first race which they had their share of fun later in the final two.