Racing Wrap Up: Days 2, 3 and 4

To cut to the chase, racing day 1 (Monday) with the 20 and 21 was an omen for the rest of the regatta. I'll recap the rest of the racing part here and let Lisa opine on the social and food program every night.

In general, the 1 pm schedule start time was nice as there generally was not much breeze in the morning and (usually) a great southerly thermal develops in the afternoon, even to the point of being too much for a masters event. The launch process took more than an hour to get the 54 boats down the steep ramp. Thankfully they covered it with astroturf and hired a bunch of local kids to help get down, and more importantly up, the ramp and to stow and fetch the dollys. The sail out was generally much longer than it appeared taking a hour or so, but they typically got the course set up: “DEPLOY THE BOTS” as we joke about the marks when they all take their positions. They used robotic Mark Set Bots that are remote controlled and not anchored as the water, making it easy to set up the course especially in this lake as the water is 300’-600' deep and no one wants to haul that much anchor line!

In most races we had multiple general recalls with the really aggressive fleet pushing the line even with the U Flag out. These made starts really hard for those of us who are less aggressive and not used to such large fleets. And this is not sour grapes just a lesson learned, the willingness to let people go even if they are OCS (over the line early for the non sailors) because you don't see their number is pretty astounding in my opinion, which reinforces the need to be in that first row even if you know you are over. You just hope they don't see your number. As a side note, this is one of the parts of this game that really grinds my gears.

Anyway, on racing day 2 (Tuesday) we finally got a start off in fairly light breeze and without a great start, we got pushed out to a side that was sadly not the correct side. Despite making a number of boats back on the first run and second beat, we only clawed back to 31 and it's no fun sailing in the cheap seats for many reasons.

The second race also had a litany of restarts but the one that went was good for us and with the breeze up to the low to mid teens (what would be complained about that evening by some), we were hiking hard and making good choices as the saying goes. As we all know it’s much easier to sail in the front of the fleet especially in shifty conditions. Because the breeze was up to near (or over depending on your perspective) the “15 knots sustained for 3 minutes” limit, the RC chose to finish the race at mark 3 of 4 (second windward mark) and we had a great result at 16. On the way in it was definitely above that and really puffy but we had a fun fast reach back to the club and importantly doing well in the most important race to the ramp!

They had a photographer on the course but sadly, they must not have thought we were very photogenic or far enough up the score sheet, so no glam sailing shots.

The first two days of racing the sky was very clear and the sun was HOT at that low latitude (41°S). Even though, when the breeze was up and it was wet with full thermal hiking pants, a smock, tech hoodie of the cap and a life jacket, it was not hot. But the most amazing thing was the views of the Volcanos across the lake. Lisa kept saying - endlessly! - how distracting starboard tack was with that view.

Wednesday was a reserve day again with nice weather and Lisa will recap that soon.

Racing day 3 (Thursday) began with a cloudy, misty morning. They anticipated heavy breeze in the afternoon so the start was moved up an hour to try and get the racing done before that. But the best laid plans, as they say… no early breeze materialized and there was a postponement ashore for several hours. When some breeze looked promising, we launched and headed out to the course in the early afternoon. It took almost 3 hours on the water before the breeze settled down enough to get a race off, in a pretty light southerly. The breeze built towards the end of the race and we finished at 19 a good result. We didn’t hit the shore until almost 7pm but it really didn’t seem late as there was still three hours of daylight left!

Racing day 4 was also a cloudy, misty light air morning with cold rain forecast all day but we launched on time and headed out to the course. It was fairly cold on the water with on and off rain as we waited for the northerly/westerly breeze to settle. Once it did, we had several general recalls and they went right to the “black flag” (if you are over early you are out of the race even if there is a restart), the first time I have every seen this in a regatta. When a start finally stuck, sadly it was horrendous for us and we were back in the cheap seats, only able to claw back to 27. The breeze continued to be really shifty but they got the start of the second race (7) off in lightish breeze. It wasn’t a great start but we saw where the breeze was filling from and caught the strong shift to get to the weather mark in the top 10. At the leeward mark it was “breeze on” but sadly for us they abandoned the race - I’m not sure if it was that it was over the limit or violated class rules for being too shifty in the first lap but was probably the right thing to do - and since it was too late in the day for any more racing, we headed back to the dock with a total of 6 races and one drop to finish in 22nd. The consolation was we again finished high in the race to the ramp to get out of the water, unrigged and get the charter boat sorted for the returned. I had modified it a bit with parts I brought. Charter boats are a whole post in and of itself, but not so interesting for a general audience, so I'll let that go.

All in all, 22nd was a decent result. I think we had potential to be between 15-20, but we made too many mistakes, mostly around not getting off the starting line well, something that always gives us trouble since we don’t usually sail in 50+ boat fleets. And that is definitely compounded by so many top sailors from parts of the world that have different and much more aggressive starting line tactics, something we knew would be the case but were not fully prepared for. But that’s the fun and challenge of coming to a regatta like this. You learn by doing and experiencing even if the end result is below expectations. Lisa was the 2nd place Women's skipper and I got that same trophy.Read more