Friday 12 December 2014

12 Days of Silverline

Our exciting #12DaysOfSilverline competition launches on Friday 12th December and runs right up until the 23rd! 

We'll be giving away daily prizes on Twitter, so make sure you're following us to see what exciting stuff we have up for grabs just in time for Christmas!

Terms and Conditions:

1. Powerbox Limited reserves the right to publish the names of the winners. All winners are required to give their full co-operation to all requests by Powerbox Limited or a promoter in connection with publicity for the competition, their entry, the prize or otherwise. 

2. Employees and family and friends of Powerbox Limited or any third party involved are not permitted to enter the competition.

3. Winners will be chosen at random and are non-negotiable

4. Winners will be notified by at 5 pm each day and announced on Twitter

5. No winner shall be chosen more than once

6. The competition runs from 12th Dec 2014 until the 23rd Dec 2014

7. No cash alternative for the prizes will be offered and prizes are non-transferable.

8. The promoter is not responsible for inaccurate prize details supplied to any entrant by any third party connected with this competition.

9. The competition is open to all residents of the European Union. 

10. The winner agrees to the use of his/her name and image in any publicity material. Any personal data relating to the winner or any other entrants will be used solely in accordance with current (UK) Data Protection Legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party without the entrant's prior consent.

11. By entering this competition, the entrant is indicating his/her agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions.

12. If any winner of a competition is unable to take up a prize for any reason, or if Powerbox Limited has not been able, after making reasonable efforts, to make contact with the winner, Powerbox Limited reserve the right to award the prize (without notice to the first winner chose) to an alternative winner. In this case the original winner will not be eligible for any share of the prize. Powerbox Limited shall not have any liability in such eventuality

13. Entries must be made in accordance with the competition instructions. They are invalid if they are received any later than the specified closing time (which shall be GMT date and time).


Monday 8 December 2014

Silverline 49ers hit Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi is a new venue for the 2014 calendar and we weren't quite sure what to expect in terms of conditions. What we were counting on was blue skies and a balmy water temperature and it definitely delivered on that front. 

We flew into Dubai and stayed the night with some friends before making the trip over to Abu Dhabi the following day. Our plans to visit the waterpark were shelved once our jet lag kicked in and we made the trip to the huge shopping mall instead in a slightly fuzzy state.

The regatta was sailed in supplied boats - the first time this has ever been done in the 49er class. Fortunately, having been on borrowed kit in Rio, we already had everything ready to piece together and we were out training pretty quickly. We had a bit of tweaking to do on the boat and managed two training sessions before the regatta started.

The first day was sailed on the inside course, which was very shifty and gusty and 4-12kts. We had an ok day, but had a poor middle race when our starting execution let us down. The whole fleet had at least one poor result, so everything was wide open still.

Day two was sailed on one of the outside courses, where we had heard there was good chop/swell running. It was a light sea breeze day and sure enough there was plenty of bump in the Persian Gulf. We had a great start in race four and were 4th to the windward mark, just behind the leaders. After rounding the mark we began hoisting the spinnaker and before it had reached the top there was an agonising yell from Dave. A port tack boat, yet to round the windward mark and well above layline had attempted to dive through a gap in the line of downwind boats. In doing so they misjudged it and the front of their starboard wing collided with Dave's heel, which was raised up slightly. The impact sent Dave into the water and we capsized. It was clear he was in a serious amount of pain and my first thought was that it was a broken ankle, as the two boats were closing at about 15kts. We got him into a medical boat and to hospital, where it was x-rayed and the wound stitched.

Fortunately, as the heel is incredibly tough, he was left with some serious bruising and stitches. Two inches higher and it might have snapped his ankle clean in half!

The next day Dave decided he would like to try and race, so we gave it a go. After a tough first race, when we were understandably a bit wobbly, we came back and scored a 1,3 in the next two to put us in Gold medal contention.

After missing all three races the previous day we went and claimed redress. They awarded it for the first two and we assumed they would award it for the third, once we completed more races, and adjust the scores to take into account the whole series. After racing on day three we went to the protest room to have this clarified and we were informed that we would not get redress for the third race and that we would only get average points of the first day for the other two. Their reason was that apparently our competitors need to know the scores going into the final day of racing and that it is not fair on them if they don't know where they stand. We argued that it doesn't actually affect their points total, but to score us 9,9,DNF for a day’s racing when we were 4th in the first race and did absolutely nothing wrong, absolutely wrecks our gold medal hopes. Also, the boat that hit us was able to sail the last two races and record scores better than us. That seems unfair.

All this left us in 6th and Dave with one hell of a sore foot. The bruising had ripened a treat after the hard day on the water and the next morning he was in considerable pain. We went for the medal race knowing that we had to probably win the race to stand a chance of medalling, so after a poor start we took a relatively high risk approach. It didn't quite pay off, but was worth a try as the prize money for medalling would have been a considerable boost to our campaign. We finished the regatta in 8th and were absolutely gutted about it!

That's the end to our racing for the 2014 season and it has been a tough year. We haven't quite got it right on a few occasions, despite showing some glimpses of great form, such as at Kiel and Sail for Gold. It's been a year of carrying DNFs, which cost us dear at Palma, Santander and Abu Dhabi, and a difficult year in the protest room.

We have been pretty unlucky at times, but we’re doing everything possible to learn from all the incidents and move on. We hope to make 2015 a great year and thank our sponsors for all their help over the long season.

Next report from Miami in January. Merry Christmas :)


Follow the team on Twitter @Silverline49ers
Visit their website: www.deepsailing.com



Friday 5 December 2014

ESCAPE. CREATE has landed

ESCAPE. CREATE has landed


The latest ground-breaking moving image project from Red Bull and Atherton Racing has launched.

Telling the story of Dan Atherton’s fascination and boundless energy for mountain-bike course building by exploring three very different projects, the film has been made by Clay Porter and John Reynolds, directors of last year’s “Four By Three” films from Metis Creative.

The film also features interviews with Dan’s mother Andrea who looks at his earliest digging exploits. Siblings Gee and Rachel demonstrate how Dan’s building has contributed to their World Cup and World Championship successes with some awesome riding at the tracks he has built for them.

The film starts at the famous “Yard” at Atherton HQ. The Yard is one of the world’s most impressive sets of dirt jumps and has been over three years in the making.

Clay Porter shot the Yard at night to encapsulate the fun of riding with friends and siblings and to share the feeling

of not wanting to go inside even when it’s dark.

Dan Atherton said: “The Yard is special because you can’t ride it every day so when you can - and when our friends are here - there’s nothing like it.”

The film then moves to the mossy quiet of the Dyfi Forest in Wales where Rachel rides a track Dan has made for her there. Rachel said: “ For as long as I can remember, Dan has literally been preparing the ground for me. I love this track.”

And finally we see Gee riding the spectacular Red Bull Hardline course. In tough weather conditions, Gee blazes down the track which is intimidating enough even when it is dry and calm.

Gee said: “I’ve been dying to ride Hardline again, ever since the disappointment of my Finals run there. I knew that I had just a little bit more in me so I really wanted to show what I could do - every gap in the wind, we just went for it. “

Watch the full film here http://win.gs/escapecreate

Join the conversation on Twitter #escapecreate