PreWorlds regatta report
Team Ötzi was not quite ready fort he first race of the preworlds which started right on time at 11:55 on Wednesday. This was unfortunate, because we got scored DNS since we were still at the dock installing our correctors when the race got started. Perhaps we should have just sailed the boat 20 kg underweight and seen if we could go as fast as the good guys. Somehow I doubt it. ¨Ötzi says our boathandling problems most likely could not have made up for the lack of 20 kg. But we got out and did some practicing and made sure the boat was okay for the second race. Unfortunately the wind shut off during the second race, and Team Ötzi does not do particularly well in the 0-5 knot breeze. So our finish was not very good, and we were really exhausted after racing for what seemed like forever in the extremely light wind. We went home with a new list of little things to fix, but we were glad that we got the first day of tune-up. It was nice to be out on the water in the sunshine.
Day 2 of the preworlds was much more fun with a freshening breeze and lots of sunshine. In race 1, we had a good start and rounded the top mark in about 30th position. Unfortunately we promptly ran over the spinnaker and lost about 20 boats getting it fixed. Ötzi tried to tell us to hold off on the hoist until the pole was out, but we didnt hear him and paid the price. Then to make matters worse when we got to the finish we managed to sail upwind of the pin. Now who could have known that we could round the leeward mark and go straight to a close hauled course and sail above the finish line. Ötzi said we should have done a better job reading the sailing instructions. We agreed and a second DNC did nothing good to help our score.
Boats are filling up the dinghy park here in Warnemünde.
In the 2nd race of day 2, we did a much better job, with only one minor kite snafu which cost us 10 boats or so. We had trouble hanging upwind with the good guys off the line. We think this is probably a combination of my driving skills (or lack thereof) together with the fact that we have a lot of trouble getting our jib leads in the right position with that doggone floating system. That went onto the list of things to fix. But we had good speed going downwind in the building pressure and were able to pass a lot of boats on the downwind legs. By the time race 2 ended, we had a steady 12 knot breeze with a nice swell for surfing on. It was a great day for sailing.
In the end, our preworlds was good because we worked a lot of kinks out and improved a number of the systems on the boat (jib leads, pole launcher, spinsheets, jibsheets, correctors, pole end fitting, and lots of other little stuff).
Day 2 of the preworlds was much more fun with a freshening breeze and lots of sunshine. In race 1, we had a good start and rounded the top mark in about 30th position. Unfortunately we promptly ran over the spinnaker and lost about 20 boats getting it fixed. Ötzi tried to tell us to hold off on the hoist until the pole was out, but we didnt hear him and paid the price. Then to make matters worse when we got to the finish we managed to sail upwind of the pin. Now who could have known that we could round the leeward mark and go straight to a close hauled course and sail above the finish line. Ötzi said we should have done a better job reading the sailing instructions. We agreed and a second DNC did nothing good to help our score.
Boats are filling up the dinghy park here in Warnemünde.
In the 2nd race of day 2, we did a much better job, with only one minor kite snafu which cost us 10 boats or so. We had trouble hanging upwind with the good guys off the line. We think this is probably a combination of my driving skills (or lack thereof) together with the fact that we have a lot of trouble getting our jib leads in the right position with that doggone floating system. That went onto the list of things to fix. But we had good speed going downwind in the building pressure and were able to pass a lot of boats on the downwind legs. By the time race 2 ended, we had a steady 12 knot breeze with a nice swell for surfing on. It was a great day for sailing.
In the end, our preworlds was good because we worked a lot of kinks out and improved a number of the systems on the boat (jib leads, pole launcher, spinsheets, jibsheets, correctors, pole end fitting, and lots of other little stuff).
This is not a nice setup for the skipper to hike on, and to be honest, this is really just too much complexity.
The Team Ötzi 5o5 with mast down and ready for measurement.
posted by J Bergquist at 12:18 PM
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