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Cornwall Marine Directory

Cornwall Sailors Take On The World

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Two of the Cornwall’s top sailors, Matt Pullen and Donal O’Halloran have joined forces and launched a new 2 year campaign to take on the world in the Hobie Tiger Class.

Pullen and O'Halloran have sailed together in a variety of monohull classes in the past. Pullen has been highly successful in the Dart 18 class winning the Worlds, Europeans and Nationals last year while O'Halloran has been competing in 1720, SB3 and Melges sportsboat classes. Victory in Spi-Ouest in the 1720 class and a 4th place in the SB3 Nationals in 2003 being notable successes. This, however  will be the first time the two compete together in multihulls.

Matt Pullen and Donal O'Halloran practicing in Carrick Roads Matt Pullen and Donal O'Halloran practicing in Carrick Roads. Sponsored by mylor.com.

The move to join forces follows an invite to Pullen to compete at the ISAF World Games at the end of May. This is one of the sport's most prestigious events and is by invitation only.

The Games are held every four years and the top sailors in the Olympic classes from each country are invited along with current Olympic Champions.  Pullen won the Dart 18 worlds in December last year with his girlfriend Debbie Rickard and as a result received a wild card invite to the games. Pullen asked O'Halloran to crew for him for the event which is sailed in the  Hobie Tiger and as a result the two sailors have put together an ambitious two year programme.

They have already traveled to Carnac at the end of April for the EuroCat Cup which had over 150 boats racing - a baptism of fire for relative newcomers to the class. This event provided a perfect warm up for the World games which commence on the 8th of May in Neusiedler See in Austria.

The games  will see the top 60  cat sailors in the World come together to fight it out  over a two week  period. At the end of the first week  the best 30  will go forward to the Gold Fleet to fight it out for the title of ISAF World Multihull Champion. Qualification for the Gold Fleet is the pair's objective which would be a huge achievement for the pair who will probably be one of the only amateur crews at the event.

Following this the two sailors will go on to the F18 Worlds to be held in Hyeres at the start of July and then to Vigo in Northern Spain on the 20th July for the Hobie Tiger Worlds.

Whether they qualify for this or not they will then go on to the Hobie Tiger worlds which will be held in Vigo, Northern Spain on the 20th July. In between these major international events the pair will compete on the UK F18 circuit with the intention of qualifying for the 2007  F18 Worlds  in Melbourne.

The campaign is made possible by the two's outstanding skills together with sponsorship from four of Cornwall's top marine companies - The Cornwall Marine Network with Mylor Yacht Harbour and Mylor Chandlery Rigging combined with Gul Wetsuits have all contributed to the campaign.

"Winning the World Championship was a truly amazing event in my life. Then to be invited to challenge the top professional sailors in the world was pretty good but the thing that gives me the biggest buzz is they these Cornish companies have helped us every step of the way," said Matt.

This campaign will be the third high level multihull campaign to be based out of Falmouth. Andrew Walsh and Ed Barney are currently campaigning in the Tornado Class and are the top ranked crew in the F18 Class in the UK while Tom Phipps and Sam Newton recently won the Hobie 16 nationals and will also be competing in the F18 class later in the year.  It wont be long before all three local crews are battling it out at a major F18 International Regatta.

"We are delighted to be able to help these two hugely talented sailors and it's great to see a number of Cornish marine businesses working together in the world market," said Alan Shepherd of the Cornwall Marine Network.

 "The local community have also been hugely supportive and we are going to provide regular updates when we are away racing. Anyone who would like to follow our progress can log on to mylor.com to see how we are doing," explained Donal.

For additional information and more photographs contact Roger Graffy at Mylor Yacht Harbour, 01326 372121 or email roger@mylor.com.

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