29erXX Class Association
2812 Cañon Street,
San Diego, CA, USA 92106
www.29erXX.com
www.facebook.com/29erXX

Dear 29erXX Sailors,

2012 – Looking Ahead
It’s an exciting time for 29erXX sailors.  There’s an unprecedented level of interest in our class as women looking to sail two-person skiffs as well as adults wanting a fun and durable high-performance dinghy discover the versatility and performance of the XX.  Of course, the XX continues to offer lighter 49er teams a training platform where they can hone their trapeze skills before moving up to the men’s Olympic skiff.  XX Rigs are being purchased at a steady rate and it won’t be long before small fleets start popping up in favorite venues. 

North American Schedule Announced
The schedule for 2012 has been announced and I am happy to say the XX class is returning to some favorite venues.  With Miami, Long Beach, and the Gorge, just to name a few, North America is becoming a hotbed of XX sailing.  Teams from NZL, and AUS joined us at the Gorge in 2011. Those teams (and maybe more) are looking to return to race again in 2012.

Read more: From Kristen Lane, the North American Vice President

The first 29erXX SEIKO Speed Challenge was held at the EUROSAF High Performance Grand Prix event in Murcia, Spain.  With 14 boats entered, the race management team had the challenge of determining a speed test for the fleet and it was determined to take the forecasted windiest day at the forecasted windiest portion of the day and reserve that for the SEIKO Speed Challenge.  The sailors were briefed in the morning of the days plan; morning fleet races with a break then they would head back out to the course area.  Each team would be given 3 runs on a broad reach of approximately .2 nm, or a 1 minute sail.  The jury was the finish boat taking the times once they were started at the start boat by race officer Luky Serrano.  The wind was approximatly 10 knots.  Most teams averaged 1 minute times with a few posting sub-minute runs.  At one point Spanish sailors Ascension Roca de Togores and Carmen Mateo held the lead with a .59.7 run but were surpassed in the last heat by fellow countrymen and ultimate winners Vernon Cerdan Ming and Alex Torrado with the time of .57.5 followed by the German team of Juliane Wolf and Elena Stoffers with 59.6.

Vernan and Alex won the grand prize of $500 USD and two SEIKO watches and hold the record for the fastest speed for 2011 for the 29erXX.  See the full times posted here

After the ISAF decision for a woman skiff with the 2016 Olympics, sailors are starting to cross swords. One of the more exciting events is the recent Downhill Skiff Cross in Cisme Turkey. It brought together 16 of the world's best female Skiff crews in a concept designed after the popular "Downhill Skiing Cross" which caused a media storm during Winter Olympics ...

Downhill Skiff Cross is a new type of fun, exciting and fast type of match race with a standing start. Both boats are ready for a pontoon, where herds are excited as springs and waiting for one pistol, just like Usian Bolt in 100 meters race. The course is a 450 meter short slalom gang, which is quite close to shore - so close to land that spectators can see sailors facial expressions.

The regatta was a high profile invitation event with 16 crews from 9 countries: USA 1, Finland 2, Sweden 2, Norway 2, Turkey 1, Netherlands 1, Canada 1, Denmark 4 and Germany 2. Among them were several na-tional and international champions, including: Hanna Hetinen-Jutta Hetinen (Finnish champions), Helene Næss-Anne Gunderson (Norwegian champions), Lin Ea Cenholdt Christiansen, Stine Quorning (European champions), Rebecca Lutz Theresa Köhnlein (German champions), Stephanie Hudson Rebeca King (Cana-dian champions), Ida Marie Baad-Marie Thusgaard Olsen (World champions), Carolien Duetz-Annette Du-etz (Dutch Masters) and Christmas Gorge Lotta Gorge (German champions).

Transport company Favor is the main sponsor, other sponsors are KONE, Cesme Marina, SKY Turk, Power FM, TAG Heure and the Turkish State Department's Promotion Fund.

After 39 exciting races Ida Marie Baad and Marie Thusgaard Olsen from Denmark won Gold, Silver went to the German twins Jule and Lotta Gorge, while the bronze went to the Turkish / Swedish crew Sinem Kurt-bay and Hannah Dalborg. 
 
Saturday highlight video

Friday highlight video

Practice day video

The 29erXX takes the stage at the inaugural EUROSAF High Performance Grand Prix alongside Cats, Kites and the Foiling Moth.  This is the first event of its kind, showcasing the front-runners of small-craft sailing: fast, fierce and flying.

The event will take place in the warm waters of Southeast Spain at the sport centre resort Infanta Cristina the 11-16 of October.

And if 5 days of sailing in the Mediterranean isn’t tempting enough, over 4000 EUR in prize money will be awarded amongst the top 3 finishers* in the 29erXX class!  SEIKO, the 29erXX Class Official Partner, has also stepped up providing $2,500 USD prize money and watch trophies for the top team at the SEIKO Speed Challenge held as a part of the High Performance Grand Prix.

Read more: Fast, Fierce and Flying. 29erXX at EUROSAF High Performance Grand Prix

The Columbia Gorge Racing Association in Cascade Locks, Oregon (aka "The Gorge") hosted the 2011 Zhik US 29erXX National Championship. Seven teams braved the high winds, which averaged at over 20 and close to 25 for nearly every race of the three-day event. The racing was fiercely competitive with all teams rounding the weather mark within 45 seconds of each other by the last races of the event. The camaraderie in the fleet remains high with teams tuning together and sharing settings and knowledge.

Kristen Lane (San Francisco, CA) and Charlie McKee (San Diego, CA) dominated the event winning 9 of 11 races. They put in a lot of preparation and were very well tuned for the event. Congratulations! Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (Auckland, New Zealand) finished 2nd showing great speed, particularly as the smallest team at the event. These two girls are a team to watch, both having attended multiple Youth World Champs recently. Jen Glass and Matt Pistay (Seattle, WA) rounded out the podium finishes and are eager to keep up the great racing and have another go at the leaders.

Zhik continues to support high performance sailing as the title sponsor of the event, which also included the US 49er National Championship as well as an I14 fleet. Zhik also sponsored the 2011 29erXX Superbowl regatta in Miami in February. The 29erXX class thanks Zhik for their support, and encourages sailors to support Zhik.

Results
Photos
Video

US Sailing announced today that they will add the 29erXX to their Olympic Development Team in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games and the Women's Skiff Event. “Our goal is to provide an elite environment designed specifically to prepare young sailors for the highly competitive world of Olympic sailing,” said Chairman of the Olympic Sailing Committee Dean Brenner (Wallingford, Conn.).

Read More Here

Teams representing five countries tested the waters off Travemünde, Germany the week of July 27-30 for the third edition of the 29erXX European Championship. 

The weather conditions were constantly changing with no racing held on one day due to no wind followed by a day with quite heavy wind of 20 knots consistent with gusts to 25.  Despite the challenging conditions, the team onf Frederikke Graversen and Jeanine Olrik on Denmark dominated the regatta posting mostly 1’s and 2’s with a 4th as their discard.  Graversen remarked, “Jeanine and I haven’t sailed in that much wind before in the 29erXX.  At least not for 4 races! And that was the biggest challenge. We had to de-power a lot and raised our board for about 10 cm. The weather conditions made us really, really tired and we were very glad that the race officer didn’t go for 5 races – even though he could have!”

She further commented, “It was very fun to race in heavy wind but the German sailors sailed faster than us in these conditions so we had to think about what to do different. During the regatta we tried different setups with the wires. Luckily to our advantage the wind dropped a bit and then we went 1st in the last three races!”

“So for us the regatta was very successful and well organised regatta and we really loves the SEIKO watches we won – they’re really cool!”

Second at the Europeans were sisters Jule and Lotta Görge from Germany who recently finished 15th in the 29er Europeans the week prior.  Paul Kohlhoff and Carolin Werner (GER) rounded out the podium in third place.  Full Results

by Lizzi Rountree 

The 29erXX was invited to join the recent I-14 Gorge Regatta, held earlier in July on the Columbia River in Oregon.  Skippered by Kristen Lane with crew Charlie McKee, the new Melges built 29erXX even won a race! This had less to do with being a faster craft than it did with staying upright in the challenging conditions of the Gorge.

“The 29erXX is not that hard to sail, but it is hard to sail well,” says Charlie McKee, Olympic 49er sailor, about taking line-honors in one of the races.

"The I-14's were very generous to let us race with them. It opened some eyes for sure! The I-14’s are very fast, powerful boats, a fairly complicated machine. They are very impressive, but a completely different kind of boat to the one-design simplicity of the 29erXX.”<

Melges Performance Craft has just come on as the US-based builder. Renowned for their furiously fast designs, CEO Harry Melges describes taking on the 29erXX: “We're always looking for new cool projects. The 29erXX is great and the reception so far has been incredible. We're keen to be involved with such a great class!” And then he adds, “Heck, I want to sail one too!”

Read more: Can a 29erXX and I-14 Share the Same Track?