13 May 1999 - Thursday Racing
We sat on land this morning waiting for the race committee to put out our sign-out sheets. We finally got on the water at about 1:00 p.m. The wind was 10-15 knots out of the west.
We were racing inside the harbor. It's kind of like Sydney Harbour with hills and cliffs around, but it is a little bigger. The huge difference is the amount of current. There is a 20-foot tide here, so the current can be running as strong as 4 knots.
Race 1
Bob and I were tuning upwind and missed the gun. We set the chute when we saw some flags
were up. By
the time we got back down, we noticed the flag was up, so we had to reach to the end of
the line.
Unfortunately, we went to the unfavored end. We started about ten seconds late at the
boat and could see
we were already way behind. We dug left, taking everyone's stern. The guys on the left
were already 300
yards ahead, thanks to a mile-long starting line.
We worked hard, and by the end we had worked back to a seventh place finish.
Race 2
Thinking the current was changing, we started at the boat and worked right. At the first
mark, the guys on
the left were way ahead. I noticed my rudder was acting very strange during this race.
It was very loose,
was making big clanking sounds and seemed to be jibing back and forth.
Well, we did not catch up too much this race, only enough to finish 14th.
Race 3
After Race 2, I took the rudder off to see what was wrong. The welds holding the rudder
head together had
broken at the bottom of the head. There was nothing to do but put it back on and keep
racing.
We again thought the current was changing and that the right would be favored. Wrong again. This time very deep. To add to the clanking rudder, the spin halyard kept coming down (the cleat was worn). We worked back to 17th, not so great.
We had a long sail in and got to the dock about 8:30 p.m. Sundown is at 9:40 p.m.We worked on the boat till 9:40 p.m. A French guy (Philippe Gildas) let me borrow his extra rudder head, and Bob replaced the main halyard cleat.
A long day.
Friday Racing
We headed out for the first race at about 9:30 a.m. today. Things were supposed to start at 10:00, but we needed to sign out before we headed out, and the race committee was a little slow putting up the sign-out sheet.
When we got out to the race area, the breeze was on the light side, about 10 knots. A little while later, a big ship came into the harbor and anchored close to the course. The committee spent some time moving around and then took us to a totally new area.
The new course was ready to go a few hours later. We were set up in a narrower body of water with the current ripping downwind. The big decision was to decide what shore to head to in order to get out of the current.
Race 1
We decided that we would head towards the right shore because the starting line was
closer to that side, and
the current was bending away from that side because of the direction the bay turned. Our
start wasn't great,
but we got going right. Almost everyone else chose to go for the left shore.
Halfway up the beat, we were looking great, but we hadn't crossed the current. The left side already had crossed it and would have to come back into it for only the last little bit of the leg. We tacked well beyond the lay line; the current would sweep us down to the mark. One boat was beating us out of the right and tacked a little earlier than we did. We overstood a little, but they had to tack in the current. They rounded first anyway, and we were second. The right side had paid off.
On the run and the reach, we gained a little, but there was no change in position.
For the second beat, we decided to go left because the left shore was closer to the leeward gate, and the second windward mark was closer to the left shore. Again we overstood but, again, we were on the correct side. With a big gap in front and behind, the run and final reach were not that exciting. We finished second.
Race 2
The windward mark was moved closer to the left shore, so we decided that we should go
left both beats this
race. We had a good start and great speed off the line, but the port tack lay line was
not far enough left for
us to get significantly out of the current, and quite a few boats from the right beat us
to the mark. Some
boats went further left than we did, overstanding, and actually gained on us by getting
further out of the
current. We tacked a little too close to the weather mark and hit it, so we had to do
circles, and a few more
boats passed us.
We had a decent run and reach again and decided to go left on the second beat, again because the second windward mark was even closer to the shore. This time we were able to get far enough left and out of the current, and we made a big gain to have a decent finish just out of the top ten.
Race 3
Okay, now we get it: go right the first beat and left the second beat.
We had a bit of a hectic start at the boat but were able to tack away and get going right. Our lane wasn't very good, but with some great speed we worked our way into clear air. We got so hard right we were overstanding with the Israelis, but that turned out to be not such a bad thing. They were first to the mark and we were second.
On the run, we jibe set and tried to stay low and in the current, a decision which proved to be good, as we passed the Israelis when they got a little too high, and closer to the right shore. We rounded the leeward gate in first and went left. The rich got richer, and since we were the first ones around the mark, we got out of the current first on the beat. By the run, we were so far out in front we were able to fix a small problem with the port trapeze handle.
That was the last race of the day, finally won one. We are now in about sixth with the Australians 15 points ahead in first.
Sorry so late with the e-mail.
No phone. Lots of boat work to do.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Well, there was not much wind this morning, so they postponed on shore. We finally headed out at 6:00 p.m. when a north wind came in.
Race 1
Wind was at 10-15 knots, and the current was pretty crazy. The
first start was a recall, and the second start was under black flag.
We had an okay start near the pin and had good enough speed to hang off the French guy to leeward of us. Two minutes after the start, we were looking better. We started gaining on the guys on our hip. We finally tacked to port near the lay line and crossed everyone that came our way.
They all tacked on our hip, and we drag raced to the weather mark. We got a little lefty, and the Israeli boat was going pretty fast and rounded the top mark in the lead. Another boat crossed us, but we passed them at the mark when they overstood.
We took off on the reach and gained on the guys behind us. The Israeli jibed out on the run, but we went straight. We rounded the leeward mark about eight lengths behind them and gained on them some up the beat, but they sat on us at the end and got their lead back, so we just followed them down and finished second, with a Japanese boat in third.
Race 2
Yeah, it was getting pretty late now. The first start at about 7:30
p.m. was a general recall. They reset the line because of a right
wind shift. The second start was under black flag, and that was a
general recall also.
At that point, it was getting really late and cold. They finally abandoned and sent us home. After a long sail in, we finally hit the dock at 9:00 p.m. We might have moved up one place to fifth.
We just need to keep plugging and figuring out the current. Tomorrow is the last day of sailing. More then.
Sunday 16 May 1999 2:43 p.m.
%$#@*&XX)(*VXBC
That's how our day went.
We were actually in fourth place going into today. We headed out at 9:15 a.m. for a 10:00 start. We were one of the first to the start, but on the way the cleat blew up again for our spin halyard. We did a little tuning waiting for our support boat to show up. It did, and we were fixing the problem while luffing on port tack.
Unfortunately, a Hobie Cat was luffing on starboard and we ran into each other. We got a hole in the bottom of the bow of our boat. After a few words of disgust, we headed in, hoping not to sink. We both sat on the stern to keep the hole out of the water as much as possible.
No races for us . The others ended up having two races.
First place went to Tom King From Australia, second to Nathan Wilmot from Australia, and third to Benoit Petit from France.
Well, this seems like a normal regatta for us when we show up late.
Jet lag, lack of practice, not being able to do any boat work, usually keep us down the first day. Then we start getting better. We need to try to get to the regatta sites a little earlier, especially for overseas regattas. Look at the Hyeres Regatta where I was able to work on the boat and get tuned up for three weeks and we came out of the blocks fling there.
Our next regatta is the SPA Regatta in Medemblick, Holland. It starts a week from next Wednesday. Spa is another big regatta, Just a little smaller than Hyeres, but most of the Big Guns will be there.
Bob will stay over here in Europe and do a little coaching and get our boat fixed. I'm going home to work for a week and will come back next Saturday.
See you.
@$#%$#^$&)(&
Paul and Bob
Team 2000