Well, we're off again. Bob and I are going to the SPA Eurolympics Regatta in Medemblik, Holland, the largest race in Europe other than the World Championships. All the top dogs should be there. I am flying out of Dallas, Bob out of New York, and we are supposed to be on the same plane from London to Amsterdam.
In Medemblik, we will meet our new 470, which was made in and shipped from New Zealand. Hopefully, all the major boat parts, including the mast, boom and spinnaker pole will show up, too; but that may take a miracle. I brought the sails, rudder and centerboard with me. American Airlines wanted to charge me $300 for excess baggage, but I convinced them I was on the U.S. Olympic Team, and they closed their eyes and let me go.
See ya! Got to stay awake (jet lag) till my flight leaves.
Paul
Medemblik North Holland The Netherlands Sunday 24 May
My flight from New York was late, causing me to miss my connection
from London to Amsterdam. I was able to get on another flight a few
hours later, but Paul had to wait around for a while. It was a short
drive to Medemblik from Amsterdam. We found our boat at about
10:00 p.m.; everything looks great. We ran into a bunch of friends
from the U.S. at dinner.
Bob
We spent the entire day getting the boat together, luckily with no major problems. There are just a few minor things left to be done tomorrow before we can sail. The boat is at a marina and needs to be driven into town about five miles away, so we need to figure out how to get it there as well. I expect we'll be on the water by late afternoon. It's light outside until 10:00 p.m. here, so we should get some good sailing in.
Tuesday 26 May Midnight
Well, we still are trying to Email. I got a press pass today, and they tell me I can Email tomorrow morning. We'll see.
We didn't get to sail yesterday--too many little things to do.
Examples:
1) Hacksaw the spreader brackets so that our spreader
adjusters would work. The mast maker had added a new stiffener to
the spreader brackets. Since we were the first to try it out, we
were the first to find the problem.
2) Drill and epoxy the up/down control fastener for the
centerboard; find a longer bolt.
3) Buy up/down controls for the rudder and epoxy and fasten
them to the rudder. This took a while because I kept breaking drill
bits and screw heads. I finally figured out that the rudder head had
lead in it, and that was causing the problems.
4) File and epoxy the rudder to fit the new boat.
5) Shim the rudder to fit the new rudder head.
6) Re-drill the rudder pivot hole. The rudder bolt was put in at
an angle square with the boat, so we had to enlarge the hole in the
rudder head. The rudder works great now.
7) Borrow a trailer and a car to take our boat from the
warehouse to the sailing center.
Just had lots of these little jobs to do.
Today we did a lot more boat work in the morning and then got us registered and stamped the sails. Finally, we got to go sailing at about 2:30 p.m.
The good Ukrainians went out at the same time, and it was very tempting to go racing with them; but we still had a list of things to fix, so we started adjusting all the stuff that had to be fixed on the water (like cutting the spin sheet to the right length). One major problem we solved was that of untwisting the spin halyard inside the mast. We got most of the on-the-water stuff done and also accomplished a lot of other tasks.
We finally got to the point of checking out tuning. The breeze was 5-10 knots, and our main seemed to be too flat. We tried putting the mast ram on, but that didn't seem to work--still too flat. We raked our spreaders forward, and that helped a little but didn't seem to do the trick.
We went back ashore and checked our tuning. Everything seemed good: our rake was good, our rig tension was good, and the prebend was correct. Well, we moved our prebend to 3 1/2 inches and went back sailing. It looked better, but when we sheeted the main real hard we got an inversion in the main going from the spreaders to the end of the boom. We kept thinking about what to do. Finally, I noticed that the mainsheet block on the boom was a little far back, so that when I pulled my main in hard, the mast was pushed forward and bending too much. Repositioning the block seemed to help.
On the way in, I noticed also that the mast was not tight at the partners. I think this was causing the mast to bow to leeward too much at the spreaders. We will try to fix this for tomorrow's sailing.
It's late, and it looks like we'll have another long day tomorrow.
See ya!
Paul and Bob
Editor's Note: You may visit the SPA Regatta site regularly during
the event (27-31 May) at: http://sparegatta.org.
We gather there are 75 menıs 470s in this regatta, 37 in Paul and
Bob's fleet.
Beanard
Howdy Folks,
It's a normal SPA Regatta in THE NETHERLANDS. Rainy, drizzly,
sprinkly, with spots of sun shining out now and then. Not too cold,
though--yet! High temp about 68 degrees.
Well, we christened our new boat yesterday: our boat builder, Dave McKay, brought us a beer as we worked to get her ready for racing. We had a lot of work to do, so the celebration didn't last too long (five minutes). We will have to give her a proper christening back in the USA.
This morning Bob and I did more boat work, still adjusting things to get them to work the way we like them. I screwed up and cut the jib halyard line way short, so I was installing a new one as we sailed out to the starting line.
This SPA regatta is the biggest ever, with 51 nations, 832 boats and 1215 competitors in 11 classes. There are 80 men's 470 sailboats here. Our fleet has been split into two groups for the qualifying round. We are in the second start.
The forecast today is for a variable wind of 0-3 Beaufort and possible gusts up to four knots in thunderstorms. (Editor's note: The Beaufort Scale is a wind scale in which the force of the wind is indicated by a series of numbers from 0 to 17, with corresponding descriptive terms which are commonly used by the U.S. Weather Bureau. Beaufort numbers 0 [calm] - 3 [light air] would reflect calm to light air, 0-3 miles per hour. This per Merriam-Webster Inc.).
We sailed out to the start, and the first fleet got off okay in a 3-6 knot, easterly wind. Our fleet had one general recall, then we were off. Bob and I had a good start down the line, past the middle. There was a big left wind shift at the start, so we tacked over, crossing all boats to the right.
We continued, slowly got headed and tacked back to port. The right side seemed still to be gaining, so we tacked back right, ducking sterns. At the weather mark, they had a list of over earlies (maybe six boats), but we were not one of them and were about 12th rounding the mark. The run was light, but we seemed to pass a few boats. As we approached the leeward gate, thunder started, and the wind picked up. With boats behind gaining on us, we found a few good puffs and rounded about 7th at the favored right-hand gate. It was a big header, and we were first in the fleet to tack out to the favored port tack.
Then the rain started, slowly at first; then it started to pour. The boats ahead came with us, but we slowly got headed and, after one big header, we tacked back about bow to bow with the leader. He tacked back to starboard with us, but the right was still gaining; so we kept gaining on him.
We rounded the weather mark first, ahead of some Italians. It was a broad reach, but we were able to find the mark in the rain. The rain slowly stopped, and we were still in the lead at the next mark, with two boats right behind us. We had a little trouble on the run finding the mark, and the Italians caught up.
Editor's Note: Would you believe that Paul's Email ended right here yesterday? Gee, thanks, Paulfred Hitchcock! Here's the rest, which came in this morning (Thursday):
Wednesday 27 May 1998 8:20 p.m.
Woops! I didn't quite finish that last Email.
To finish my story . . . where was I? Oh, yes! We rounded the reach mark in first and could not quite find the next leeward mark, so the Italians pulled even with us. We did some good jibes, however, and were able to round the last mark just ahead of them and reach to the finish first.
A good present for our new boat.
Well, we stayed out for another two hours, and the weather did the SPA thing: pour, drizzle, rain; so no more races for the day.
After we de-rigged, we went grocery shopping and then worked on the boat for a while. We needed to shorten the spreaders a bit because the mast was bending to leeward in the middle, making things look not quite right. We'll see how the adjustment works tomorrow. We're hoping for more races then.
When we got back to our apartment, we found that coach Luther had made us a great pasta dinner.
Bob and I still are trying to find someone to take our boat from Holland to Kiel, Germany. Does anyone out there have any ideas?
Bye!
Paul and Bob
Hello again, Good news: no rain or lightning today. It was actually a very nice day--partly sunny and 75 degrees. The wind was out of 105 degrees, and for the first race it was blowing about 5-10 knots, with a slight chop.
Race #1 Our start was at 10:30, and we were the first ones off the dock (our boat work requirements are lessening). We had a good start 100 yards up from the pin and, with good speed, were able to tack on the first shift. A German boat was right with us, and we both kept tacking on the same shifts. Our boat must have been in the right spot because we were 1 - 2 at the weather mark, with him about three boat lengths behind us.
We held even on the run, then hit a few shifts up the next beat to gain, and then covered at the end of the beat. Then it was just a reach--run--reach to the finish. We came in first, and the Swedes actually passed the Germans for second place.
I guess our new boat is not too slow.
Race #2 The wind got kind of funky for the first beat. We had another good start and were in the lead pack; but about halfway up the first beat, the wind got very light. We were going okay, but the last puff came in from the right and we rounded about sixth.
We went the wrong way on the run, and the boat behind us (RUS 4) that jibed out was first around the leeward mark, while we lost boats. We gained a little back the next beat and run to finish 10th.
They are putting a notice board up at the weather mark with all the over earlies on it. We hold our breath each time we get there because it is always full of boat numbers.
Race #3 The wind filled back in to 5-10 knots. We had another good start at the pin and were gaining, but we tacked to port to stay in touch with the fleet. The Polish team that was with us went further left and was leading at the first mark. The left seemed to pay well, and I was thinking we were slow because all the boats to the left were gaining. But the fast Swedes tacked to leeward of us and we were gaining on them, so I settled down and we hit a little righty to round third.
We held off the pack behind us on the run, then the next beat got shifty again. We gained initially, but then got out of phase, still rounding fourth at the weather mark. We had a great set to a reach and rolled the Australians right away, putting us in third. It stayed that way to the finish.
We are very happy with the new boat. Still working on the rigging and tuning. Hopefully, we are not making it slower. We made a few changes to our mast after sailing today. It was over bending at times, so we have set it up with less tension.
We had dinner with some other US sailors so that we could figure out how to get our boats to the places they need to be taken over the next few months. Hopefully, everything will come together before we leave.
THANKS TO STEPHANIE AND KURT READ FOR THEIR AIR MILES TO FLY US OVER HERE.
ALSO, THANKS TO KITTY HAWK and COMPUCOM FOR OUR NEW, FAST BOAT.
More M a n a n a.
Paul and Bob
Note from Beanard: Have you checked the SPA Web Site? Paul and Bob are in second place overall in the Men's 470 class, only one point behind the first place Slovakians!
Hello again,
I'm sitting here in the press office typing my daily report. Bob is at the race office talking to reporters.
That means we still are in the top three.
Although it rained all night, we were able to head out this morning at 9:00 a.m., with no rain and light wind. We didn't have a great day today, but we are hanging in there.
Race #1 - 10:30 a.m.
Wind: 3-6 knots off the land.
We had a good start at the pin going toward the land. Bob thought there was more wind on the right, but I wanted to continue toward the shore like a normal lake sailor would do.
Initially, we looked okay; but the right just kept paying. From our position in the deep left corner, we found a little shift and puff to come back on. The right still was favored and probably had shifted further that way thirty degrees. Although we rounded the first mark in about 30th, things could have been a lot worse.
We did okay on the run, then the next beat got extremely light. We were going good. Bob noticed that the windmills up on shore had turned 'way left; the problem was that there was a puff on the right. We just went as fast as we could toward the mark, but footed left. That worked. The left came in just before the mark, and we rounded sixth and stayed there to the finish.
The Ukranians won that race by a half mile but were scored DNF because they finished in the middle of the fleet ahead of us. The committee is fixing that situation to keep it from happening again.
Race #2
We didn't have a great start, but we found some clear air, hit a good shift, and were looking good.
Halfway up the beat, the wind started to fill on the left, so we started working to that side. After ducking a few boats, we made another boat tack to leeward of us. Oops! It was the Ukranian team (last Olympics gold medal winners). They quickly pinched us off, putting us in bad air. We had to tack away.
Without any other opportunities to tack, we were forced to the wrong side of the course and lost a lot of boats. We managed to pass a few back on the second beat, finishing 15th. Not bad for our worst race so far.
Race #3
Well, we weren't going to make the same mistake twice. After a great start at the pin, we banged the left
corner and were first at the weather mark.
A Japanese boat forced us high at the beginning of the run, allowing a few boats to pass us. On the second beat, we sailed to the left corner again and gained some boats back to round third. We stayed there to the finish.
Tomorrow we will be split into gold and silver fleets. That means the gold fleet will have all the good people in it (in other words, a 10th tomorrow will be like a fifth today).
We just need to sail smart and fast.
See ya,
Paul and Bob
He, hoe gaat het ermee (³Hey, how's it going?² in Dutch).
We found a young Finnish sailor to take our boat to Kiel by way of Finland. Nice to have that settled.
I'll give you our morning ritual: Wake up at 7:00 a.m. Bob has breakfast (cereal and coffee); Paul has orange juice with his health power (Reliv) mixed in. Paul makes P B and J (only PB for Bob), finds a plastic bag to put the lunch into and puts four breakfast bars in with it.
We brush our teeth, then gather up all our junk (sailing gear, laptop, lunch, bottled water) and head out to the little rent car. It's about a ten minute drive to the boat.
The first thing we do is move the boat to the boat ramp. This involves moving all the other boats out of the way, but itıs critical to being first off the ramp (usually, no one else is here at this time). We take the cover off and rig the boat.
Today we had to go to the race office and get big red stickers that signify we are in third place overall. These are about two feet in diameter, so we tried to trim them down with our scissors. We stuck one on each side of the bow and one on each side of the mainsail.
Our next step is to rig the boat (jib and main up). Then we get dressed. Today it was thin polypropylene long johns and a dry suit. Bob has little neoprene booties, but Paul, trying to save weight, just wears his rubber dry suit socks. Today he forgot one and had to use a plastic bag.
Next, we check the weather report. Today the wind was 2-3 Beaufort out of the northeast, changing to northwest. No rain this morning, but someone told me that at 5:00 a.m. it had been raining.
We make a last pit stop at the restroom, gather some extra clothes into a bag and head out to the racecourse.
Race #1 was to start at 10:30 a.m., with three races to follow.
Race #1
At the start of the first race, winds were light and the sky was overcast. We had a good start towards the pin end, moved left a bit and tacked. After being lifted on port for awhile, we got headed but stayed on port to get into a puff and then tacked again.
Winds got really shifty up by the weather mark, and we passed a few boats playing the short shifts. We rounded the first mark in the teens and held on the reach. On the run, we passed a few boats and then a few more, staying in phase on the last beat. At the last weather mark, we were in second, where we held to the finish.
Race #2
We had a great first beat playing the shifts and staying in the breeze, but at the weather mark, we found out that we were over early, so we had to drop out of the race. The first and second place teams also were over, along with a bunch of others.
Well, that's one of our throw-outs. Bummer!
The good part was that we got to watch Tracy and Louise win the women's race. Way to go, girls!
Race #3
Rough start. We came into the line a bit late and didn't find a hole, so we had to jibe out at the pin. Ouch! We were in almost last place.
After footing under some people to get out left, we got a big shift, tacked and were looking okay. Well, the shift didn't last too long, but that was okay: we were back with the fleet. There was a puff on the right, and everyone else was going left, so we got to the puff in clear air and passed some more boats.
By the weather mark, we were about 15th. We held our position on the run and passed a few more boats on a fluky last beat, then passed another boat on the run to finish eighth.
The Ukrainians didn't have a great day, so we moved back up into second. One more race tomorrow. Paul's adding up the points now to see what we have to do to beat the guys around us.
The Slovenians are ten points ahead, and the Ukrainians and Portuguese are one point behind.
Last race tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.
We will see.
Paul and Bob
Four boats could win going into the last race. For us to beat the Slovenians, we would have to beat them by eleven points. For us to beat the Ukrainians, we would have to beat them in the race. For us to beat the Portuguese, we would have to finish right behind them.
Last Race
The wind had picked up to 10-17 knots, and the first beat would be
right up to the humongous windmills that line the shore. We were
not to sure how to set up the boat for this wind since we had been
sailing in light air the whole week, but we did a lot of tuning before
the start and seemed to be going okay.
We started in about the middle of the line right above the Ukrainians. We got a good start and had good speed and height to pinch off the guys above and stay off the Ukrainians to leeward. The right seemed to be favored because it was near the shore, and we tacked to port. The guys that had gone right were just ahead of us, so we were ducking some sterns.
We found a place to tack back, but I got the tiller caught in the traveler and we got stuck head to wind; we got some water in the boat (I guess we should have done some boat handling practice before the start, too). We got going again and found a couple of shifts.
Near the weather mark, we came in on the starboard lay line and there was a twenty-story windmill right in the way. There are about five of these in the water next to the shore. They are used as power generators, but Bob and I have been using them as wind indicators all week.
Just before we ducked the windmill, the Ukrainians crossed us. They went to weather of the windmill, and we went to leeward. We got blanketed by the windmill, and the Ukrainians rolled us; but we still were able to lay the weather mark.
We rounded about 15th, and all the good guys were ahead of us. Coach Luther had checked out the course just before the start and told us that the first reach was broad and that the first run was mostly port tack. The first reach was broad, and we passed a bunch of boats taking the low road to the mark. We jibed at the mark and passed a few more boats. At the leeward mark, we were in top ten, with the Portuguese ahead and the Ukrainians and the Slovenians just behind.
On the second beat, our position stayed about the same. The Slovenians passed us early in the run, but we were not going to pass them in the standings at this point, and we probably weren't going to catch the Portuguese at this point either. At this particular time, we mainly were watching the Ukrainians. They passed us just before the last mark, but we got inside and had a better rounding, to beat them in the regatta. We finished third overall.
A good regatta for our new boat, but we have a lot of work to do to do well consistently.
We packed up the boat after the race, and a young Finnish team will drop it off in Kiel on their way home. I guess it's on the way.
We got our trophy and RayBan sunglasses and $500 as third place prizes.
We leave tomorrow morning to go back to the States. Good thing, since we are out of peanut butter.
Thanks to all you guys for supporting us. We were the top American team at this regatta, in all the classes.
Again, special thanks to:
CompuCom and Kitty Hawk for the fast, new boat;
Kurt and Stephanie Read for the air miles to fly over here; and
Beanard for editing our reports.
And GREAT thanks to Carrie for organizing the logistical nightmare of this Olympic Campaign.
See ya' back in Texas!
Paul
See ya back in Rhode Island!
Bob