Gina, Yesterday was a Tuff Day at the Office for the guys sailing.
Race 1 Monday 2 pm start.
The forecast for the first day of official racing was a breese of 14 knots out of the south. The conditions looked promising as the crews arrived to prepare their boats. The forecasted 14 knot southerly arrived early and continued to build slowly.
By the time the first race got underway we had a good 17 to 18 knots with an element of west in the southerly breese causing the seas to rise with waves or around a 1 metere with quite short distance between the peaks. As racing got underway the sea conditions was becaming increasingly rough.
At the first start Frank Boon and Paul Warren broke early and had to go back and restart.
The first to the windward mark was Hans followed by Matt & Bart , Marcus and then Geert & Karin, Gil & Kathlene, MarkP and John & Paul Alani. The sea condition was continuing to deteriorate and on the downwind Matt Macdonald flipped as did Wouter and Martien & Frank.
In Matt's case the crew (Bart) must have gone into the main as the bolt rope had pulled out of the mast and Matt had to retire going back to the beach to ready the boat for the next race.
Following his false start Frank Boon & Hester were having a blinder moving up into 3rd place before the end on the first downwind. By the time they converged on the top mark for a second time Frank & Hester had worked past Marcus and was now in second place behind Hans. As they past the clearance mark Marcus pulls his kite first but the teamwork of Frank and Ester's showed as they had the kite set and drawing first.
Frank's and Hester's hard work of climbing through the fleet (following their false start) was dashed when they flipped and had to retire.
By the bottom mark Marcus had worked his way past Hans and moved into the lead.
Going up the second work Marcus managed to get his mainsheet under his rudder and C/B so at the top mark for the second time Hans had regained the lead from Marcus with Geert & Karin followed by Gil & Kathlene. Positions were held on the downwindwith Hans, Marcus, Geert & Karin, Gil then John & Paul Alani.
At the top end of the course Hans rounded followed by Marcus who capsises on the reach out to the clearance mark.
The finisshing order was Hans, John & Paul, Geert & Karin, Marcus, Gill & Kathlene, Paul & Anne. Sorry but I'm not sure about the rest of the fleet. [img]http://[/img]
Last edited by phill; 08/14/0710:18 AM.
I know that the voices in my head aint real, but they have some pretty good ideas. There is no such thing as a quick fix and I've never had free lunch!
Re: Fly on the Wall at the F16 Global Challenge
[Re: phill]
#114359 08/14/0710:27 AM08/14/0710:27 AM
By the start of the second race the sea had 1.5 to 2 metre waves quite close together and looking like mighty hard work. Even so only one boat elected not to start the second race. Once again it was Hans first to the top mark followed by Geert and Marcus with Matt's capsizing practice paying with him managing to get another one in (on the work) and still being 4th at the top mark followed by Gil & Kathlene and then the team of John & Paul Alani.
Going up the second work Hans is still in the lead with Geert & Karin and Matt & Bart engaged in a battle so close that you could just about step from one boat to the other all the way up the work with Marcus 3 or 4 boat lengths behind.
By this stage of the racing every now and then we were getting really large waves of 2 to 2.5 metres going through the fleet.
On the next downwind Geert is washed off his boat probably by one of the monster waves and picked up by Mark Presdee. The rubber ducky boat I was in had to help out to get Geert back to his boat because you couldn't bring two cats close toghether in those seas.
While doing this positions were changing on the course and by the rounding of the top mark for the last time John and Paul had moved into second ahead of Marcus, then Paul & Anne and Matt &Bart and that is how they finished.
Last edited by phill; 08/14/0710:32 AM.
I know that the voices in my head aint real, but they have some pretty good ideas. There is no such thing as a quick fix and I've never had free lunch!
Re: Fly on the Wall at the F16 Global Challenge
[Re: phill]
#114360 08/14/0710:29 AM08/14/0710:29 AM
The winds recorded by the local coast guard (located next to the Zandvoort sailing club) was force 5 with gusts to force 7. May calc is 20 knots gusting to 35 knots.
All competitors were urged to tie their boats down before they left the office as the sea state was quite large for the wind strength and direction indicating much stronger wind was pushing up the seas on its approach.
Martien and Frank still trying to sail under the water.
Same Guys but different days.
Following the racing Greg Goodall provided a 2.5 hour lecture on race preperation and race srategy.
Considering the conditions it was good to see no injuries with the only loss a shreaded spinnaker of Martien and Frans. [image][/image]
Last edited by phill; 08/14/0710:47 AM.
I know that the voices in my head aint real, but they have some pretty good ideas. There is no such thing as a quick fix and I've never had free lunch!
Re: Fly on the Wall at the F16 Global Challenge
[Re: Gina_M]
#114364 08/14/0710:55 AM08/14/0710:55 AM
Gina, Good breese, flatter seas and Matt is smokin' upwind all he has to do is stay upright.
I'll get a report together on todays racing later tonight.
No pics for today as I was just shooting video.
You wouldn't believe it but today Martien & Frank went one better and actually flipped while trying to submarine. Got it all on video.
Have to go now. Should be another 60 or so pics of Mondays racing going up on the f16 web site in a few minutes.
Bye.
Last edited by phill; 08/14/0711:02 AM.
I know that the voices in my head aint real, but they have some pretty good ideas. There is no such thing as a quick fix and I've never had free lunch!
Re: Fly on the Wall at the F16 Global Challenge
[Re: phill]
#114365 08/14/0711:27 AM08/14/0711:27 AM
Phil, thanks for the coverage; it's great. Given the conditions, looks like Mark P has probably swallowed more sea water than beer to date... hard to believe mind... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Re: Fly on the Wall at the F16 Global Challenge
[Re: phill]
#114366 08/14/0711:30 AM08/14/0711:30 AM
I know that the voices in my head aint real, but they have some pretty good ideas. There is no such thing as a quick fix and I've never had free lunch!
Re: Fly on the Wall at the F16 Global Challenge
[Re: sailwave]
#114368 08/14/0711:44 AM08/14/0711:44 AM
I know that the voices in my head aint real, but they have some pretty good ideas. There is no such thing as a quick fix and I've never had free lunch!
Re: Fly on the Wall at the F16 Global Challenge
[Re: phill]
#114369 08/14/0712:08 PM08/14/0712:08 PM
We're even later for the BBQ, but I figured you'd like to see some action from today's racing. 1st race, 1st mark, 1st place, overstood a little and...
We're even later for the BBQ, but I figured you'd like to see some action from today's racing. 1st race, 1st mark, 1st place, overstood a little and...
Edit: If someone can write something up they are happy to go onto the Y+Y website I'll see what I can do. However the Fastnet is getting all the headlines at the moment...