Tuesday, August 16, 2011

the TOTAL Fiji Hobie Challenge trail


Thanks again for a wonderful time. We had

a really great experience and look forward to being able to do it again

I was chatting to Shane about the legs and have the following info from GPS and memory

Leg 1 90km downhill all the way got scary in the last hour

Leg 2 55km light downhill till near navula passage last 30km dead beat in lumpy 20+

Leg 3 14.6km round Beachcomber downwind to Navini Is work back to Treasure Is 10 to 15 knots

Leg 4 34km one upwind leg to SE corner of Vomo Is return run to Treasure Is 10 to 15 knots

Leg 5 26km round Beachcomber downwind to Navini reach to Malamala beat to Vunuadra reach back to Treasure 10 to 15 knots

Leg 6 22km treasure to smugglers cove light downwind all the way

Mick

Mick + Patrick Buttler - Winner of the TOTAL Fiji Hobie Challenge 2011

Results - TOTAL Fiji Hobie Challenge 2011



Saturday, August 6, 2011

for more regular updates

join our facebook page

2011 Oceania Hobie Championship



Its the final morning of the Championship and the event has been anything but predictable. Day 1 was spent on the beach (well for most of us) - some went out for 5 minutes and came back on shore - that was the day's wind used up.
Worsty's day 1 started with a speeding ticket doing a 97 on a 60 zone, came out of the gates too early and started on the bar @11am - I think he had inside information that there was not going to be any more wind for the day. Unfortunately for Locke, Worsty was the only one that knew where their accommodation was and had great difficulty finding it from the hours between 11 to 2:30am. 4 taxi's later, they found "home".
Day 2 - well what a complete contrast to day one! Wind picked up building through out the day and by the afternoon it was blowing 25knots gusting to 30knots, steep waves hence the number of DNFs and DNSs. Fortunately no major accidents, the lead changed a few times showing the diversity in the skills of the fleet.
Must log off and rig up - 4 races to complete today before 2pm and there's wind but boy is it cold - 22˚C!


Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Final Results from Day 1 - 2011 Fiji Youth Championship


from gusting 20knots in the morning to 2 knots in the afternoon, we were only able to do one more race before calling it a day. here is the final result for day 1...........one day down, two more to go!

Day 1 - 2011 Fiji Hobie Youth Championship

After 3 days of training, the Fiji Hobie Youth Championship started with ideal sailing conditions. 12 - 15 knots gusting up to 20 knots.
All competitors for the event (3 Wallis + Futuna, 1 Noumea and 8 Fiji Team) are failry evenly matched in skills and it's a battle to keep the lead especially between Chatonnier Lucas of New Caledonia and Moape Draunavesi of Fiji.
The occasional 20knots saw a couple of capsizes and remarkable recovering from the Wallis team who were heros from zeros.
Here are the results from the first 3 races this morning. They've just come in for lunch and then it's back on the water for another 3 races before calling it a day for Day 1.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

have nothing planned for this coming weekend?

this Sat and Sunday will be full on!!
Sat will have some boats available and training for those the newbies and Sun will be racing.
Some fun races for newbies and serious for others

Monday, June 20, 2011

Intro to Hobie Sailing Weekend










My name is Deborah Sue and I took part in the Intro to Hobie Sailing Course organised by Fleet 252 held over the weekend of 28-29th May, 2011 in Laucala Bay. The main objective of the weekend was to have fun learning to sail Hobie Cats in a safe environment.

So! After a Friday evening 'classroom session' getting a preview of the hobie lifestyle and diagrammatic no sail zone, upwind, downwind and all the points in between; we started Saturday morning with learning the parts of the boat and rigging on land before launching off onto the water. Clear sunny skies and a nice gentle breeze of about 10-15 knots was perfect for us beginners and particularly those who'd never skippered before! Moape of the Youth Hobie Team was our instructor for the day and a very knowledgeable teacher for Cameron and me. After many practice tacks and gybes we all eventually got to the sandbank for lunch and a demonstration on Fiji's secret method of easily fixing stuck rudder cams. The wind picked up towards the end of the afternoon much to the thrill of some, and one team in discovering the love for speed on the water got a head-start on the following day's lesson on recovery of a capsized boat!!

All in all, it was a fantastic day out ... although a bit tiring as most disappeared soon after chowing down the yummy BBQ organised by Stephen and gang.

Sunday turned out to be surprisingly sunny (given all the rain Suva usually gets!) and after another class session with the blackboard, it was time to hit the water. At least half of us had harnesses this time and discovered the exhilaration of hiking out on the trapeze ... however, the promising strong winds of the early morning eased much and resulted in many a dunking! Oh, what FUN!! Capsize recovery was the lesson for the afternoon and our monkey-agile instructor (Cyril) much enjoyed climbing around on the boat as well as us to demonstrate the techniques.

The Course concluded on Monday evening at the Royal Suva Yacht Club with a last lecture from Lead Instructor Paul Littlefair, on basic meteorology to give us an idea of how local and global weather patterns come about, and how to interpret weather charts.

Vinaka vakalevu to all our instructors over the weekend! Paul, Grahame, JP, Shayne, Stephen, Epeli, Moape, Cyril, Manoa and Marshall. Also, our support and rescue crew: Bronwyn, Led, Mika and Gus, and photographer, Karl.



Tuesday, May 31, 2011

social sailing: this coming weekend..June 4-5th…

For those of you who may want to do a bit more practice this weekend, Grahame will prepare 3 boats for your use on Sat and Sun…
He and the youth will be sailing Sat and Sun, and between the 3 boats and the 5-6 youth boats we will be able to get almost everybody out on the water for a few hours on both Sat and Sun…
We may be doing sort of two hours on ,two hrs off turn about but all who turn up will get a go..
On Sun there will be normal race training for the racing teams but the training teams ( you guys ) can just do some more tacks and gibing practice and just improve your skills..
At some point on Sunday, we will ALL join up and sail to sandbank for a chat….and sail back..
For those of you who are waiting for their turn, it would be a good thing to come and sit on the start boat during race training and observe,,,
There is a great deal to be learnt by watching and Grahame will explain this ..also those of you waiting your turn can assist with the starts and will be useful as well as beneficial to your training…
On both Sat and Sun, Grahame will spend some time in the safety boat, following those on their own and helping you iron out problems….
It would assist us if you could indicate how many may attend Sat and or Sun…
In case you are wondering, there is no charge for this…

See you out on the water : )

6: 2011 oceania championship + fiji hobie challenge bulletin


bula!

we have just completed our first event in our sailing calendar and now i have a little bit of time up my sleeve to get to the nitty gritty of the august event. the may 2011 intro to hobie was a great success and we welcome new members and potential members to the fleet.

a couple of reminders:
1. please send me your entry forms as soon as possible as i urgently need it for the accommodation rooming list. if you do not have the form - you can download it from our website www.fijihobie.com
2. in order for us to secure our accommodation booking etc, i need you to start sending us some money please

please let also let me know if you have any allergies or have any special dietary requirements so that i can make necessary arrangements.

vinaka (thank you in fijian)

Monday, May 23, 2011

5: 2011 oceania championship + fiji hobie challenge bulletin

bula

air pacific specials
it is with our deepest regret to announce the death of our longstanding relationship with air pacific's sponsorship for our event. if you have flown with them recently you would have noticed that they are cutting cost. grahame is still doing cpr but i'm not holding my breath.

raddison
there has been another change to the accommodation on the challenge - instead of the raddison, we will be staying at the sheraton fiji for the last night of the challenge. for those of you that want to stay longer than one night - i will respond to you individually after i've secured a good rate for your extra night.

transportation to pacific habour
once you have booked your flights, please let me know if you require assistance with transportation from nadi airport to pacific habour. we can organise pickup at the decent rate if you wish to travel by taxi. also happy to send you bus schedule should you be arriving during the day.

communication
as this is a part time job - i am often unable to respond to your email enquiries immediately. they are delayed but not forgotten - my apologies.

thats all for now - have a great week

vinaka + kind regards



torika brodie - event coordinator
mobile +679 9998724  skype torikabrodie

Monday, May 2, 2011

4: 2011 oceania championship + fiji hobie challenge bulletin

bula
from now on I will be sending out any updated information or changes by numbered bulletins such as this
boat damage deposit
we will accept the equivalent of fj$750 for charter boat damage deposit for those of you not wishing to change any cash
air pacific specials
nothing has been confirmed yet - i will advise hopefully by the end of the week as grahame aka. fish is in negotiations with them and communications with grahame is a little bit restricted as he is in thailand sailing.

vinaka - tor

fiji hobie @ the 2010 hibiscus float acknowledging our sponsors contribution


Wednesday, April 6, 2011

golden oldie

stumbled across this photo on my of my random google search......photo thai nationals in 2009

Bring it On!!

We are in the process of finalising the last details for the 2011 Air Pacific Oceania Championships and the Suzuki Fiji Hobie Challenge from 3rd to 13th August so stay tuned over the next week for updates regarding the NOR, accommodation, flight specials etc.

So what's the plan for this year?

Well, it all starts in Pacific Harbour for the now 3-day course racing Air Pacific Champs, followed by some interesting swings and turns as the 5-day long distance Suzuki Hobie Challenge heads up the South Coast with 2 lay days of sun, sand, surf at a gorgeous resort where there'll be recuperation time (for the non-sailors, that's sailor speak for rum drinking time).

After the lay day, we head off north again to Treasure Island (by popular request) for 4x nights. Yet more sun, sand, surf and massages....sigh, it's a tough life! And Beachcomber Island's bar is only a swimmable distance away......need I say more?

The last day of racing will head down towards the Sofitel Resort on Denerau Island for the prize giving night. The airport is only 20 mins away and with 7 resorts in a row and Port Denerau, there'll be no shortage of rum.

Families and friends are more than welcome - we've got ground transport organised, nannies for the kids, spa discounts, zip lining, white water rapids, diving and fishing available and some of the most gorgeous beaches and waters in the world.

Confirmed Entries so far:

Pete Dubbelaar (Aust)
David Lovell / Nick King (Aust)
Mike Montague (USA)
Geoff Rowden / Rosie Phelan (Aust)
Bruce Tardrew / Sarah Turnbull (Aust)
Fletcher Warren / Georgia Warren-Myers (Aust)
James Wierzbowski (Aust)
Bob Engwirda / Worsty (Aust)
Ray Muld (Aust)
Kerli Corlett / Ali Corlett (Aust)
Rohan Gilmore (Aust)
Didier Arnould (Tahiti)
Didier Arnould #2 (Tahiti)
Andrew Locke (Aust)
John McCormick (Aust)
Mick Butler / Junior Butler (Aust)
Matt Sheppard (NZ)
Grahame Southwick (Fiji)
John Philp (Fiji)
Shayne +Lt Torika Brodie (Fiji)
Alan Marshall (Fiji)
Stephen Breen (Fiji)
and
Special Guests: Fossil & Mrs. Fossil (PNG)

Andrew Springford (NZ).....we are waiting to hear from you!

That leaves only 2 boats left so if you're up for 10 days of great sailing (ask last year's competitors about the Royal Davui Squall......)