February Update – Florida Action

Miami Show Summary

The Miami International Boat Show was truly an international success for TRIAK. Not only did the boat make a huge splash for retail customers who visited the show from the Southern Florida area, but TRIAK was a hit with International distributors from more than twelve different countries along with many high end resorts. We thank our new owners in Florida and the many people who stopped by our booth.

Florida TRIAKing

There is a growing list of great people who are having enjoying their TRIAKs in Florida and doing some fun outings.

Lynn Fitzpatrick – OCR Miami, January


Journalist Lynn Fitzpatrick utilized a Safety Yellow TRIAK as her “press platform” during the Olympic Class Regatta (OCR) qualifying series in late January in Biscayne Bay.

Here is what Lynn said: “The safety yellow TRIAK proved to be the perfect platform for me to use to watch the medal races during US Sailing's Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta. I could maneuver among the flotilla and spectator boats during the starting sequences and come to quick stops by roller furling the main and using the paddle to remain in one place. I could unfurl the main quickly and accelerate in any direction I wanted. I stayed dry and I had plenty of opportunity to take pictures and film the action without throwing a wake or interfering with the racing.”

Thanks Lynn! We are happy you enjoyed the TRIAK experience and that you were able to see the OCR action up close!

About Lynn Fitzpatrick
Lynn Fitzpatrick is a global journalist covering regattas and helping programs and Olympic sailors around the globe. Her endeavors include helping Belcher and Page in their Olympic campaign, writing books exclusively for the America’s Cup, and other great stories. Her web site is http://www.worldregattas.com/.

Lynn has recently joined the Argo Challenge (http://www.argochallenge.com/) which is an America’s Cup challenger for the 2013 Cup in San Francisco with a team consisting of incredible people with disabilities.

Richard Hughes – Shake-A-Leg


Long time volunteer at Shake-A-Leg Miami (www.shakealegmiami.org) has fallen in love with the TRIAK and appreciates the performance of the boat and it’s potential to help people with disabilities and troubled youth experience the joys of sailing and being on the water with a good level of safety. Richard has a prosthetic leg and has been using the TRIAK both with his leg in place and without by attaching a bungee-system allowing for 1-leg steering. He is championing to create a 4-TRIAK program at Shake-A-Leg. If you are interested in donating for this program please contact TRIAKsports and speak to Mary Ostrander; 858-240-2730.

On Friday, February 25th Richard and his dog Pippen headed south to La Chica Key for an overnight adventure. This is roughly a 30nm round trip. He sent us the photo below via MMS-txt from his mobile phone while under way heading back on Saturday!


Frank – New Owner in the Keys

New TRIAK owner Frank just sent this delicious photo his wife took of him zipping about in the keys. All we can say is – jealous! That red TRIAK looks awesome on the turquoise water…I’m packing my fly rod now and heading over for some bone fishing! Thank you Frank, glad you are enjoying your new boat.


Peter Houston – TRIAKing the Water Tribe Ultra Marathon

Peter Houston bought his Safety Yellow TRIAK at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in November and has been sailing and paddling it extensively since then. He told us the other day he was out for a leisurely 6 hour paddle! Peter will be sailing his TRIAK in the Water Tribe Ultra Marathon starting Friday March 4th (http://www.watertribe.com/) When we asked Peter (71 years old) how he thought he would place in the 68 nm race, he said, “I just want to sail and have fun!” That’s a great attitude and we love it! TRIAKsports is helping Peter prepare supplying him with gear, spares and necessary supplies. We wish you luck Peter and hope you win, but your attitude has already place you on top of our podium! Safe and happy TRIAKing. We’ll have a full report of the event after it is complete.

Shanghai Boat Show

The Shanghai Boat Show was a great success for TRIAKsports. Participating with our builder, Hangzhou Flying Eagle, and Morrelli & Melvin we were able to expose our craft to this new market and explore a wealth of great opportunities here in China. Thank you to everyone we spoke with and met.

Yachting in general is a new, exploding market in China along with other luxury goods. The leisure activity of yachting and the sports of sailing and kayaking are still in their infancy here but growing quickly. There is huge amount of marinas and private club projects just completed or under construction, and the people have a great interest and desire for these sports and activities.

We look forward to growing the TRIAK brand in China and Asia working with marinas, yacht clubs and individuals. More importantly, it is exciting to spread the joy of sailing and small boating to the wonderful people here. After all, that is why we all love sailing, paddling and the water and it is a great feeling to introduce newcomers to this love and adventure.

See photos from the show at facebook.com/triaksports

“The Wing is King!” Larry Ellison and team BMW-Oracle Racing have won the 33^rd America’s Cup and are bringing the Cup back to the United States of America! This is the 6^th Challenger victory in America’s Cup history and was a fantastic event with both Alinghi and BMW-Oracle bringing two amazing and gorgeous crafts to the water in the true spirit of the America’s Cup - advancing sailing technology.

Today’s 2^nd race was excellent. After nearly a four hour delay by the race commitee the race finally got under way. Alinghi was penalized immediately from being late to enter the start area. Then Alinghi was slow at the start in order to have the right side of the course giving BMW a 24 second lead at the start line. BOR quickly had a convincing 500m lead. However, the predicted right wind shift came and was strong. Alinghi not only caught Oracle but passed them and created their own 500m+ advantage! Suddenly, this was a race!

Toward the top of the course the two boats converged on a very close port-starboard situation with only a 20m lead to Alinghi. BOR had tacked first and absolutely nailed the left layline to the top mark. Instead of tacking right in front of BMW-Oracle, Alinghi chose a fat layline and went past BOR and tacked quite wide. This let BOR take the lead again and they rounded the first mark 28 seconds in front of Alinghi.

BOR hoisted their large gennaker and proceeded to blast down the course toward the 2^nd mark averaging 28-30 knots and hitting a top speed of 33 knots! The Wing on BMW-Oracle proved a huge advantage on this reaching leg and Alinghi could do nothing but watch as Oracle sailed away from them and rounded the 2^nd mark with a 2000m, 2 min 44 sec lead over Alinghi.

Alinghi sailed well on the 3^rd leg but needed a miracle to happen in order to win. BWM-Oracle Racing won the race in confident fashion by 5 min and 26 sec (including Alinghi’s penalty turn).

It has been stated that Larry Ellison will return back to monohulls if he won the cup which would be a tragic step backwards. Hopefully after the exhilarating ride on his trimaran today and convincing, thrilling, and historic victory he will “see the light” and continue the multi-hull development for the 34^th America’s Cup in San Francisco.

Here at TRIAKsports, we are honored beyond words to have some of the people behind the design of the BMW-Oracle trimaran working on our pleasure-craft! No matter big or small the boat, the wonderful thing about sailing is the joy one experiences on the water being propelled by the wind. That’s all for the AC coverage, hope you enjoyed.