With their NACRA Infusion new and right out of the box, Billy arrived only on sunday from the last week held ISAF World cup where he and his crew became second overall on tie points.

This must be a sweet victory for them and it will be celebrated big time! Besides these guys sailing so well it is yet another proof of the supremacy of the Nacra Infusion within the Formula 18 circuit. The Infusion is a typical ” simple to sail and go-fast-easy  kind of boat” that is competitive in all kinds of levels in racing around the world.

We congratulate them with this great result and we will take a couple of drinks on their victory. Good job guys!!

Nacra Infusions on 1st, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 14th places and so on, and so on.

Team Nacra Sailing / Performance Sails

For the full results of the PALMA ISAF World cup stage you sail to: PALMA

For all information on the next World cup in the South of France you can sail to: HYERES

Renee Groeneveld and Karel Begemann (NED) are leading the Nacra fleet with consistent results and have yet to win a race. Like many other teams it is the result of a successful mix of multihull and match-racing experience. Groeneveld at the helm said, “I’ve come out of match racing so I’m really new to cat sailing so everything on the cat with the foils has meant we’ve done a lot of training here in Palma from December onwards.”

On their consistent performance in Palma Begemann explained, “Yesterday we didn’t have a bad day but we did have a few bad starts, so our focus today was to have some good starts. And the first two races today were pretty much perfect but in the last one we were a little bit unlucky with someone coming from over the line a little bit low and giving us some bad wind but we ended up fourth so it was okay.”

“The day went pretty well with three good solid races. We were at the front of the fleet for all three and we are pretty happy with the day,” added Groeneveld.

They are closely followed by the French teams of Moana Vaireaux and Manon Audinet and Billy Besson with Marie Riou on equal points.

Besson and Riou are setup like the Dutch with a multihull specialist and a former Olympic match racer. The pair won the first two races but were struck with some bad luck in the last of the day, “Today was not so bad, we won two races,” said Besson. “We broke the rudder so that’s why we were not so good in the final race. But it was a really good day. Marie is a really good crew and is working hard on the boat.”

Sailing the multihull after an Olympic match racing campaign is a new challenge for Riou and one she’s taking to with the help of the experienced multihull sailor Besson, “I have a tough job with a lot of things to do – trim the mainsail and the spinnaker – but I’ve been learning a lot because before I was in match racing so it’s new for me to sail the multihull. I have to learn a lot and I have a good teacher. He’s a good protector and saved us from capsizing. The boat is really fast compared to the keelboat before. It’s really fun and fast.”

To have a mixed event is also a new test in the Olympic sailing programme. After two Olympic campaigns in the Tornado class, Billy Besson appreciates sailing with a female crew, “It’s really nice sailing with Marie and she compliments the team. With all the men we had a lot of fights and we want to make it and now we have no fights and we just talk and make good decisions for a good race.”

The Finals will start tomorrow for all classes with the exception of the 2.4mR who see tonight a new leader with Sailing World Cup Miami winner Megan Pascoe (GBR) who has not finished anywhere worse than second in a fleet of 23 boats.

Used with the courtesy of Trofeo Princes Sofia

Nacra 17 Olympic class Palma world cup

Tim has started campaigning for Sweden in the NACRA 17 towards the Olympic games of Rio de Jaineiro 2016. For more information on his campaign please visit www.swedenracing.com

Tim has won many championships and events in the past and has won the respect of many sailors. If somebody should know about the needs of sailors, it’s Tim.

We wish him good luck and a lot of succes!

Team Nacra

WINNER ‘ BOAT OF THE YEAR 2013′

For the ‘HISWA Boat of the Year 2013′ the J70, the Nacra 17 and the Hallberg-Rassy 412 were nominated in the race for this coveted title.

NACRA 17  Boat of the year 2013

The election ‘HISWA Boat of the Year “is a prize for sailboats. Registration was open to series built yachts in the calendar year or the previous year on the Dutch market. During the opening of HISWA 2013 the Nacra 17 was chosen as for a number of innovations in a class where the competition is fierce.

Jury President Hugo van Wieringen, also owns yacht ship builder Azure Naval Architects, the Nacra 17: “Innovative example, the curved dagger boards  that generate much lift,  detailed and fine balance is required to control longitudinally for optimum speed. Although the Nacra is very fast, this is achieved with a relatively simple built and equipped boat.

The response of Commercial Director Gunnar Larsen; “The total crew of Nacra Sailing & Performance sails is filled with joy and pleasure, it is great that when you develop a boat specifically designed for one purpose, to serve Olympic Athletes,  that it works out in the end ”. Furthermore it is great to see the recognition towards our in the Netherlands based company. In this tough economy, there are still loads of opportunities waiting to be found for all companies out there. “

Two brand new Nacra 500s will be used for the advanced course catamaran in the upcoming summer at sailing school Us Hiem in Oudega, Friesland. These high tech catamarans are extremely fast and are the perfect boats to learn how to really sail a catamaran. To restrain this racing monster, with a sail area of  17,5m², during rough winds is through the double trapeze. You learn lots of ins and outs about the Nacra 500 during the week at Us Hiem. Next to that, you will also sail a lot of matches against each other. During the evenings you get the theory behind sailing a catamaran to improve your speed the next morning on the water. You will experience a really cool sailing camp with the other sailors and surfers whilst playing games and party at the discos. One thing is for sure, you are the fastest on the water! More information: www.zeilscholen.nl

Great example how we can improve the learning quality together with the sailing schools throughout the world.

Sailors accrue points at each of the seven ISAF Sailing World Cup events to earn an overall Series Score. First place translates into 20 points, second place earns 19 points and so on. (Twentieth place earns one point.) The skipper/crew with the highest Series Score at the end of the season wins the ISAF Sailing World Cup Trophy.

Find out more about the ISAF Sailing World Cup, overall standings, the scoring system and the Notice of Series at: www.sailing.org/isafsailingworldcup.

NACRA 17 debut

All eyes are on the Nacra 17 (mixed multihull) and 49er FX (women’s skiff) as the two new Olympic class events. The Nacra 17 will be making its debut at the ISAF Sailing World Cup this week in Miami. The 49er FX made its first appearance on the international stage at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne last December. Many of the sailors in each of these events are making the transition from another boat or class. ISAF World Cup Miami will provide the perfect opportunity for these sailors to build camaraderie with new teammates and make progress with their new boats.

The Nacra 17 fleet is headlined by Puerto Rico’s Enrique Figueroa. Joining the three-time Olympian as crew will be his wife Carla Malatrasi. “My objective this week is to get as much time in the water as possible in order to learn as much as I can about the Nacra 17 and place well in the regatta,” explained Figueroa. “We have only sailed the Nacra 17 for a few hours over the past couple weeks, but we are definitely getting better.”

U.S. skippers Taylor Reiss and Matthew Whitehead will be making a move from the SL16 to the Nacra 17 this week. As a team, Reiss and Whitehead placed sixth at the 2011 ISAF Youth Worlds in Croatia. Reiss will be sailing with Sarah Lihan, who represented Team USA in the Women’s 470 at the 2012 Olympic Games. Whitehead will be sailing with Sarah Streater. Also competing in this intriguing fleet will be Canada’s Luke Ramsey and Nikola Girke. Ramsey and Girke represented Team Canada at the 2012 Games in the Men’s 470 and Women’s RS:X, respectively. Another interesting tandem includes Women’s Match Racing standout Elizabeth Kratzig (USA), who will be teamed up with Jonathan Farrar.

Source: Miami Olympic regatta

After the trip to Tanzania to do the Tanzacat regatta, the African sailors noticed that the level of sailing in the Netherlands is quite high. Gunnar and Frank made a video of one of their races during the Tanzacat bay races. After watching this footage several times the South African Nacra dealer invited us to come over for a week of training. We only had to think over this for about 5 seconds, and then we said.. YES we come!

A group of 10 very enthusiastic sailors came to Langebaan, South Africa for a week full of sailing. We have to say, what a wonderful place to sail! Everyday a nice breeze building from 8 knots in the morning till 20 knots in the afternoon. Every day we took the Africans out for a sail and coached them on their level. The level of sailors was quite divergent, from a little experienced in catamaran sailing till very experienced in several classes. It was really cool to take everyone out for a ride. We had access to 3 nacra F20 carbons, not very well known in Africa. The biggest fleet is still the hobie 16 fleet, but I’m sure that after this week at least a couple sailors will switch to a more high performance catamaran, once they experienced the real speed of cat sailing.

After all we can say that this week was very successful. We shared a lot of knowledge and definitely increased the level of sailing for this group. We also sailed some hours together after a short break, so some nice training hours are made. Last but not least, we can speak a little Afrikaans now, so from now on we call the plugs in the back of the hulls “proppies,” when you are in traffic we call that “verkeersknoopies” and about the “Pannekoekies” I would recommend to find out yourself what that means.

A big thank you to Nacra South Africa for having us there, and we will definitely go back soon!

We wish everybody a merry Christmas and all the best for 2013!

While watching Gunnar & Frank sail at the Tanzacat regatta end September, it became clear that South Africans have a lot to learn about high performance catamaran sailing. We had discussions with Gunnar about the possibility to have some coaching in South Africa. We would like to thank Nacra for their enthusiasm and willingness to share their knowledge and skills with us.

December is “summer holidays” in South Africa and the perfect time to arrange a training event as many sailors are on leave over this period. We suggested a training camp to the guys and quickly rallied 15 keen sailors together. We decided to hold a training camp from 14 to 21 December at Langebaan lagoon, approximately 1 hour’s drive from Cape Town. It is an excellent venue for sailing and has hosted even World’s events in the past.

Finding prospective coaches didn’t prove to be much of a problem! We asked Frank whether he could spare us some of his time and we got a big “yes” without any hesitation. We did feel that having a skilled skipper would also help a lot and here Jorden Veenman offered his time and services.  I can’t thank Nacra and also Boskalis enough for their assistance in making this event possible.

On the evening Frank and Jorden arrived in the “Mother City” where their forefather, Jan van Riebeeck first set foot on 6 April 1652. They did however not take the Dromedaris, the Reijger or the Goede Hoop as he did, they chose to come on KLM’s daily direct flights to South Africa!

On the 21^st we all set off to Langebaan to start assembling the F20C’s and start sailing. I’m sure the change in weather from Holland must have been welcome for our two “Dutchies” and they would have a full week of temperatures in the early 30’s. (°C) With everybody jumping in to help, this was effortless and even in building the boats, we were given some clever tricks on trampoline tension, rigging etc.

Sail training started in full swing on the morning of the 15^th. They took us through rigging tips, tactics and strategy and obviously throughout the week a lot of one-on-one sailing. There is not a single person that attended that can’t say that they taught something new.

Langebaan is very predictable with its weather. You get good breeze daily from late morning to early afternoon after which it typically blows out, and only the windsurfers and kitesurfers go out. We spent our afternoons socializing over a beer or two and just having fun. I must say we had very little sleep as the one or two beers never just remained one or two…. We treated our two “Dutchies” to typical South African hospitality and at least one night gave them a crayfish / lobster braai (BBQ).

Two of the days the wind was too strong for sailing and we showed them around Cape Town. They at least went to the top of Table Mountain and just enjoyed a day out seeing the best of Cape Town’s tourist spots.

It was with great sadness that we had to see them get back on that KLM flight! We have made wonderful new friends and we are sure that we will see a lot more of them, now that they’ve “tasted” South Africa! We look forward to Ronde Om Texel which will be attended by a few of us. Not sure whether we’ll knock Xander Pols off the podium just yet, but we’re coming to try!  Ben Muller,Nacra dealer South Africa

Girls:

1) Oren Jacob& Nofar Edelman – Nacra Inter 18

2) Stav Brukman & Liad Sela – Hobie 16

3) Atalia Dandeker & Lia Biran – Hobie Getaway

Talented young sailors from the 420 & 470 boats joined the race as preparation for the first to Nacre 17 to arrive soon. Now it is clear that the initiation of the Olympic preparation will defiantly support the entire catamaran sailing here, improve sailing level and increase interest.

We hope to see international sailor taking part in our sailing events and looking forward to participate in various international events in the near future.

Offer Reshef

Chairman