OneWorld diary

Mark Chisnell puts the hi-politics of the Sean Reeves affair to one side as the crew surf the standing wave....

So the atmosphere is getting pretty ugly down here in Auckland, where Team New Zealand seem to have decided that their winter project is to get us thrown out of the competition any-which-way-they-can.

This is a bit of a change in philosophy for a team that were famous for keeping their heads down and letting the results on the water do the talking - but I suppose we can take some consolation from the thought that we must be doing something right if they are prepared to get their hands this dirty to try and get rid of us.

But if you were reading this for the latest low-down on the political and courtroom shenanigans - sorry, you've got the wrong guy. I couldn't raise much interest in that stuff as a journalist, and I'm even less interested in it now. To me it's a sorry state of affairs when our sport's premier event is more famous for what goes on around the contest, than the action on the water.

But given the flaws of human nature, this seems unlikely to ever change while the sailing is made about as interesting as watching grass grow, and the regatta continues to have its rules and terms of engagement set by a small group of highly self-interested competitors.

While we're stuck with this, it doesn't mean I have to worry about it. And our sailing programme is happily cranking on into the early sunsets and colder days. We've been testing some pretty crucial stuff recently, and we've finally answered the question that has been taunting theorists and pundits alike - can you surf the waves set-up between the boats when they are on the tow?

With two twenty-odd ton boats just a few feet apart, towing behind a single tender at twelve or thirteen knots, a fair old wave gets set-up between the hulls. We've been looking at it for a while now, speculating on whether or not it was surf-able - not wake-board, or water ski-able, but surfing with no rope.

Speculation led inevitably to disagreement and that quickly resulted in a bet, the precise details of which I can't reveal. But I can tell you that it was Joey Newton (our Aussie headsail trimmer, one of Jimmy Spithill's boys from 2000) and Morgan Larson (49er sailor, needs no introduction) that were the first to get organised to give it a go.

Armed with a kite-board and a surfboard on yet another light air day, the key testing equipment was pulled out on the way back to the dock. Joey went first, which was probably his biggest mistake, since the second to go was always going to learn from the first up.

Joey eased himself off the back of the boat lying on the board, hanging onto a halyard. Mark Reid is our tender driver, and he's been doing this since he towed Australia II out to those famous Newport matches in 1983. Reidy put the hammer down, and Joey was soon charging down the face of the first wave, the big one that troughs somewhere around the keel of the boat. There wasn't much load on the rope and Joey was body-boarding along beside us at about 13 knots.
But the bet concerned the next wave astern, which actually looked steeper. So Joey eased himself back on the rope and once in position in the trough started paddling - big mistake, the wave roared past him and he was spat out the back faster than a mouthful of Victory Challenge chewing ‘baccy' - bye Joey!

Morgan was second up and he tried the kite-board, which allowed him to strap in and push off from the boat while it was going at pace. This worked pretty well and it was clear that it was a damn fine wakeboarding wave. But that wasn't the set-up we were trying to test, so Morgan let go of the rope and - same result, gone, miles back in moments. And as he commented later, it's a big ocean when the boat spears off at 13 knots and you're left paddling on your own.

But we'd seen enough to think it worth another go, and Morgan grabbed the opportunity this time with his surfboard. He started the same way as Joey, but then stood up while he was still hanging onto the halyard. But he still had to give the occasional pull on the rope to keep up with us, it didn't look like he could ride the wave without help from the tow line.

We eased him back to try the next wave, and although from the boat this looked the steeper of the two it was a lot less powerful, crumbling under the weight of board and man, and Morgan had to use the rope a lot more. So he pulled himself up the back of the wave in front with a little help from Juggy Clougher - no mean feat while standing on a 6 foot shortboard with no footstraps.

Gilly and Jimmy got the boats as close together as they could, to force our fifty million dollar wave machine into some serious action. And coming over the top, Morgan'd obviously had time to think about the approach and once back on the face of the wave he started to work it pretty hard, cutting back down the steepest section right beside the hull to get enough power to get back to the other boat and repeat the manoeuvre.

It worked, and after a couple of turns he let go of the rope. It was 38 seconds later than he dragged a skeg a little hard and dropped off the back. Not enough to win the bet - but a pretty damn cool 38 seconds. Morgan pulling cut-backs with thirty of his mates whooping encouragement from close enough to high-five him as he went by. Not something you see often in a regular job...

The evidence...