February 28, 2008

Greetings from Sydney.
Summer has been a busy season with some of our Brothers yacht racing and winning their class in the Summer Series . A number of oversaes visitors joined our Brotherhood Zaffs.
We were fortunate to have a visit at New Year by Martin Critchley (Fumee Bleu) and Captive Caroline from the Solent Table of the U.K. We had a special evening at the Captains house with the omidnight fireworks a short walk to a viewing area between drinks. The evening was changing to just before dawn as we had a final OORRSSAA and wished them well on their road trip beach hopping towards Brisbane.

In February we were also rewarded with a visit of Manfred Schroder from Lubeck Table in Germany. Thanks to our good friend Heinze Scheel , the Vigia Internatiomal. we were able to meet Manfred during his round the world holiday. This time we had a BBQ at the Smiths home for 10 of the Sydney Brothers and their cautivas. Again an excellent night of Brotherhood camaraderie and many Orsas.

The World Zaf. planning is continuing at a steady rate. We are expecting to have a dedicated web site in place soon. Previous organisers have set us a high standard to achieve and we hope you are impressed with the format and the ease of use. THe event orniser has employed a Spanish speaking manager from Brazil to be part of the organising team. As we advised earlier we are looking to run the event in the middle of March 2010. This may provide the oppertunity to pick up cheaper off peak airfares. There is also the option to extend the holiday a bit to incorporate Easter holidays.

This month the Australian Government signed an agreement to expand the number of carriers licenced to fly across the Pacific. This is expected to make the airlines more competitive as one of the carriers will be Virgin. There may be additional departure cities for the hop across the Pacific. Currently the departure hub is Los Angeles .

The Worlf Zaf. will be centered around the Darling Harbour precinct. A very social part of Sydney with a number of hotels around the perimeter of the harbour and a total of 32 restaurants within walking distance many with al fresco dining. There is also a German Beer Hall and a Chinese precinct. We are starting to lock in a number of the social events which apart from boating on the Harbour and Koala cuddling we are looking to have theme nights including Italian, Spanish and a Barn Yard night.
We are looking forward to providing more information in the near future . In the mean time we hope you can search the web for the other activities Australia has to offer.

Peter Smith
Vigie International
Sydney , Australia