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31 Oct 2009 18:25
m24 worlds
Fantastillasara
It's Saturday morning of the 2009 Melges 24 Worlds, the last day of this six-day regatta, and all I can think is; "Today might be the day." Today might be the one day of the regatta that gives us conditions worthy of a World Championship. But then again, I said that about Tuesday. And Wednesday. I mean, what the hell is going on out here? I'm going to have to dig out my Captain Planet ring from the 90's and call up the power Wind to try to do some good over here on the Chesapeake. I wonder where my boy Jose is with the Heart ring, because we could use some of that, too. You know things are slow when one of the highlights of your week is going for a yacht in no breeze. Carlo Vroon and his crew on the Netherlands boat Gelikt let me step on board after the racing on Thursday, and we drifted around playing games and having a good time. I never knew you could play Tag on a 24 foot boat, but it's pretty much the greatest idea ever, now that I've done it. I don't think I stopped laughing the entire time I was on board, which was good for me considering we've had so much going on this week and I've definitely been a little lost in the sauce. At least November starts tomorrow, which means that MY BIRTHDAY is coming soon, and if anyone was wondering, I would like a Melges 24, a pair of Kaenon UPD's from Point Loma Outfitting, a tiki hut on a no-name island somewhere, a date with Petey Crawford, a Velocitek Speedpuck, world peace, a bullmastiff named Kuma, and a nap. I don't think I've ever slept as little in a week as I have as part of OTWA. Oh, and I like Heather Evans' cakes, too.
Back to talking about the weather, despite plenty of missteps (including mistakenly firing off a four-shot salvo from the starting cannon 4 minutes after the starting gun yesterday), the RC have somehow managed to get nine races off in this sorry excuse for breeze. Whether they should have gotten all nine off is for smarter people than me to decide. But we'll need three races today if the full 12-race schedule is to be filled, and hopefully they'll go for quality, not quantity, and we can get back here in time to get our our Halloween costumes on. You guys might want to stay tuned today for mine...
Speaking of Halloween, HAVE YOU GUYS HEARD ABOUT OUR PARTY TONIGHT?!?!?! We're having it here in Annapolis at a hot new place downtown called Level. It starts at 10PM, ends whenever they throw us out (2PM?) and the address is on West Street...Number 69. Not kidding. We have great prizes to give away for the best costumes, including stickers, shirts, and a Velocitek - but only for those wearing costumes - so definitely be creative about it. I want to laugh so hard tonight that my Sailing Anarchy exclusive cocktail comes out of my nose. Did we mention FREE BEER?
On the water, this one is not quite over, but it's going to be a long road for Rufo Bressani or Gabi Zandona to overcome Chris Larson's 15-point lead. Larson's got a 12 for a throwout, so if there was only one race today he wouldn't even need to go out there. But there will definitely be more than that, and as we've seen anything can happen here, so it's going to be a blast to watch. There's plenty of drama too, with Nicola Celon filing a questionable protest against Uka Uka that was proven a total joke on a video replay, a Blu Moon team that is mathematically gone but threw two bullets up yesterday and made it look easy, and a Quantum Racing team that is firing on all cylinders finally.
Despite our great friend and production dude extraordinaire Aaron Siegler having to leave early to attend his grandfather's funeral we WILL be live out there on an Eastport 32, and it's definitely going to be something to watch. So check it out live, and go to the OTW forum to see all the highlights from the last five days and all the pics and recorded video today.
Anyway, I'm not going to recap yesterday - just check out the Day 5 thread or watch both races starting here (press 'next clip' to skip ahead). And remember that once again, we've outdone ourselves with the OTW Anarchy Cocktail Hour, which saw 5 of the hottest sailor chicks around sitting at the aforementioned new bar/restaurant throwing back drinks and answering questions from the hottest sailing photographer around, Meredith Block. Check it out here.
We love you, Aaron.
-KB
10/31/09race report
China DazeIt’s been a long time since I have done so much motoring in 2 days on a racing boat.
Fist off, yesterday morning we motored form Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club base at Causeway Bay to the start line for the China Cup off Steep Island to the east of the Hong Kong SAR, that was 1 and a half hours. 30 Beneteau 40.7s and assisted IRC boats, the largest of which was Jelik 3, a sister of Pyewacket and assorted HK Handicap boats.The line was set fair by the PRO but the Beneteaus were a little eager, in fact too many of them for the race officer to catch were a little eager and the two additional hoots meant we had to go to the back of the queue to try again.
At the second attempt we were off for what was to turn out to be a long beat in about 8-10 knots of breeze and a 2m swell.
It was going to be a long way to Dawa Wan (Bay) and the finish line off Longcheer Yacht Club in Shenzhen. Longer than we would know as the wind started to shut down as we approached the turn into the bay.
Fortunately the race officer, Russ had taken a race around the corner and having found just 2 knots decided to shorten off the coast. The last 500m though was very frustrating with boat on almost identical tracks on different tacks.
What looked like being a bottom third finish was nicely elevated to exactly mid fleet with a 16/30 by being on the right side and in the last 200m we passed 5 boats.
Then on with the iron topsail for another hour plus to the marina.
There, because we had come from Hong Kong to PR China we had to pass through immigration which had been set up especially for the event, a unique experience as the officials checked our passports with many of us sucking on a bottle of the free beer supplied by one of the sponsors. Can you imagine getting away with that at Kennedy or LAX – and they say China has npo freedoms – Ha!
After a good night sleep it was back on the shuttle bus to the marina and some round the cans racing – Oh no it wasn’t.
The wind gods refused to play ball at all and after about an hour in the one spot the committee boat guys thought they saw the wind in a different part of the pay – off they charged.
In their wake were almost 50 racing yachts giving chase. They only caught up when the committee boat stopped where they thought there might be enough wind for a start but rather suspiciously they didn’t drop their anchor.
Many, many more minutes putt-putting around and off went the committee boat again, it was starting to look like a guided tour round Dawa Bay. Again nothing but there was breeze a bit further north so off went the committee boat again and this time when it stopped the anchor chain rattled down into the water and the two mark boats headed off hopefully, one to windward an the other to lay the pin.
But it was not to be. Russ Parker the PRO and his team had tried valiantly for almost 4 hours to find a big enough patch of stable breeze for us yachties to go and play and though no fault of his there was really nothing to find.
So we motored back to the marina – at least we had plenty energy left for the beach party put on by the organisers, complete with hi tech sound and light show and some half decent DJ’s.
Only damage this day was one of the Beijing Sailing Team went over the ankle and was stretchered off the pontoons although I can happily report seeing him at the beach party later without the aid for a stick – anything for the attention of some pretty girls.
Tough to drag the team away early but we have a long day with 3 scheduled races tomorrow to make up for today.
Shanghai Sailor
10/31/09• whether it is safe to race off Valencia, Spain, in February 2010 (the date of the 33rd Match) • whether racing and other rules can be changed after the Notice of Race is issued
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