Congratulations to Nathan Outteridge (1st place), Bora Gulari (2nd place), Scott Babbage (3rd place) and Simon Payne (4th place) who all raced with the Velocitek SpeedPuck. Nice work boys!

This Just in from Willie Crear, Jet-Setting Velocitek Evangelist Extraordinaire:

"I shipped an A scow over to your Finnish importers, Vesa and Timo Salo of Vinces Oy, in January. This weekend I flew over to sail in their big inland lake race, the Päijännepurjehdus race 2010. The race is 62 nautical miles long and we won the overall trophy for fastest yacht completing the course, 6 hours, 40 minutes and 40 seconds. The old record had been set by a 30' trimaran in 7 hours and 24 minutes.

We averaged just about 10 knots for the whole race; the Velocitek showed a peak speed of 16.1 knots."

Congratulations Willie!

Congratulations to Aaron McCulley and Clay Cassard of Team Velocitek for their second place finish in the GT300 distance race. McCulley and Cassard sailed their F18 Infusion over 300 miles in four stages to get from South Padre Island to Galveston, Texas with a total elapsed time of only fifteen hours and two seconds. This translates to an average straight line speed of over 17 knots!

Here's what Clay Cassard had to say about how the SpeedPuck helped him maintain such amazing boatspeed.

"After this race, I can confirm the SpeedPuck is a valuable tool for long distance racing. It allowed me to tweak the boat and see how changes impact the boat speed......IT WORKED GREAT."

Practical Sailor Magazine has recognized the Velocitek Speedpuck as the PS Best Choice among handheld performance tools. The designation is awarded to products featured in Practical Sailor that PS editors believe outperformed comparable products in Practical Sailor's tests.

For more than 30 years, Practical Sailor has been highly regarded by serious sailors for its unbiased evaluations of boats and sailing products. Practical Sailor is a subscription-supported magazine that accepts no advertising. You can read Practical Sailor's independent reviews of the SpeedPuck and the SC-1 here: http://www.velocitek.com/assets/files/PracticalSailorReview.pdf

Velocitek is proud to announce that the SpeedPuck has been selected as the official instrument for the US Multihull Championship (aka The Alter Cup).

The Championship will be contested from May 24 - 27 at the Houston Yacht Club. Contestants will race 10 identical AHPC C2 Formula 18s. Each boat will be pre-equipped with a Velocitek SpeedPuck mounted on a spinnaker pole bracket.

Congratulations to Velocitek customer Scott Easom (owner of Easom Rigging) on beating out a fleet of 350 boats to win this year's Three Bridge Fiasco in his Moore 24 Eight Ball.

Scott was actually thoughtful enough to call Velocitek this morning to tell us how important the Velocitek SC-1 had been in giving him an edge on the fleet.

Scott said the SC-1's GPS speed measurements were critical in figuring out the San Francisco Bay's notorious tidal currents. He was then quick to point out that the SC-1 was also extremely helpful when he won the Moore 24 Nationals back in June on non-tidal Huntington Lake.

Congratulations Scott and thanks for the call!

The Weta Trimaran, manufactured by Weta Marine and distributed in the US by our friends at Nor'Banks Sailing, has won Sailing World's Boat of the Year award in the dinghy category. We're very happy for everyone involved with creating this brilliant design and bringing it to market in the US.

We are also very happy to see that the Sailing World test boat was equipped with a SpeedPuck!

Fred Eaton, the current holder of the C-Cat Championship Cup (a.k.a. Little America's Cup) has released the first photos of his new boat Orion.

Fred is a long-time Velocitek customer and we're proud to see that he has chosen to equip his latest high-tech creation with the Velocitek SC-1.

The winners of the last three Velocitek-sponsored Speed Challenges all train with Velocitek devices. All three Speed Challenge winners have also become World Champions in their respective classes. This shows the crucial difference that simple boatspeed makes at the top levels of sailing. Speed matters.

Congratulations to Nathan Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen for winning $5,000 in the 2009 SEIKO 49er Speed Challenge! The current 49er World Champions won the Speed Challenge with a best 10 second average speed of 21.6 knots.

The Velocitek SpeedPuck, which Outteridge and Jensen use in their regular training, was also the official measurement instrument for the Speed Challenge. Click here for the official press release from the 49er class association.

Kiwi wunderkids Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are about to head over to Australia to do some training with the current 49er World Champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen.

To rest up before the big trip Peter and Blair decided to take a break from their normal training and race their 49er 130 miles along the coast of New Zealand against the 100ft supermaxi Alfa Romeo in the 2009 HSBC Coastal Classic. Their Velocitek SpeedPuck captured this track for the epic nine and a half hour kite ride from Auckland to Russell. See if you can spot the pitchpoles... Peter says there are four.

Congratulations to Chris Larson and the crew of Team New England Ropes for their victory in the 2009 Melges 24 World Championship in Annapolis. Larson and his crew sailed a disciplined, consistent regatta, to dominate a fleet consisting of many of the world's best sailors. In the light, shifty conditions Chris Larson said "Getting off the line is the key to being successful... being able to control your destiny".

We're proud to count Chris Larson as a Velocitek customer. Here's what Chris had to say about the distance to start feature on the SC-1:

"I was amazed how well the starting line function worked. The unit gave fantastic starting line information and we were effectively able to use this in the final seconds before the gun. It was as good as having a full big-boat instrumentation package running Deckman for Windows or Expedition."

-Chris Larson (2009 Melges 24 World Champion)

We are proud to announce that Velocitek has teamed up with On-The-Water Anarchy for their live streaming coverage of the 2009 Sheehy Lexus Melges 24 World Championship from Annapolis, Maryland.

At Velocitek, we pride ourselves on innovation as we work to help sailors improve their skills and sail faster. That same spirit of innovation drove the folks that created On-The-Water Anarchy in their search for low-cost, high-quality regatta coverage. We're excited to be a primary supporter of their most comprehensive coverage ever, rolled out for the world's most important sportboat title.

Velocitek is also pleased to be a part of many of the competitors' winning programs, with Terry Hutchinson's Quantum Racing taking last year's North American Championship in the very same location, against many of the same competitors, with the help of the Velocitek SC-1. From start line positioning to VMG calculations to post-race analysis, Velocitek is proven to deliver the information you need to win at any level.

Keep an eye on Sailing Anarchy's home page and the Official Melges 24 Worlds Thread for more info on the upcoming World Champs, and tune in for great prizes and discounts on Velocitek products during the event. You can also find out more about our M24 Worlds specials here.

Thanks for checking it out!

We are happy to announce that we will be sponsoring the Sail22 Melges 24 Worlds Tuning Regatta with product demos during the races and GPS tracking of the racing to be reviewed during the daily post-race debriefs. The tuning regatta will be held October 8-11, 2009 in Annapolis, MD.

Click here for the NOR and entry form

The regatta venue will be at the Annapolis Sailing School, which will be the site for the Worlds and the racing will be designed for optimal crew work practice. The sailing will be in the same area as the World Championships. You will be able to keep your boat rigged between the Sail22 M24 Worlds Tuning Regatta and the Worlds. Gavin O’Hare, will be the PRO who is a past US Naval Academy sailing coach and team racing guru. Count on top teams, top training and great information from the top Melges 24 sailors and local Annapolis professionals!

Cascade Locks, Oregon (August 8th, 2008) – On the opening day of the 2009 CST Moth Worlds competitors pushed their limits in an effort to claim the $1000 cash prize for the highest speed in the CST Moth Worlds Velocitek Speed Challenge. Efficiency was the name of the game with a moderate thermal westerly and short chop pushing against the river current. At 12:00 PM sailors left the beach with three hours to log their top speeds on Velocitek devices.

The world's best Moth sailors were not phased by the challenging conditions and the top speeds were impressive. In the end the three fastest sailors proved to be:

1. Bora Gulari (USA), the Madman from Detroit, who hit 25.3 kts to win this edition of the CST Moth Worlds Velocitek $1000 Speed Challenge.

2. Arnaud Psarophagis (SUI), last year's Speed Challenge winner and Nathan Outteridge (AUS), fresh off winning the 49er Worlds, both clocking in at 24.3 kts.

3. Laser legend Brad Funk (USA), maxing out at 24.2 kts.

Check out the Velocitek Facebook Page for Bora's winning track, a wind plot for the Speed Challenge time window and some more Speed Challenge competitor interviews.

The CST Moth Worlds Velocitek $1000 Speed Challenge will give Moth sailors the chance to win a $1000 USD prize for being the fastest boat on the water.

“The winner of last year's $1000 speed challenge at the Moth Worlds in Weymouth hit 26.1 knots, and word from Moth techies is that there have been substantial improvements in foil design over the last year. It will be interesting to see how these improvements impact the results of this year's Speed Challenge.

Some of Velocitek's first speedos were built and tested in the Columbia River Gorge, so we're excited to be back for this ground-breaking regatta. We're also pleased to be watching some of our earliest customers, Rohan Veal and Andrew McDougall, scrapping it out for the World title."

- Alec Stewart, President and Founder, Velocitek

Registration for the CST Moth Worlds Velocitek $1000 Speed Challenge will take place at the event site in the West Coast Sailing trailer between 9AM and 12PM on the day of the event. The $1000 check presentation will take place at the CST Moth World Championship opening reception, the same evening.

During the 12-3PM Speed Challenge time window, sailors will have the opportunity to sail as much as they like in an effort to record their top speed. Top speeds for the event can be recorded using any Velocitek GPS device. A limited number of demo units will be available at the time of registration on a first come, first serve basis, for those competitors who do not already own a Velocitek device.

We are proud to announce that the International 49er Class and the Seiko Watch Company have selected the Velocitek SpeedPuck as the official speed measurement instrument for the Seiko Speed Challenge. Click here to read more about the Speed Challenge on the 49er website.