Today was the first day of the Spring Cup. There are a few more boats here than were in Barcelona. With men and women in the same fleet, there are about 80 boats in the fleet. Today and tomorrow are qualifiers for the Gold Fleet. The goal is to get six qualifying races in each fleet. The wind wasn't very cooperative today, and we only had two. The other fleet had three.
Race 1
The wind was light and getting lighter. Many times we were not
trapeezing. Before the first start, the wind had been shifting left,
and the pin was favored by about twenty degrees. We had a good
start at the pin and got onto port. The wind then started to go back
right, and we couldn't quite get across some of the boats that were
to the right of us, so we took some hitches back left, which was a
bad idea. We were in about 30th at the weather mark.
Our speed in the back of the fleet was good, and we ground down a bunch of boats off the wind and looked a little better at the leeward mark. We still were struggling to find lanes on the next beat. We worked our way out right and made a small gain. On the last run, we passed a few more boats, but not quite enough to make it a good race. We were probably about mid fleet at the finish.
Race 2
After a long postponement waiting for the breeze to settle, things
got going again. The wind had shifted to the right and then settled in,
or so we thought. We had a good start at the pin, and then the wind
made another big move right; unfortunately, the beat was short and
we got stuck in the left corner before a lefty came through. We were
deep again.
Again we passed a few boats on the run and moved up to a big pack at the leeward mark, then got stuck in some traffic and hit a starboard tack boat, but just barely. It looked like they were going to let it slide, and considering that we had just made a big turn on starboard to avoid a port tack boat, we were happy to take it.
On the next run, we got right and made a big gain, then held on the reach and passed a bunch more on the last run. We weren't sure where we were, though, because we all had sailed up to the next fleet. When we rounded the leeward mark and headed to the finish, all the boats from the other fleet headed to the weather mark, and we were in around fifth.
When we got in, the boat that we hit was, in fact, protesting, so we had to withdraw. Hopefully, we'll have a few good ones tomorrow. If we qualify for the Gold Fleet, we will drop our qualifying scores.
(Sorry if the e-mails are late. We can send mail from the regatta site only in the mornings).
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
There are 80 boats from 25 different countries competing. We had good wind all day today.
Race 1
Our first race was abandoned because the race committee boat flew
an Individual Recall flag, but the pin end boat flew a General Recall
flag. About half the fleet kept sailing, and the other half waited at
the starting line. That wasted about an hour.
We finally got off to a real start at about 1:30 p.m. We were the first start today doing outer loops. We used a line site and started in the middle. It was a good start, and we had good speed and won the left. We got a little lefty at the end of the beat and were first around the mark, with the Portuguese right behind.
We gained on the first reach and the run and the rest of the race to win easily.
Yea, Team!
Race 2
Lots of General Recalls, so we had a Black flag start. The pin was
heavily favored, so we started on port with the Australians. We both
found a good hole and shot through it on port, looking pretty.
We went a little too far right, and the left was favored, but we were able to round in eighth. We rolled two boats on a tight reach, then passed two more on the run, including the good Australians. The next beat was pretty even, and we found the last lefty to round in third.
We passed one French boat on the run and finished second.
Race 3
Had a good start one-third of the way down from the boat, with the
Gold Medal Ukrainians right below us. We were able to sail higher
than they and kept our air clear. The Portuguese and the Japanese
led out of the left after starting at the pin. We rounded fifth, just
behind the Ukrainians, who had found a shift we missed.
We passed one French boat on the run to move into fourth. We kept getting close to the Ukrainians, but could never get by them.
So a good day, as long as we had no OCSs. Final results have not been posted. The fleet will be divided into Gold and Silver tomorrow, so the new fleet will be twice as tough.
Time for some French pasta, and Paul has to fix his dry suit again. The neck seal ripped off.
Bonjour.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
The finals started today. All the Americans made the Gold Fleet: J. J. and Peasy, Steve and Mike, and us.
We had a Mistral wind today starting at about 10 knots and building to around 20 in the afternoon. We sailed inner loops all day.
Race 1
We started second row at the boat end but ducked everyone on port,
so we were the first boat away to the right. We had clear air and
okay speed. When we tacked, we were close to lay line and doing
well against the boats on our side. By the mark, a few of the boats
from the left had gotten across us, and we rounded around fourth.
After we set, we jibed onto port with the Slovenians. A third of the way down the run, we jibed back, but the Slovenians gained by staying on port. We rounded the leeward mark still in fourth and went to our right with the rest of the lead boats on the next beat. We tacked low of lay line and had to tack in a header on the last few yards to the mark, losing two boats that were right behind us. Nothing changed on the next few legs, and we finished sixth.
Race 2
We started at the boat again, but the pin was very favored. It looked
like there could be more consistent wind out left, so we headed that
way but got pinched off, then made some tacks in bad lanes and
rounded the mark in mid fleet.
We gained a few boats on the run, then one or two on the next beat. The reach was tight, but we set with about half the boats and were passing boats. At the mark, we were passing a boat to leeward and when we hit the wind shadow, Bob hit the water and wiped out, flipping the boat. After a while, we got it up again and were off down the last run when we put the bow into a wave during a jibe and pitchpoled. Not too happy at this point, we got the boat up and reached to the finish.
Race 3
We made some adjustments to our rig, looking for a little more
speed. We started at the boat in a bad spot but were able to get away
on port and grind out to the right side with good speed. We tacked
close to lay line and rounded in second.
We got going well on the run, passing waves at a good rate, and rounded in first. The front pack went right, and we stayed ahead of them, jib reached to the mark, extended a little on the run and won the race.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Going into today we were in 6th place. The forecast was for a lot of wind. The race committee decided to start us early at 11 am, so we might be able to race in the lighter air.
We went out and practiced with an Israeli team. We were trying our mast step forward. It did not seem to make a lot of difference, but we did manage to flip going downwind and rip our spinnaker. Luckily we had a spare in the coach boat and changed before the first race. As it turned out we had lots of time.
First start was a general recall, then they put up the black flag. We were starting near the pin with the good French team (Petit), and we must have gotten too far out there because there was a general recall and every one went to the committee boat to see who would have to sit out this race, unfortunately we were one of the 6 on the OCS board, so we watched the race as spectators trying to learn how to go faster.
Race 2.
We started at the boat this race and actually got to race. We had
pretty good speed and rolled the boats under us, but got out of phase
with the wind shifts, and all the boats that had tacked right were
ahead of us at the weather mark. We probably rounded about 15th.
We had a great run though finding a blast of wind and hitting the layline just right to move up to 8th, just ahead of the Ukrainians. Bob called the left side the next beat and it was the way to go, so we held our positions and caught up to the 7th place Argentineans. We passed them on the next reach, but the other leaders were too far ahead and we only closed distance on them for a 7th.
Well we finished 8th over all, which isn't too hot. We did get better boat handling in the breeze but we need to find better upwind speed, tactics and starts.
Next regatta is a biggie at Hyeres France. Racing starts in 5 days.
More then.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000