We started the European Championships today at Lake Garda, a gorgeous lake in northern Italy. The lake is really long, running north to south and surrounded by mountains, so the wind only likes to blow the long way across it.
This morning there was a light northerly that seems to be typical, followed by a southerly in the afternoon. Our start was scheduled for 12:00, but we had to postpone until about 3:00 to wait for the south wind. Surprisingly, there is a strong south-to-north current on the lake.
Qualification races are scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Race 1
We were in the first group, sailing an outer loop. The wind was just
settling in, so it was really shifty. Our start was great at the pin
end of the line. We were headed, so we tacked and crossed the fleet.
We were playing the shifts up the middle but were getting bounced
around between two breezes. We were in the middle; the right side
had a big right shift, and the left side had a big lefty. After being
stuck in the middle, we decided that the left wind was going to win
out, so we headed that way and caught back a few boats. We were in
the top ten at the weather mark.
The reach was really long, all the way across the lake. The women's leeward mark was not too far away from our reach mark, so we were a little confused about which was the real mark, but we had some boats to follow.
The Finns were right behind us on the run and gained a bit. On the second beat, the fleet headed towards the lefthand shore and more wind. The Finns were leading us that way and crossed us when they tacked near lay line. We went a little further and just crossed them at the mark.
The current was really strong against us on the beats and caused us to hit the weather mark, as we tried to cut it too close. We did a 360, and the Finns and the Croatians passed us. On the run, we got a good puff low and passed them back to finish around eighth.
Race 2 We had a midline start in traffic and had to tack away for clear air. After about six more tacks, we found a lane to the right of the fleet and were looking good. There were a few boats to the right of us that were gaining, but we were holding out for a lefty puff. We got impatient and tacked for the righty, ended up tacking too soon for the lefty and got passed by both sides. We were in the bottom half.
On the run, we had a nice right shift, jibed inside a bunch of boats and made a big gain, then rounded the leeward mark somewhere in the top ten.
There was still a right shift at the leeward mark, so we tacked and headed to the left where it looked like there was a good puff and left shift. The wind was good on the left, and we got a bit of a shift; but there was a big right puff and shift on the right, and we lost all the boats that went that way. We were way behind now. We didn't pass anyone on the run and finished 17th.
Not such a good day, but few people managed to sail consistently well, so we're doing okay in the overall results.
Paul and Bob Team 2000
Hello from Italy again.
Before I give you our racing report, we just want to say thanks to all the people that bought the famous Team 2000 Cookbook, especially all the people who helped put it together.
Well, on to the racing. We had a postponement on shore today, followed by a 2:00 p.m. start.
Our first race was an inner loop. Wind was 8-15 knots, blowing south to north up the lake. Current was the opposite of yesterday, going upwind, but not as strong as yesterday.
We started in the middle and held our lane for a while but slowly got pinched off, then tacked over and ducked a couple of boats. Next, we did a great lee bow on a starboard tacker. That was one of our best tacks ever, pinching off the boat above.
Lots of boats were crossing from the left. We tacked under the lay line in a good spot but got rolled by a reacher and had to tack back out. Well, they overstood, so that put us in about 30th at the weather mark. We passed about four boats on the first run, then the second beat played the left side perfectly and rounded the second weather mark in 18th.
We took off down the reach and the next run, passing five more boats to finish 13th. One boat ahead was OCS, so they moved up to 12th.
Finland won the race by having a good start at the pin and winning the left on the first beat.
Race 2
This was an outer loop; same wind.
We were a little shy at the start so got pinched off, but instead of tacking out we footed through and had good enough speed to hang with the leaders going left.
We tacked below the lay line, but a Swedish boat tacked on us, so we had to foot for a long time to stay in clear air. We eventually tacked back left, but just to get clear air, so we came into the weather mark right on lay line and rounded in eighth.
We took off down the first reach in a good puff and rolled a Croatian boat, then tried to reach up to the cliffs on the right side of the run. This was just an experiment to see if there was more breeze. and it was a break even. Usually, there is more wind near the cliffs.
The second beat was on the outer loop marks, so it was totally different from the first beat. We tacked right away around the leeward mark to get into the cliff and then tacked above the port tack lay line and passed two more boats. From there it was a run and a reach to the finish for a fifth place.
Race 3
Another outer loop.
Paul decided he wanted to experiment with the right this race. Most of the boats were battling down at the pin, so they started at the boat. We got headed right off the start and tacked over going to the right corner. Well, every puff we got was always a left shift, so we really got hammered this beat. But we did manage to round ahead of seven boats, and one of them was Finland, the guys that had won the first two races by banging the left. Strange. We think they must have way overstood the weather mark.
So off down the first reach--Paul really wanted to try the low road, but soon found there was no wind there so reached back up after getting rolled by a few boats. By the end of the reach, we had passed the boats that had passed us and also had actually passed a few more.
We went down the run finding some good wind, then a great wave, to take some more boats. At the leeward mark, we again tacked immediately for the left cliff and gained on all the guys that went right. So now we were in about 18th.
The next run, we again passed a few boats then took of down the reach in 15th.
Well, shoot, our brand new spinnaker twing line slipped through the cleat and we had to luff the spin, and Bob had to come in off the wire and put it back on. We got rolled by one boat and were going again, but then it slipped again. After one more slip, Bob finally just tied it, but not until we had lost six boats for a 21st.
Well, that was the last race of the day, so we headed in.
We did a little racing on the upwind leg in and noticed that our main looked different on port from on starboard, so we need to take a look at it before the racing tomorrow.
The finals racing starts tomorrow, so everyone that made the gold fleet starts with zero points, and we get to start all over again.
Team Paul and Bob will try to do better tomorrow.
Thanks again for everyone's help.
Paul and Bob Team 2000
Today was supposed to have been the first day of the finals, but we didn't get any races in due to lack of wind. We were postponed on the water for a while, but the wind never appeared. The race committee sent us back to shore, but we were still postponed and hung out until 5:30 p.m. when races were canceled.
We used the time to bend test some centerboards.
Paul and Bob Team 2000
Hello again, Yesterday no wind, so no race.
Today we got wind and rain.
First day of the finals. Everyone started out with zero points. There are 38 boats in the men's fleet.
We had a postponement on shore to wait till the thunder stopped and the wind filled back in. The lake is more than 1,000 feet deep in the middle, and the mark boat guy says it takes twelve minutes for the cinder block to hit bottom there. They just cut the twine holding the mark if they need to move it, then drop another cinder block.
Well, that said, it took them a long time to change the course around since the wind was blowing out of the north today, as opposed to blowing out of the south every other day.
Race 1
We finally got going at 2:00 p.m. in 10-20 knots of wind. Race 1 was
an outer loop. The wind was not as strong as we thought, so we
were busy changing shroud pins and missed the preparatory gun.
So we waited at the boat for the 1-minute flag to go down.
We had a good start at the boat and were going good, but the guys at the pin were getting ahead, so we tacked right. This was the wrong move, and we ended up at the weather mark in 28th. The guys that went left were gone.
We had a good reach and run, though, and passed 12 boats and gained a lot of distance. We stayed in the puff near the left shore by reaching that way and staying on a plane the whole run. We immediately tacked left and went back to the shore around the leeward mark. We had good speed, too, actually passing six boats.
The next run we held even and finished 10th.
Race 2
This time we were doing an inner loop in the same wind. This time
we wanted to go left.
We had an okay start one-third up from the pin but got pinched off by the Portuguese. We decided to foot to the left, though, and did this in bad air, so we rounded the weather mark in about 23rd--a little better than we had done going right.
We had another good run and passed 10 boats, but on the second beat we did not have the jets and lost four boats.
The next reach and run we passed one Japanese boat that flipped and passed one more but got passed by a German boat to finish 16th.
Race 3
This was an outer loop.
We had a big wind shift to the right before the last start--30 degrees or so--but it looked like the wind might be heading back left. We won the boat start and were looking good, but the guys on the left were slowly gaining. We got crossed by about 10 boats but noticed they were a little short of the lay line. We tacked on the lay line and found the big puff and a little righty to pull us into fourth. We had good jets, too. Paul figured out what he had done wrong in the second race.
A German was winning, followed by another German and the Slovenians with a big pack behind us.
We took off down the first reach and run and held even the whole way but gained some on the leaders.
At the leeward mark, we immediately tacked right on the hip of a German. We were faster than he was, and he ended up tacking and ducking us. The Slovenians were on our hip, and we pulled even with them.
We tacked on the port lay line with the Slovenians on our lee bow, but we had the jets to go faster and higher, so we rounded the top mark in 2nd(!), three boat lengths behind the winning Germans.
We could not catch them, though, and finished second.
That was the last race of the day, but we stayed out sailing to try a new Ullman main and to tune with another U.S. team. We finally got in around 7:00 p.m.
Well, we are trying. Speed got better today. Now we just need some better starts at the pin when left is the way to go.
New Zealand is winning with a 2, 3, 4.
Not sure what place we are in, but it must be about eighth.
Thanks for reading.
Paul and Bob Team 2000
BONUS: Regatta Report from Skip Whyte
Today was the second race day of the finals at the European Championships. The wind was out of the north all day, with big shifts and very puffy.
Race 1
This was an outer loop.
We had a great start in the middle of the line. There was a big line sag that allowed us to get a good jump on all the boats around us. We were lifted off the line and weren't sure where the good puffs were going to come from, so we stayed on starboard and headed out to the left. There was a nice puff out there, but it was moving away from us.
Halfway up the beat, the right was looking favored, and two-thirds of the way up the leg we bailed out on the left. Getting right proved to be a good move, as we passed a bunch of boats that got left of us. At the top mark we were around mid-fleet.
We set on the reach but had a hard time finding the mark. Finally, we found it way low and made a big gain by being one of the first boats to jibe for it. The run was a puffy reach, and we passed more boats than we lost.
On the next beat, we played the right and moved up more. The last run was a reach again. We finished in sixth.
Race 2
This also was an outer loop.
We were set up for a boat end start so that we could get right, which was by now clearly where the wind was; but a big left shift favored the pin just before the start. We were able to reach down to the pin for a good start and then tack right away to get right.
We were one of the first boats to the right breeze on the shore and started tacking up the shore with the rest of the fleet. We lost a few boats by not quite hitting the puffs right. When we were on the starboard tack lay line, we decided not to tack back towards the shore, and a few boats that had overstood passed us. At the top mark, we were in the low teens.
The reach was broad again, and we jibed around the weather mark to stay in the wind; but many other boats had done the same. The run was a reach again.
On the next beat, we played the right to stay in the puffs and did well except that one boat passed us by sailing up the middle. We finished 11th.
The committee tried to get a third race in, but the wind totally died at the end of race two, so they sent us in.
Paul and Bob Team 2000
Well, it was an early morning for Team Sailnet.com/Kitty Hawk. We are now in second place overall, with the Kiwis ahead by 15 points, but with a lot of boats close on our heels.
The wind started howling last night at about 2:00 a.m. and was still going strong this morning. The race committee decided to try to use this morning's wind, so they had us scheduled for a 9:00 a.m. start. We finally got out to the race course early and sailed up the first beat and down the reach. That practice came in handy for the racing.
Today there were two winds on the course. On the righthand side of the course was a 10-30 degree right shift at about 7-15 knots. On the lefthand side was a 15 degree left shift at 15-20 knots. The windward mark was in the left shift.
Race 1
>From information given to us by JJ Isler and Pease Glaser describing
their race yesterday on this course, today's conditions seemed
similar, so we used their strategy.
We started in the middle of the line in the right shift and footed to the left puff. This was a good start because we thought that we might be OCS, but it turned out we had just finally found out where the starting line was.
We had clear air the whole way and tacked near the port lay line. The whole fleet to the left of us had overstood, but two boats to the right that had tacked underneath us were close. We rounded the weather mark in first, ahead of Germany and Great Britain and went blasting down the reach in the left puff.
We had a bad downwind, though, and fell out of the pressure while Great Britain and Germany sailed past us. We immediately tacked left at the leeward mark and had good jets to smoke the Germans to the left corner. Great Britain had good speed, and we only gained a little on them--and that was the way we finished down the run for a second place. The Kiwis finished 12th.
Race 2
Paul had the boat going backwards at the start of this race, so it
was not looking good. We footed left five lengths behind the fleet
and got farther behind, but this was the thing to do. We tacked to
port in a good lane, but made the race even tougher by fouling a
Italian boat on a port starboard. Well, we did our 720 but were still
ahead of two boats at the weather mark.
We had a good reach and run, though, and caught up some distance but did not pass many boats.
On the next beat, we immediately tacked left again and had the afterburners on. We must have done the right thing because at the top mark we were 20th and had passed the Kiwis. We passed one more on the run and moved up to 14th with all the OCS's taken out, but the Kiwis were right behind us.
Race 3
Same wind, but the plan was for a better start and no stupid stuff.
We tried starting at the boat this time had a good clean start and footed left. We had good speed and clear sailing. Once again all the left side leaders overstood the lay line. We tacked near the port lay line and were trucking. We rounded first with the Greeks (who had won the left side) right behind us.
This time down the reach and run Paul did a good job of staying in the breeze, and we kept our lead. We tacked left again at the bottom mark and extended a little, then had another good run to win by 10 boat lengths. The Kiwis had a third.
Well, tomorrow is the last day of racing, and we are 3 points behind New Zealand and 12 points ahead of Spain and 15 points ahead of France. We are scheduled for another 9:00 a.m. start, but the forecast is for much less wind.
Thanks for tuning in; see you same time tomorrow for the exciting conclusion!
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
The start was early again today, 9:00 a.m., and it was a good thing because the wind totally died around noon.
Race 1
Like yesterday, there was a big right shift on the starting line, with
a left shift and puff on the port tack lay line. We had a good start at
the boat end and sailed all the way to the left side. Boats that
started down the line from us beat us to the left and were ahead, so
we tacked under them just shy of the lay line. We were looking okay
until the end of the beat when we ran out of wind and the boats left
of us were still up in a big puff. We tacked and got into it, but we
had already lost a bunch of boats.
We gained some distance on the reach by sailing lower than most boats.
On the run, we stayed on starboard jibe to get into more wind. When we jibed, we were looking to be on lay line, but we got a big header and were overspending to lose more boats. We tacked around the leeward mark to get into the left puff again, but it wasn?t as much of a gain as we had hoped. We finished in the teens.
Race 2
We decided that we?d had the right idea the race before but didn't
execute it very well, so the plan was the same. We started at the
boat in a right shift, but this race the lefty wasn't coming in. We
were looking good in the fleet until the very end of the leg when
most of the boats left of us were crossing. After tacking below lay
line, we sailed out of the puff and were behind.
We gained back a few on the run and then headed left again on the next beat. There was more wind on the left, but the shift went right, and we broke even.
On the last run, we did a bear away when we should have jibe set and lost a boat to finish in the teens again.
The wind died after this race, and that was it for the day. The New Zealanders held on to win, the French had a good day and passed us to finish second, and we were third.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000