Final Goodbye

So here it is, that time is upon us, we are finally in the last stretch of our journey to the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
We are leaving for the airport on Wednesday night, for our flight on thursday morning.
It's all getting a bit tense in the Team Oyster camp, as we get nearer and nearer to the ever daunting first race! We are ready though, and I can tell you that we have done everything that we could have possibly done in the time that we have had, and that's the best we can hope for. Now all we have to do is give it everything we have got....
So a huge Thank you to everyone that has helped us to get this far, it's been a fantastic journey, and the end is now in sight.
Sadly we are unsure whether we are going to be able to update the website whilst we are away due to our contract terms, especially during the regatta, but we will try our best. You can, however, follow our progress please on:

RYA Beijing 2008 Page

Bye for now, and hopefully I'll be in touch soon!

H x

Final Tune up crew announced for Beijing

After an exhaustive 2 weeks here at Hayling, we have finally come to a decision as to which three lucky people will be joining us on our trip to Beijing. These 3 guys will be responsible helping unload the containers, and generally help with the venue setup, as well as sailing Chimera against Tantrum for some final tweaks!
Martin Boatman takes the helm, bringing his keelboat driving and extensive racing knowledge to the team. Gary Ireson is joining Team Oyster for the first time, but adds a touch of style to the tune up boat! Finally long time shore crew Jon Waite takes up the final position on the bow.

Thank you guys for all your work so far, and we look forward to the final push for the Games!

Hx

Irish 2 Sail Open Regatta

Following suit from our regatta in Cowes, the Irish team decided to host a similar event in Kinsale, Cork. Loading up 2 boats 6 sailors and 1 coach Team Oyster took the road once more. A special thank you must go to our driver, Steve Wood for the 2 trips all the way from our warehouse in Colchester to Ireland- it’s a pretty long way, and we really appreciate how much effort it is to get 2 boats and all the kit that we carry around to the various venues!

We welcomed Martin Boatman to the team for the first time, taking over from Dan on the helm. Joining Martin on Dolphin, kindly lent to us by Andy Cassels, were Jon Waite and Dan- taking to an unusual role of mainsheet for a change!
All in all it was a great regatta with the Australians making the long journey over, also the Norwegians and of course the Irish! 9 boats total took to the water from the stunning Kinsale Yacht Club and made for some incredibly tight racing in conditions not that dissimilar to those we might see in Qingdao.
With 9 races scheduled over 3 days we had some very long days on the water, but that said it was well worth all the effort.
Martin and the boys must be congratulated on their brilliant sailing- they came away to take the title and gave us some well deserved grief around the race course!
We finished in a credible 2nd, 16 points clear of the next boat, the Norwegians!

It sent a great message to all the foreigners as effectively it was the British that came out on top once again. Things are certainly looking up, and finally all those long hours on the water are starting to stick! We are now looking forward to 2 weeks in Hayling with both boats and also hopefully, the final member of the tuning crew will be selected to travel with us to Beijing for the games.

Thanks to everyone that has helped us to get this far, we really are living the dream!

Cowes European Regatta

With so little racing scheduled between now and the games, in fact none, Team Oyster decided to create their own regatta out of Cowes.
Enlisting the help of long time sonar sailor, Andy Cassels and the Cowes Corinthian Yacht club, we set to work. As you can imagine sorting out an event at short notice poses several difficulties. Despite these, we managed to get a fleet of 7 boats including the Irish, Norwegian and the current Paralympic Gold medallists, the Israelis. We also invited some able bodied sailors, including our long time tuning crew of Dan Parsons, Jon Waite and Joe Erskine.
All in all, we had 4 days of great racing, with some really competitive foreigners! In the end it came down to the last race between Team Oyster A boat and the Norwegian team. Going into the last race on equal points has been something we have been discussing recently as a possible scenario for the Games so to have it arise in Cowes was brilliant. Following a text book start, we covered the Norwegians all the way for 2 laps of the course putting us last and last but one. Then on the final lap we sailed them to the wrong side of the course and split with them to what we knew was the favoured side. In the end we took the last race win, leaving the Norwegians fighting it out at the back. So Team oyster took the title away with our tuning crew coming in a very credible 4th. It must be noted that the guys have had nearly a year away from us so they themselves gave had very little time on the water as they finished their degrees. So congratulations Dan on your First class degree and Jon and Joe on your 2:1’s- Great job boys!
So finally a huge thank you to the Cowes Corinthian Yacht club, especially Debbie Macdonald for all your help with the organisation!
Finally thank you to Andy Cassels and your foundation for the loan of charter boats and the fantastic prize-giving dinner!

Hx