After 3 days of champagne sailing conditions, the 3 Shaws were all performing well enough, with Situation Normal sitting just outside the top 3, and both Monkey Business and Whaka putting in respectable performances both including top 3 places. After a 2nd to last day to forget (double digit results), in the end Situation Normal ended up the victim of a countback, coming 7th, but with equal points to 5th and 6th boats ahead.
This put SNAFU a tiny bit ahead of MB, with the mighty Whaka just a couple of points further back once the dust settled.
The Shaws are proving their performance against the bigger SMS rated boats, consistently beating the M24s, Magics and T7s on the water. It is always a challenge to keep beating bigger, longer boats with more sail area upwind…however the boyz were up to the task especially when the breeze was in; when it gets light…well a 6.5m boat is 6.5m long.
A few great pics along the way… for more information check out results here:
One of Australia’s biggest regattas, this year, the Shaw 650 fleet has gone from zero entries (in fact this time last year there were no Shaws in Aussie) to 3…. not a bad effort considering a couple of local boats even decided against making the considerable trip up from Brisbane and thereabouts.
We wish the best to the boys on Monkey Business, Wha-ka and of course, our favourite Situation Normal….hopefully that last few months was spent in training on the water…not in the bar
Sadly up there in northern Queensland, despite the flooding in recent years, there seems to be a bit of a struggle to get lots of boats out except for the big few regattas like Airlie.
Nevertheless, the mighty Situation Normal (or SNAFU) did head to head battle with experienced SB sailor John Rae in Guided Missile, a Stealth 8 which is a super nice boat.
With races lasting just under an hour, the Stealth gives a Shaw 650 around 6 minutes an hour on paper, but David Mann was guiding his boat to within 2-3 min of the bigger boat, giving him the title and a nice boost as the boat now gets ready for the high seas of Airlie Raceweek.
The SMS system has continued to develop and the Shaw seems to rate fairly under this handicap system which is based on measurements and does not use subjective measures.
Nice little result by the Octopussy in the last weekend gone by; sailing with the big kite and in some big breeze, perhaps 1/2 owner Rees wished he’d already built his reaching kite!
Despite a bit of a navigation confusion (the problem of being a lead boat sometimes), Octopussy has taken a nice podium spot early on in the Fremantle winter series, and I am sure hopes to take a few wins away from the top Viper in Perth, which is very well sailed, and did well to come so close to the 650.
Over the last month, the Australian Shaw 650 contingent have been putting up some solid performances.
In the recent Molooloolooloolaba racing, conditions were mostly pretty light. Situation Normal finished just outside the podium places, although managing a nice 1-2 Shaw finish on the final race; Peow Peow took the honours against Melges 24s, E7s, T7s etc that make up the fleet in this part of Queensland.
Image of Peow Peow courtesy of Gary (flogged from facebook) shows their keys to success, plenty of crew weight, great sails, and a well prepped ride. With some big news coming in the near future regarding the options available for sails in the Shaw 650 fleet, enjoy this taste of the Peow 2 sail reaching.
Peow Peow up and off 2 sail reaching
Over on the other coast, the two Perth Shaws haven’t been quiet, with both Indecent Haste and Octopussy being actively sailed, as conditions on the Swan River move towards typical winter breeze.
Looks like Indecent Haste 3rd on line, and first on handicap, is now starting to show her potential! With a couple more Shaws in discussion for trips over to Perth, this coming summer looks well promising
in the meantime, construction continues, with the perpetually overworked team back in NZed churning out new boats. It’s all good. For Shaw.
Beck Shaw Boats are pleased to deliver 3 new Shaw 650s joining the original Thai Shaw 650 Pornstar, at Ocean Marina Yacht Club, Jomtien.
The three boats have been delivered and are now awaiting foils, rigs, sails and trailers for delivery. This marks a new step forward for Thailand and one design sailing, following the success of the Platu fleet which were introduced in Thailand in the early 90s, and still race to this day.
As a modern sportsboat, set up with carbon rig, no backstay, asymetric kite and compact 4 person crew, the Shaw 650 has already created a strong local following with good results in both IRC and mixed sportsboat fleet racing. Teams will be able to get onto the water via one off charters, long term lease or part ownership. These options eliminate the hurdle of buying a boat outright, and also ensure the longevity of a locally based fleet, with new boats added to the existing 4 boat fleet in response to team demand.
A Jomtien based sportsboat circuit for the sportsboats including the OD Shaw 650 fleet is planned to launched in 2012. It’s been a while in coming….but now the boats are finally here!
The 2nd Thai Shaw 650 arrives in Ocean Marina, Thailand
Worldwide, these 3 new boats delivered to Thailand push the total Shaw 650 fleet on the water and about to be on the water up to almost 20 boats…with more deliveries scheduled for later this year.
Over the last weekend, Pornstar, the Thai Shaw 650 had a somewhat successful regatta at Top of the Gulf, racing in the IRC 2 class.
While unable to come close to the big boys (Swan 42, Beneteau 44.7, J130) due to a lack of planing conditions in this mostly 4-8 knot regatta, the battle between newly refurbished CU Later, a T650 and Pornstar continued, this time seeing the Shaw ahead in 6 out of 7 races.
As a good benchmark, the T650 is a powerful and fast sporty, with great performance upwind and in the light; so to be able to keep them at bay was a nice consolation prize in IRC 2. Well done to IRC 2 winners Ichiban (Matt Allen), and in the big boys, Team Premier beating Hi Fi with Evolution Sails in 3rd.
Next up in Thailand will be either Samui Regatta or Phuket Raceweek….we’re fairly ‘shaw’ about that.
The Australian fleet of Shaws continues to grow; the first homebuilt Shaw in Australia Peow Peow has shown good speed in a wide range of conditions to take out Brisbane’s Sportsboat Saturday Series from a range of boats including Thompsons, Melges 24 and so on. The regatta is scored under the SMS rule.
Picture courtesy of SeaBogan; Sailing anarchy.
Peow Peow Charging Upwind
Then over on the other coast, recently launched Octopussy, the newest of the Shaw 650s in Australia, has recently placed 2nd in the preliminary results for the South of Perth Swan River Short Course Regatta; racing against Vipers; various Thompsons and a few other classes of boat.
Octopussy upwind
Sporting a set of SKID sails for the regatta, Octopussy is all about the speed….and the graphics….check out that main!
Seems like yet another timber boat is on its way over to Australia, taking the total Aussie fleet up to 9 once the two under construction also hit the water. To join the fun, we have a special deal for ‘a good keen man’ (or woman) after a Shaw 650 production boat. Delivery within 6 weeks of order and deposit received via RORO to any of the eastern ports of Australia (e.g. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane). Order within 30 April 2011 at the price of $46,900 AUD + GST (10%) and also receive:
* FREE LOADPATH KEVLAR CLASS SAILS UPGRADE VALUE $800 AUD*
* BRAND NEW PROSTART VELOCITEK VALUE $700 AUD*
* PLUS ADD ROAD TRAILER INCLUDING BUNKS FOR ONLY $1000AUD + GST (10%)*
This offer is limited to 2 customers only, and is available on the first come first served basis. Why wait? Join the fleet of Shaw 650s and start having some fun out on the water….. in the words of Peter Griffin “DING! Fries are done!”
