The Shark Intergalatic championships are being sailed in Austria at the moment and as I write this there are three canadian boats in the top five.  Our Heavy Fuel middle man and weather guru, Hal Ebert, is sailing with Greg Cockburn and Christine Forsyth and are sitting in second place.  Just one point separates them from last years world champions, the Shark Poop guys who are in third.

Hal, kick Johan’s ass for us!

Direct link to results.

Andy Abel is an American that is campaign for this 2007 Mini Transat.  He’s sailing a brand new Zero and he’s been working hard on the boat for months in Spain.  Check out his build photos here. 

I’ve been following Andy’s campaign closely as his campaign is a lot like mine and it is nice to be able to follow what race year is like for him.  Andy has just started is 1000nm qualifying sail, he’s doing the Atlantic course and just left La Rochelle last night.  You can track his progress here. 

It’s an exciting time for mini sailors, as racing has started and many skippers are pushing hard to get the qualifications sorted out.  It’s great to watch their progress and problems as this will definetly help in my preparations.

I think I have linked to these pictures before, but I keep coming back to them as a reminder of what can happen.  If ever their was motivation to have totally solid systems, these pictures demonstrate the need to make damn sure your autopilot is really solid…

The second qualification race for the Mini Transat just finished, the Select 6.5. This is a very tactical course on the French coast.

Isabelle Joschke is doing really well this year in her new Finot proto. She’ll be one to keep on eye on in this years circuit.

Check out some pictures from the event here.

Bonus Pics: Check out this series of photos from the Mini Pavois. Thierry Martinez is the man.

The Classe Mini posted a questionaire today regarding the qualification process for the Mini Transat.  The class is experienceing the enviable problem of having this race be WAY oversubscribed.  (130 applications this year for 86 spots!) The current system heavily favours Europeans that have a sailed an MT before and also makes it very uncertain for competitors trying to qualify with the calendar exemption, as the number of spots is very limited.

The problem has been discussed at length on the forums and a number of solutions have been proposed.   Talk is cheap though, and I think this is a very responsive move from the class to discuss other options for dealing with the problem.  As a potential competitor in 2009, this could have big implications on my program.

Check out the english news item here, and read the questionaire here (PDF).