The Kite Foil Gold Cup circuit has wrapped in Townsville Australia for the second year running this week, with Maxime Norcher taking the tour overall, followed by Johnny Heineken, Nico Parlier and Axel Mazalla.
The SeaLink leg of the tour in Townsville, sailed the week after my Tasar Nationals, was raced in exceptionally breezy conditions, and the battle definitely came down to Johnny Heineken and Maxime Nocher who managed to get some distance in the bag over Axel Mazalla and Nico Parlier.
The rough conditions, 1.5-2.5m swell with winds varying from 15 to over 30 knots were challenging, but the venue of the Townsville Sailing Club will definitely go down as a key event both the organisers and thirty competitors, most of which travelled for the event.
Watch the event videos here.
Olly Bridge blitzed the novelty race against the SeaLink multihull high speed ferry sailed before racing midway through the regatta. Olly completed the 16km course from Magnetic Island to The Strand Beach at Townsville 18 minutes, easily beating the ferry that was travelling at 27 knots.
“I have never been more powered up, or fast racing in the open ocean” said Bridge of the race, where he was travelling at an average of 30 knots with is North LTD69 race board with Meanline fins and a 15m Elf Joker 5 parafoil kite.
“It was the perfect preparation for the Red Bull Lighthouse to Leighton Race in Perth”, Bridge will be returning for this event in an attempt to top his previous record in December. Check out the video below for more on Olly’s experience in kite surfing and foiling along with Florian Gruber.
I can’t wait for my adventure this summer with the Ozone and KFA teams. I will be learning, from scratch to kite surf and then to foil! Stand by for more reports!
More adventures at www.AdventuresofaSailorGirl.com, via bit.ly/SailorGirlApp (free App), or on Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook @sailorgirl218.
SeaLink Kite Foil Gold Cup – Townsville results