2007 Australian National Championships
Lake Cootharaba, Queensland
28 December 2006 - 4 January 2007

Prior to these championships, it was difficult to predict how I would fair with a brand new and completely unproven boat. Even Luka's online poll had written me off, but I knew that with my three years foiling experience, I would be the one to chase.

I had only put the Bladerider in the water one week prior to the first race and had a number of issues to resolve in the days around Christmas, so the whole campaign was rather rushed to say the least. But Amac and Simon got me sorted out in the end and went up there with a decent kit (nothing like the standard of the production boats are going to be I would hope though).

Anyway, I ended up winning eight of the nine races I contested, including the Invitation Race (which I had never won before). Winning the invitation race and the overall championships was great as well as I had never won both before at the same regatta, hopefully putting to bed any superstition surrounding these circumstances.

Overall I was not very happy with my preparation, as I was far from fit and did not have the best downwind speed due to a dodgey centreboard foil that I was using (but only realised this after heat 7). It didn't show in the results, but I had to work the boat hard to stay in front downwind, however I had blistering upwind speed over the rest of the fleet, so most of the time I had a comfortable lead.

It was dissapointing to not be able to race the boat in any light airs as well against the others (every race was well over 10 knots), as it would have been interesting to see how the Bladerider would have gone. From a few tests when the wind dropped off occassionaly, I seemed to be able to hold lift longer upwind in lulls, and definately seemed to popup out of the water sooner. I have yet to prove this though.

Some other great features of the Bladerider at this regatta included:

• Ability to lift up the rudder to sail through shallow water at slow speeds and not get damaged while sitting in the tramps whilst walking to deep water.
• Easy to pack up wing frame and setup for long distance transportation.
• Two piece foils (this was a huge benefit considering the size of the foil box that I had to cart around for Robo - see his timber box underneath the bottom boat on the trailer!)
• Internal push rod mechanisms for wand.
• Neat tramp layout including control lines.
• Tidy universal joint on the tiller.
• Strong construction (nothing broke!).

There is obviously some things that still need improvements on for the production boats, but we already knew about these, as we just didn't have time to finish them on my boat for the Championships. These include:

• Including marine grade carpet in the moulded centreboard and rudder box case.
• Using a slower screw for the worm screw on the rudder.
• Small improvements on the trampolines to help reduce wear and tear.
• Fit grommets for the holes in the hull where the bridle fits to.
• Reworking the exit blocks on the boom near the tack to reduce rope wear.

Better get cracking...