EIGHT traditional Camakau outrigger canoes took part in this year’s Veitau Waqa -The Boat Lives race at the Suva Foreshore yesterday.
This was the third year of the annual event and organisers say the number of entries increases every year.
The event was orgnised by Pacific Blue Foundation and was initially planned for to take place on October 10 during the Fiji Day Holiday but was cancelled due to  … More
The team behind the Vestas Sailrocket 2 program are in Walvis Bay in Namibia to continue their quest to set the outright world speed sailing record.
Paul Larsen:  We just got back in from a great session and I’m happy to say that Vestas Sailrocket 2 is now in the 50 knot club. We did three runs culminating a great final sprint where … Pictures and more
This is the 18th run of VESTAS Sailrocket 2 since her launch in March this year. We are trialling her new ventilated foils here which we believe will enable boats to exceed the limits previously imposed by ‘cavitation’. We know they will work at high speed but believed that getting there would be the biggest problem. 40-45 knots was seen as confirmation that they were working. On this run we did an effortless 42+knots without even sheeting the wing in fully in. This may well be a very significant run which marks the step into the future of high speed sailing and ventilated foil performance. We believe that this is the fastest that one of these foils has ever been on a sailing boat. VESTAS Sailrocket 2 is built purely to be a testbed for these foils and to clearly demonstrate their potential. At this stage we haven’t done it yet… if we do, then we will look back at this run as being truly the first. If it looks easy, I can tell you that getting to this stage certainly wasn’t.
As we mentioned last week, the World Rafting Championship took place in Costa Rica over the weekend, with 48 teams (29 men, 19 women) competing against one another on a wild stretch of the Pacuare River. The competition, which began on Friday and finished on Monday, consisted of a variety of events that rewarded teams for their speed, agility, and endurance on the water.
After four very long days on the water, the Japanese men claimed victory over the field with an impressive showing all around. They finished ahead of  … More
In this age of high fuel prices and where clean, green renewable energy is highly fashionable, a group in Fiji has begun a movement it hopes would lead to the revival of outrigger canoe sailing in the islands.
Already the Pacific Blue Foundation has organised two Veitau Waqa or outrigger canoe racing in Suva harbour, with another one planned on Fiji’s Independence Day on October 10.