Narbonne, France
Friday 9 April 1999 9:16 p.m.
Well, we did not sail yesterday. Too much wind. We did a lot of boat work and tested the bend characteristics of a bunch of masts. They were all Superspar M-7 masts, and it was amazing how different they were, given that they were all supposed to be the same.
The mast we have been using turned out to be the most flexible of all, and our spare mast was one of the stiffer ones. We are not sure why. We think that the masts that have been used the most were the most bendy. (The measurements were taken by hanging a weight at the spreader bracket and putting the ends on a table, then stringing a line between the ends, then measuring the bend at different locations.)
Friday
Woke up this morning, and the clouds were different and the wind lighter (we might get to sail). One forecast on the notice board said 20-35 knots, and the other said 18-20. We lucked out and got the latter.
Eighty boats are here, and we are in the red group that starts first and does outer loops. This is just a qualification phase, and the points do not count toward the final standings.
After a postponement, we got started about 1:00 p.m. The wind was coming off the land at a right angle. They set up the race course pretty close to shore, so it was going to be shifty and puffy, especially with all the hills on land.
Race 1
The starting line was very long, so it was important to be at the
correct end. We chose the pin because we it was favored most of the
time in the ever-shifting wind.
We had a good start and were going left. We were waiting for a header and saw a big puff coming from the left, so we tacked on it and were doing well, but overstood a little. We rounded the first mark in fifth.
The reach was pretty spotty. We took a puff low and were looking good on the leaders, but at the end of the reach a big puff and header came in and we had to jib reach the last 200 yards.
We did okay on the run but got passed by the good French boat. I needed to reach a little more to keep my air clear.
The next beat was okay, but we lost one on the last run to the finish and got a sixth.
Race 2
Looked like the same conditions, so we had the same plan.
This time no one could lay the pin. We ended up getting fouled by a French boat and got hung up a little. We finally got going on port and were laying the mark. We had okay speed and the favored side, and managed to round 10th.
We tried going low again on the reach, but not quite as low, and passed a boat. We had trouble on the run again (not keeping our air clear).
The next beat, we played the shifts and did okay, but missed a big puff on the run. We rounded the leeward mark in a pack and took off down the reach to the finish. We were working hard to get into the high passing lane, and finally did, and rolled one boat, then rolled one more just before the finish for a seventh place.
Race 3
They shortened the starting line by half, and it looked like the wind
was going right (we remembered it had gone right yesterday
evening).
We had a good start at the boat, and the heading was even, so we decided to tack out right. We got a good puff and header and tacked back to starboard looking good. Five other boats were with us. We got a little lull and header, and all the boats around us tacked back right, but we kept going. It was a good decision: we got lifted back in twenty seconds and also got a puff. Doing good again with regard to the guys on the left.
But this did not last. We got a big lull--about 6 knots of wind--and the guys on the left were able to cross us. We finally got their puff and header and tacked and were way ahead of the group that was with us on the right. We rounded the weather mark about 10th.
Lost one and gained one on the first reach, but got stuck in a lull on the run and got passed on both sides.
We were doing well up the next beat, playing the right, but did not go far enough, came back in a hole, and lost more than we had gained.
We did okay on the run and had a jib reach to the finish for a 16th.
We are in sixth place in our group, with the French guy winning and a British team winning the second group. We have one more day of qualifying.
Tomorrow, if we get the same wind, we need to go down one more pin setting to tighten the shroud and depower a little more, in order to go a little faster forward instead of pointing so much. Downwind, we need to reach a little more to keep planing and keep our air clear. We also need to go a little higher on the first reach.
Forecast for tomorrow is for more strong wind.
More then.
Paul
It was the last day of qualifying. Forecast for today was force 4, increasing to force 5 with gusts of force 6. Interpretation: 18 knots going to 25 knots with gusts to 32.
Same wind direction off the land.
We depowered a lot more today, and our speed was much better.
Race 1
We were second start today, doing inner loops. We were set up for a
great start at the pin, but at the last second a French boat came in
on port and tacked in front of us to take our spot. We never saw him
coming. We reached off underneath him and took the first header
back to port, ahead of most boats.
We hit some good shifts up the beat, and our speed was good. We rounded the weather mark in sixth and took off down the run. It got crowded at the leeward mark, and it's tough doing high speed maneuvering when it's blowing 20 knots, but we managed to come out alive in about the same place.
We rounded in a lift, so we stayed on port. We played the shifts up the right side and were doing well, but missed the last lefty. We rounded about fourth in a pack of boats.
We took off straight at the reach mark, with everyone going high. We tried to set the spin, and that was a mistake because we were not laying the reach mark. About halfway there, we just dropped the spin halyard and reached on the jib. We probably lost three boats.
We got one back to the next run and jib reached to the finish for a sixth. A good race except for setting on the reach (Dumb, Dumb, Dumb).
Race 2
It was getting windier. We had a great start in the middle of the
line, but got rolled by an English boat that was footing a lot. We
tacked out and slowly got lifted on port. We finally got a header
near the starboard lay line and tacked back. We rounded the weather
mark in about sixth place (it's hard to tell when you have a fire hose
in your face spraying cold salt water).
We took off down the run and did okay rounding in the lead pack at the leeward mark. Two boats were well ahead: the French and the English boat that rolled us at the start. We rounded in a lift, so stayed on port and rolled the guy that had rounded ahead of us. The Portuguese that rounded in third tacked out to the left and came back on our hip, and we were not ahead of them in fourth place. We got a good righty, so tacked back and cut the distance to the leaders in half and moved up to third.
We gained a little before the weather mark and took off, reminding ourselves not to set the spin. Halfway down the reach, we got rolled by a French boat that had barber haulers on the jib. We went down the run going fast, with the wind blowing 30 knots and causing lots of capsizes. We passed the French boat and passed the English boat and took over second. We took down our spin and jibed to jib reach to the leeward mark. The spin sheet had gone over the bow, so John untied the spin sheet to get it out from under the boat.
We went down the last reach to the finish for a second behind the good French boat (it's nice to pass boats all race long).
Well, the forecast for tomorrow is for a stronger Tremontane wind (25-45 knots).
We will see if they send us out.
The finals start tomorrow.
More then.
Paul
P.S. this is the part of France where they have the speed sailing competitions. The world record for sailboards was set ten miles down the beach (I think it was 63 MILES PER HOUR).
We woke up this morning, and John said we were not going sailing because there were white caps in the toilet and it was way too windy. The Race Committee must have seen the white caps in the toilet, too, and did not want to go out either.
It's gusting to 45 knots here, and it's just hard to keep the boats in the parking lot. I found a good place behind a building and did some boat work. The other guys went and watched the board sailing speed trench.
There was a party given here last night by the host club. Lots of wine and strange French food (cheese, and cheese, and cheese, and baguettes [no, Paul, not Bagets--Beanard], and pickled red chunks and all kinds of strange, processed meats, and some kind of pickled cabbage and some kind of pickled potato pasta). Good fun, though. Most people knew we would not race the next day, so were living it up.
We qualified third in our fleet behind the Greek and the French teams.
The Russians won the other fleet, followed by the American team we are sharing a van, trailer and apartment with. They are using a French main and say it is very good. A British team was third.
Tomorrow the BIG breeze is supposed to let up.
After two days of racing, there were eighteen broken masts. The six American boats had sixteen capsizes total yesterday (luckily, we had none). There were probably a total of 120 capsizes yesterday. When we were coming into the harbor after the last race, the Russian team that won the other fleet had capsized at the mouth of the harbor, and we had to wait for room to get through. When we got in, we heard ambulance sirens, but I think everyone was okay.
Well, we wait.
More tomorrow.
Paul
I'm sitting here typing the race report while watching French TV. No English channels, so I can't understand a thing they are saying, but it makes it seem more like home with it on.
We are sharing an apartment with another US team, Steve Hunt and Mike Miller. It's pretty small--only one room about twenty feet long by fifteen feet wide. It has one set of bunk beds and a couch that folds out. We borrowed a mattress from another apartment. Also, this kitchen includes a stove and a sink.
In the bathroom is a shower and also a small, plastic washing machine (about two cubic feet in size). No dryer, so we have clothes hanging up everywhere to dry. Looks kind of like the tents you saw on M A S H.
The one upside to this is that Mike is a great cook. He has been cooking dinner for us almost every night. He cooks; we clean.
Well, on to the races. We actually raced today.
The forecast was for 10-15 knots of wind this morning, increasing to 40 knots this afternoon. The racing started at 11:00 a.m.
Race 1
Outer loop.
Wind 6-13 knots off the land (300 degrees), same as before.
We had a good start in the middle of the line. It was very shifty, so we were just trying to hit some shifts and stay in the puffs. Too many races today to know exactly what happened, but we rounded the top mark in about sixth, with Portugal winning and USA 1697 (Steve and Mike) in second.
We rolled one gut on the spin set to the reach the next run, and found some good puffs to round the leeward mark in third.
We again tried to play the big shifts and were doing well on the right side until the second place boat tacked three boat lengths in front of us on starboard. I thought a left shift was coming through, so we footed into a lull, but the right came back in, and we lost a few boats. We rounded the weather mark in eighth and did a jibe set and immediately gained on the boats ahead.
We stayed in the puffs and rounded the leeward mark in fifth and stayed there all the reach to the finish.
Portugal won, followed by the good French and a Spanish boat.
Race 2
Doing an inner loop.
The wind was picking up, so we tightened our shrouds and raked the mast back to depower 10-17 knots.
We had another good start in the middle of the line and slowly got lifted on starboard. We went a little way left and were getting nervous about getting too far in the corner, so we took a little header back right. The guys that we had rolled at the start and had tacked right crossed us by a boat length, but just after they crossed us we got a good puff and a fifteen degree lift. Most of the fleet was still to the left of us and on the wrong side of the puff to get a lift on port like we had.
We went a long way on this lift and finally got a header to come back on and were way ahead of the left side, with only a couple of boats on the right ahead of us. But we were ahead AND to leeward on starboard, waiting for the last lefty.
It came through, and we rounded the weather mark just barely in first, with about five boats on our tail. A pack of four went high on the run, and we split the difference with them. The Spanish boat went low.
Low was the way to go, and the Spanish boat rounded the leeward mark just ahead of us. We rounded in a port lift and kept going behind them.
At the end of the leg, the Spanish boat got too far right, and we found two good shifts in the middle, to round twenty boat lengths ahead.
We took off down the reach with jib only, in a good puff, and planed all the way to the leeward mark. Now we were way ahead.
And we just cruised to a win.
The Japanese were second, and the Spanish third, with the good French boat way back.
Race 3
The wind was dying, so we powered back up at 3-15 knots.
We started this race in a big lull, 4 knots. We had another good start, though, in the middle of the line. Just after the start, we got a big lift. We footed in it to get to the puff on the left. The guys on the left still got it first, and we were trying to find some good shift to catch them on. USA 1735 (J.J. Isler and Peases Glaser) came out of the far left, way ahead at the first mark. We rounded about ninth and stayed there on the run.
The next beat, we initially lost a few boats on the right, but gained them back on the last righty at the mark, to round sixth.
We took off on a windy jib reach, and about halfway down, got lifted and tried to do a weather spinnaker set. This maneuver turned into a disaster, and we got about a 100 wraps in the spinnaker. We finally got it untangled, but not until we got to the reach mark after nine boats had passed us. That really felt bad.
But we got going again and passed three boats on the next run: a Russian a Canadian and a French. We finished twelfth.
That was the last race for the day.
The wind picked up to 15-20 knots, so we stayed out and did some tuning with Steve and Mike. They were initially faster, but the team coach had us change a few things, and we ended up being a little faster than they were.
We practiced a weather spinnaker set on the way in to get our confidence back up. This time, we did it John's way and had no problems. We had a great spinnaker reach in, with the wind blowing 20 knots.
John went to have his ankle looked at. He had twisted it in one of the auto tacks we had.
They almost DSQ'd us for not signing the check-in sheet in time, but we explained to them that we had just gotten in (they could not believe that anyone would stay out and sail).
Well, we are in second overall, with a 5 - 1 - 12. Spain is winning, with a 3 - 3 - 9. The good Frenchies are in fourth, with a 2 - 19 - 1. I'm not sure who is in third.
Last race day is tomorrow, and wind is forecast at 25-35 knots, but if there are rain clouds around again, it will probably be less windy than that.
After four races is a throwout, so there are probably ten boats that still have a chance of winning, especially if the wind is as shifty as it was today. We will just try to keep sailing our race (and keep the spin flying).
More then.
Paul
Tuesday 13 April 1999 2:5l p.m.
Hello again.
We all woke up at six a.m. this morning. We thought the building was going to get blown over. That spelled bad news for the day's racing.
I went over to the race office at 8:00 a.m. to see what the forecast was.
Forecast: Very strong Tremontane wind, 45-50 knots, going to 25-35 knots tonight.
The race committee said no racing for today. So the regatta is over.
Spain won with 15 points.
We were second, with 19 points.
Israel Was third, with 20 points.
French World champs were fourth, with 21 points.
See our website for picture of trophy presentation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are off to Hyeres now for the French Olympic Sailing Regatta. All the good guys will be there. It is a four hour (upwind) drive to Hyeres.
Well, that's all for now.
Thanks for tuning in.
Send me some Comments.
Paul