Nacraman,

I guess the seventy + boats at the N 17 Euros is a sign of depth and speaks a bit of the boat's design & performance.

Right.. I said that.

It comes second in the Nacra 17 pecking order of events for priority ... It's behind the gold cup events in the lets find a schedule process.

Only so many weeks left to run it.. plus Find a club with enough space to handle the size fleet and it is not trivial... (just guessing about the EU scene)..

So... the last thing the N17 schedule worries about are F18s and F16s... It's not a must do event either... This gives the sponsored teams an out to go earn their money in the other cat class events. I suspect the tough logistics of the F18 worlds helped N17 turnout this year

The Boyz in 3rd!

Maybe this is a good sign for the strength of the N17 class now. Up until the very recent past, F18 major events were all but required as critical training/competition events for our cat Olympians/hopefuls.

It does seem odd to me that the majority of our forerunning US Oly reams don't seem to be at either event. Ravi did well at the F16 worlds in Newport, Taylor is doing well at the F18s in Ireland, I guess I'm looking for others?

Looks like Stephanie and Ian had a tough day...

Mike

The N17s being kept ashore by some bastard who thinks there is too much wind.

Mmmm the Le Bastard family have lots of bretheren in France and usually were pretty highly connected to the Royalty ( before the pheasants revolted and started using the guilotine on them ) and the upper crust of yesteryears society. Go into some of the large chateaux and you often see paintings of the Bastard family.

Heard those pheasants can get nasty sometimes

Calling Mel Brooks!

I take my dog out every morning to purvey his dogdom and check on his pheasants.

HE HE...

Well... that is what you expect to happen when said "Le Bastard" only sees pictures of N17s jumping out of the water...

grin!

Never gets old, does it Mark?

...back on the Emerald Isle, scores are up for two races so far today. Taylor and Matthew had two more good ones, moving into second overall.

Ashby has a RET and a DNC for the first two today. Lots of other letter scores added to yesterday's results, showing that the jury had to earn their keep.

Mike

Nah... you hit the pigeons when they step up and ask to be hit.

Dina K and Enrique F just need to lead and let the technical committee find the political will to let NACRA fix the boat..

Since "we" are under AP...

Does anyone here know Stephanie or Ian? They both have interesting sailing backgrounds on their website, but has anyone seen them race beach cats before this year (or even met them during this year)?

Mike

Stephanie skippered for my brother in law at Nacra North Americans and OCRs. I believe that was her first cat experience. They were the number 4 US boat after those events. She was a top skipper at BC, and has experience in other olympic classes.

Ian has done a lot of skiff stuff on the West Coast, the Youth AC, and some other larger multihull stuff.

Today's results are now posted. Taylor/Matthew now leading after Gunnar took an OCS. Good day for the young yanks!

Wow, the kids had a great day! Hopefully they keep it up, especially if they get to 12 races (second throwout comes into play). They've beaten Gunnar more often, but have eaten more points in the races when they've finished behind him.

Mike

Thanks Jeff. Got most of that online, figured someone knew more of the story. Any idea why she picked the cat over the other Olympic classes this time?

Mike

That throw is likely going to help Gunnar more. (assuming his next results are also good) he has a 16 in R2 that would get dropped. The 'mericans lowest was a 9.

That's what I was trying to say... Gunnar is ahead with two throwouts. Staying in front of Gunnar isn't going to be enough, they need more boats between them.

Mike

Anyone seen a forecast for the next two days? Gunnar and Taylor excel in big breeze. Gurvan seems to do better in light air which is impressive for a Cirrus but is he still on a Cirrus? Not sure if with all the flying phantom stuff if he's on a phantom now?