There was more training for the EM team yesterday, this time against a larger fleet of around a dozen Farr 40s. We had a great opportinuty to continue to fine-tune our light wind set-up in a fairly steady 5 knot on-shore breeze.

The wind looks a little stronger this morning as we get ready to head out for our last session prior to the Pre-Worlds regatta which will be held over the weekend. More wind is good as the weekend forecast is for 15-18 knots.

We’re fully settled-in here, especially thanks to our wonderful chef Jenny who continues to floor us with a range of authentic local Sardinian dishes.

Wow, what a great sailing venue Porto Cervo is. Magnificent turquoise water with warm, steady winds – what you’d call Champagne sailing conditions – and when it’s windy, that’d be Champagne racing conditions.

It’s the first time a lot of the team has had a chance to sail on this boat and we’re all impressed by how well Jimmy and Deano have prepared it over the last two weeks.

We’ve got more training during Wed, Thu and Fri, then the Pre-Worlds regatta is on the weekend. We have a weigh-in on Thursday, so are on low-volume diets.

Oh, and thanks to Etihad for getting us as well as a good bunch of family and friends here safely and in good condition!

Warm and sunny Sardinian days are being enjoyed by crew as they begin to get Estate Master ready for the Farr 40 Worlds.

Estate Master has been stored on the hard over the winter and crew have flown over (via Etihad of course!) ahead of the rest of the crew to work through a long list of jobs including putting the mast in and rudder on.

In a regatta held in conditions not unlike those for the Olympics in China, Estate Master Tactician Nathan Outteridge and crew Iain Jensen won the Delta Lloyd regatta by a solid 15 points against a strong fleet of 48 49ers.

Coach Emmet Lazich said “It’s an amazing start to their new partnership. Winning the regatta is not bad when they were aiming for a top 10. It’s a significant milestone too, since they both have qualified for the Australian Sailing Team for 2010, allowing them to focus on the worlds this year.”

Nathan now heads home for two weeks before flying to Porto Cervo in Italy with the rest of the Estate Master Sailing Team for the Farr 40 Worlds which begin June 24.

Then, Nathan and Iain go to Lake Garda for the 49er worlds, July 12 – 19.

Malcolm Page and Matt Belcher had the best scores in the 470 Gold fleet racing today at the Delta Lloyd Regatta, with a 7, 9 and 1 in the three races. They backed that up with a fantastic win in the 7pm Medal Race, sailed in a beautiful 12 knot nor’easter. They had great pace, put themselves in nice positions and avoided mistakes.

They finished in 6th overall, 20 points off the lead. Malcolm said “Very happy with our progression this week.  We started to find our rhythm as a team.  The last 2 days of racing showed this…  But results were not the main focus of this week.  The objective of stepping ourselves up as a team to the top of the world was the main focus, and I believe we have done a great job in this direction.”

“From here we go to the 470 Europeans in Austria.  Although this will be lake sailing and will probably lack good wind/racing conditions, it will be another top level regatta to hone our skills against the world’s best.  All our regattas in Europe are for us to prepare for the World Championship in Denmark later this year.”

In the 49ers, Estate Master Tactician Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen posted a handy 2, 3, 6 to advance to the top of the board with the Medal Race schedualled for tomorrow. They hold an 11 point lead over the quick Italian brothers Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello.

In the first race of the day today at the Delta Lloyd Olympic classes regatta Estate Master tactician Nathan Outteridge and crew Iain Jensen won by what many think is the largest margin ever seen in this level 49er racing.

49er coach Emmett Lazich said: ‘I’ve never seen a boat so far ahead at a Grade 1 event. They started well, then just played the pressure up the middle and carried a good puff down the first run too. At the end they were 2 minutes in front in the 32 minute race.’

Nathan said ‘Yea, we were smoking today – two 1sts and a 10th.’  They move up to 3rd overall.

In the 470s, Malcolm Page and Matt Belcher also had an excellent day, scoring 3, 4, 1 to top the fleet for the day. They move up to 15th, held back by their earlier double false starts. 

Mal said: ‘We changed our starting techinique a little, so we were not getting pushed over the line.  This helps to not get letters in the score card!  We raced very well today and had our chances to win all races.  But we stayed consistant and did not try to throw the dice too much.

Estate Master mainsheet hand and Laser coach at the Delta Lloyd regatta, Michael Blackburn, was also pleased to have all of his four sailors make the Gold fleet for finals racing which starts tomorrow.

Many think that in Olympic sailing the political powerhouse classes are the Finn and Star. The Finn fleet even used to include the current IOC president Jacque Rogge. The Star was even ousted from the Olympic roster, but lobbying got it back in.

However, we now know the fleet with the strongest union is the RSX sailboard.

Yesterday at the Delta Lloyd regatta most classes completed 3 races and some in the Laser did 4, bringing total on-water time for some sailors to 10 hours – quite a long workday!

However, the sailboarders did just two 30 minute races (as determined by their class rules)!

Meanwhile, Estate Master team Mal Page and Matt Belcher had some good scores but were caught trying just a little too hard in the third race of the day and received a second black flag penalty. However, the team is little concerned about scores at this stage in their program.

Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen improved markedly on their first day scores, with a 5, 9, 1 yesterday to lie 9th overall in the 49er fleet.

“It was a much better day out there for us today,” said Outteridge. ”It’s different sailing in such a big fleet of 50 boats, you make one mistake and suddenly you’re back in the 20s so we just kept chipping away.”

“In the last race we finally got a bit of fresh air up the first beat and were in the top three at the first mark, from there on we kept on sailing through them and it was pretty nice to find some fresh air out there.”