Rush Creekers: Paul Foerster and Bill Draheim are making further steps in their training for Olympic Gold this weekend. Here's their report.
What: NQR Regatta (National Qualifier Regatta) for the 1998 ISAF Worlds in Dubai, Persian Gulf (March, 1998)
10-10-97 Friday //470 World Qualifier< Kingston Ontario, Canada
7:57 am
PF
Got up at 5:30 am and picked up Bill and off to the airport. 5:30 sure did
come early in the morning.
Well what do you know. Bill is still bad luck to fly with. Our flight is
postponed an hour. I hope we make our connection in Toronto, its only a 3
hour lay over.
By the way, I'm bringing you this great Race Report thanks to the "Great"
Peter J O'connell and Alcatel USA. Thanks Pete. Also thanks for donating
airline mileage for Bills plane ticket to come up here.
Alcatel/////alcatel//////Alcatel\\\\\alcatel
(thats my advertizement above for Pete)
Also thanks to Kurt and Stephanie Read for donating airline miles so that I could fly up here also.
We just found out a couple of days ago that this Race is twice as important. Not only is it a qualifier for next years worlds in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, it is also one of the qualifiers for next years U.S. Sailing Team, which includes shipping our boat to Europe for some major races. There will be at least 2 other races that will be qualifiers for next years saling team and the total from those will determine who makes next years TEAM. The other thing going on at this regatta is that its a qualifier fo the Canadian team. It means big money to them. The top Canadian gets about $30,000 for next year.
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10/10/97 Friday 11:06 pm
PF
Well were in Kingston, The rest of our flight went just fine.
We rigged,put the mast up, centerboard and rudder on our boat and have registered. We put on our practice boat spin sheets (our other ones blew out at the worlds and duct tape was holding them together). We picked out the best sails we could find to use. The are getting pretty old too. The best ones were the ones we used at the worlds (19 races). And they were already used at the 96' olympic trials.
Seems like a norther went thru this morining so we should have north wind for a couple days. We are currently looking for a forcast.
More tommorrow
Paul and Bill
BD (Bill Draheim)
We dont have much racing to report on . The day started at seven a.m. with the sun just comming up and the dew nearly frozen. The air temp. was around 40. The good news was that the winds were light so we would not freeze, the bad news was the air was light so we would not sail. By 9 a.m. we had the bottom of the boat coated with Teflon,I guess it will stay on the hull even after the coldest of applications, we were ready to head out on the lake. After making it to the race area we realized because of the light air that we were over dressed so we peeled off layers and got set up for the start. We thought the shifts were random. The wind was from the north-east at around 4 to 8 mph. We got a bad start in the middle of the line and forced to the middle-right. A big left shift came in so we rounded the first mark in tenth. We were a long way back of the lead pack and could only manage to climb to seventh in the race. One of the top U.S. womens teams(Whitney Connor, Elizabeth Kratzig) won the race. A new U.S. mens team (Tim Fallon, Graeme Woodworth) were second . They both won their divisions at this years college national championship and look to be a strong team. It was hard to read too much into this race though, I would classify it as a low quality test. Well the conditions went from low quality to no quality so that was it for the day. We plan on bigger and better things tomorrow.
PF
We did get to do some boatwork this evening. Bill broke his spin pole end coming in from sailing, so he put on new pole ends. I got to fix my spin halyard pump system that had been bothering me.
10/12/97 Sunday 10:46 pm
BD
Day two, we left the harbour very early to get a feel for the days conditions. We went out with our canadian friends, P.O. and James. The wind was shifty from the southeast at around eight mph.
We were to start at 10am but, the race committee did a bad job of setting the race course so it was open house on general recalls.
After a couple hundred practice starts we finaly got a race off at 11:45 am. We had a good start near the boat end and hit a couple of good shifts in the first couple minutes which got us about ten boat lengths on the next boat. We held our lead to the weather mark and just continued to extend the rest of the race. We won by a large margin , a good way to start the day.
The girls that won the practice race were second, and the collegiate National theam was in third most of the race but dropped to 5th the last beat.
After the race the conditions degraded much as they did yesterday. We floated patiently for a couple hours till a light southerly developed. The next race started at 3:15pm. We got off to a bad start at the boat end and cleared to the right. The wind went left but we had some wind and good boat speed and rounded the first mark around nineth. From there we sailed fast down the next two reaches two round the leeward mark fourth. We passed two boats up the next beat and the last boat downwind to get our second bullet of the day. After three races we are now in first place on a tie break over a good young Canadian team. They were at the Worlds and showed some promise there. Tomorrow hopefuly we will get a little wind and a few races.
PF
I will fill in a little on the second race. We rounded the weather mark around 9th onto a tight light air reach. There were 3 boats in clump infront of us and small puffs kept coming thru. We got a little high on them in the passing lane but could not quite get over them. However the second boat of the group got rolled by the 3rd bot in the group that got us to roll them to. Then the other 2 boats in front of us got in a small luffing match and Bill and I took a puff low. They were never able to work down to the jibe mark so we passed them too. We were then in 4th. We gained a little on the leaders the next reach but did not pass anyone. The 4 leaders tacked immediately at the leward mark and were now on starboard. Bill and I stayed on port a little longer and got to the right of them and the wind slowly shifted right.
By the weather mark we crossed all but the leader and he was probably still 10 boat lengths ahead of us, but we put some major jets on the run and ghosted past him to take the lead. The key in the light a flying the spinaker seems to be to heal the boat a lot to leeward, till the boom almost hits the water. This does 3 things: 1) it reduces weted surface 2) it keeps shape in the main sail and 3) most important the spinaker does not have to support its own weight. When its light if you keep the boat straight up and down you need at least enough wind to lift the spinnakers weight in order for it to fly. If you heel over to leeward the spinnaker can hang straight down and stll fly in even the lightest breeze.
The bad thing this does is put weather helm ant the rudder, but its much more important to do the other 3 things.
So on to the race, the next beat was a little shorter than the first two and very light air going up current ( about a 1/10 of a knot). We are sailing in the mouth of the St. Lawrence Sea Way at the east end of lake Ontario. They actually get 20 inches of Ice on the part of the lake we are sailing on in February. It ices over in mid january and thaws in mid march. BRRRRRRRR
Well we had good jets upwind too and just covered to the finish.
The good college team was so far back they did not finish the last race and the Good girls team had a 15th.
This evening we had Thanksgiving dinner with the whole sailing crowd. Turkey even. They have their thanks giving here early before it gets to cold.
We had a little boat work to do tonight. Bill poked a hole in the spinnaker on one of the douses. He pushed the spin pole topping lift into it. we also had to do a litte gasket work. But i was pretty excited about how well my spin halyard system worked.
More tommorrow (monday) /// The last day.
Thanks again to all our supporters!!!!!!
We are on our way home. I'm in the airplane and actually writing the regatta report on our donated laptop. Thanks again Pete, and Alcatel//////
Well we actually had good wind this morning. Blowing 10-15 out of the SE. No general recalls for the first start. The races are run in kind of an enclosed place with land on 2 sides ar the mouth of the St. lawrence river on one side and lake Ontario on the other side. The direction the wind has been blowing these last few days is coming of the land so its kind of flat water and shift. First race: We had a good start near the boat and crossed most of the fleet we missed a small shift to the left at the end and the girls team that has been doing good rounded in front of us. The first reach was fine but the second reach looked too tight to carry the spin so we doused at the jibe mark. This was a big mistake. The reach was pretty tight but the wind died enough to make spin reachin fast. We lost a lot of distance on the leader and we also lost 3 boats to put us in 5th. Stupid Stupid Stupid The next beat were pretty fast and Bill found a couple good shifts to put us back up in 3rd at the top mark. Nothing changed on the run. The next Beat we sped past the team in front and almost caught the leader but ran out of race course so we finished second.
BD
Race 2
The wind was a little bit weaker, maybe about 8-12 with some puffs.. At the start we were drifting backwards while the rest of the boats were going foreward, oops. We bailed out right then got a shift and crossed left then up the middle to avoid all the boats on the left that were still in front of us. About three fourths of the way up the beat we got left of the ten or so boats ahead of us and cought a good shift to round the top mark fifth. We passed all but one of the boats on the first reach and could never catch the leader, but we got really close, so our second second of the day. We now were leading the regatta by four points and were devising ways to skip the last race and make our flight. The guy who won this race has a mainsail that excells in the puffs but is lacking in light or moderate wind. The bottom third of his main is nearly total flat, the bottom batten twists open relative to the boom, a rare sight. He is a Doyle sailmaker from western Canada. We have no interest in using a main like that at this point, way too one dimentional.
8:pm second flight
BD
Race 3
We got a good start near the boat and continued on starboard to the middle of the race course. Good strategy but the boats to our left got a good puff and crossed ahead. We sat about sixth at the leeward mark but lost a bunch of distance up the next beat when the five boats in front of us got to the right and found good breeze. Nothing happened downwind but we did get a little closer to the fifth place boat. Courtney Becker Dey was in fifth. She may sound familiar as she is the current Rolex Yachtswomen of the Year. We were able to grind her down up the last beat to finish fifth. Now with one race to go we had a two point lead or a big lead if not includeing the throwout race. Our plan was to sit on the second place boat and drive her back.
Race 4
Our plan was not comming together . The second place boat in the regatta, Whitney Conner, rounded the first mark in the lead. The good news is that we rounded second. We stayed behind her until the run and just got by her at the leeward mark. Up the last leg we put a bunch on her and won easily. So we have now won our first international regatta and are qualified to go to the International sailing asociation world champs in the United Arab Republic, Dubai. Our friends P.O. and James rallied on the last day but fell four points short of being the top Canadian team. A bitter pill for them because instead of getting $ 20,000 for the year they now get $ 10,000.
PF
Well we just made our flight. Buck Entriken drove up from Dallas with his wife Tamy and they will drive the boat back to Dallas. May be we can unload wed. night at the club.
This regatta was also a qualifier for next years U.S. sailing team. So we are leading for that now.
Our next race will be in Palamos, Spain over chistmas Vacation dec 26-30. >>If any one out there has Advantage miles we can use for the plane flight to Spain it would help a great deal.
After that we have some more qualifiing regattas for the U.S. team in january down in Miami.
Thanks again for everyones support.
Thanks to Kitty Hawk Inc. for the good boat we have used at the worlds and this last race in CANADA.
Thanks to Kurt and Stephanie Reed for the plane ticket to Canada.
Thanks to Pete Occonnel and Alcatel for the flight to Canada and the lap top we are sending regatta reports back on.
And thanks to Carrie for Orgaizing our trip AGAIN!!!!!!!!
And Jennifer and Stew for putting up with Bill.
See ya back in texas