"Bollywood" Cut Party night

It was Bollywood in the big tent last night; saris, guru jackets, turbans and lots of bling. Indian dancers entertained and we ate bowls of curry with naan bread. But of course the highlight of the evening was the announcement of the 56 teams who would sail in the final beginning today. Lori Mohney broke with tradition and announced the crew names first and this was greeted with whoops of glee from the crews. Top of the list are Mick Butler and Susan Etherington from Australia, followed by Leff Dahl from Sweden and in third spot, Damrongsak and Sakda Vongtim from Thailand.

Today the weather gods are fickle again and forget the adrenaline rush for a while, with the sea like a millpond there is not going to be any sailing for some time. The teams sit around chatting, drinking coffee, lying on their boats or recovering from last night’s Puerto Rican Rum Party. It’s time to go in search of stories again.

Thirteen year old Kaveni Natadra is crewing for Grahame Southwick and for him it is a rags to riches story. Grahame had asked two of the employees at the resort that he owns if they could find some likely young sailors and let him know. The next day there were 30 young kids lined up and waiting at the side of the road. There was huge interest from the youngsters but they had never been given a chance. Grahame whittled the group down to twenty and then selected five for immediate Hobie training and promised he would be back for the rest when the World Championships were over. Now Kaveni has had the privilege of representing Fiji in sailing at the recent Samoa South Pacific Games and is crewing for Grahame in the Hobie World Championship finals. He is a popular competitor here and has already shown signs of becoming a world class competitor in the future, aiming to improve his rankings and to represent his country.

Another young competitor is Ryan Donaldson, sailing with Ryan Thomson and representing New Zealand he comes from a sailing family and grew up sailing Optimists, P Class and Starlings and has done well in those classes, but after two years in Hobies he doesn’t think he will go back to sailing monohulls. This is his first world championship and he is finding it “awesome.” He likes the idea of having the boats supplied and thinks it produces a true world champion. Ryan gives credit to his mum and dad. Dad Alastair put his own sailing career on hold to support Ryan but this year jumped back into a Hobie and competed in the qualifying round, finishing in the seventies. He also acknowledges long time Hobie sailor Harry Handley’s influence. He says that when he saw the look on Harry’s face sailing fast downwind he was hooked!

Enrik Obert is crewing for Jerome Le Gal. The New Caledonians won the qualifying series and finished the semi finals in tenth place. He’s been sailing a Hobie since the beginning of this year and although he prefers to skipper he knows that he can get a lot of experience this way – learn the tricks of the trade. He is happy with the credit he gets as crew and with Jerome aims to win this championship. But next time Enrik would definitely like to skipper his own boat!

Third place getters in the semi finals are Damrongsak and Sakda Vongtim from Thailand. Damrongsak thinks they can do even better in the finals. They are brothers and started competing in Hobies several years ago, going on to win gold medals in both the Asian and South East Asian Games. The fleets have been very small at those regattas and it has been very different sailing in the large fleets here. Like many other competitors here they began their sailing experience in Optimists, 420s and 470s.

At 12:15 there is enough breeze and the championship can continue. In the meantime we take a trip on the Bula Bus, a glorified truck with a thatched roof and bench seating down the middle. A policeman rides shotgun beside the driver ready to protect the three passengers but I don’t feel that we are in hostile territory here – in fact quite the opposite. Our little tour takes us through the nearby suburbs, past rows of houses with lines full of washing and past people selling from piles of freshly husked coconuts. Almost everyone we pass waves and calls out “Bula!” Over and over again we are struck by the friendliness of the people here. The conditions for the first race are good, with the breeze at about 10 kts but then a squall comes through, the breeze strengthens and the rain pours down. The rain flattens the wind and the Race committee shortens the second race at the windward mark. It’s the end of racing for today.

With a third and a sixteenth placing, in today’s races Australians Mick Butler and Susan Etherington are holding on to first place with 27 points. Six points behind are Christophe Renaud and Alban Rossolin from New Caledonia and in third place, Cam Owen and Susan Ferris from Australia on 42 points. It’s good behaviour time from now on for some of the teams who are close behind on points. Some of the top ten teams had a bad race today and with only one drop available in the series cannot afford another tomorrow. These sailors will be trying to keep out of trouble tomorrow.