Friday, September 22, 2023

It has been a hectic week. On Monday the wind was extremely light but the race committee did send us out for the practice race at 1:00. With the postpone flag raised waiting for wind we saw thunderheads in the distance. There was still not enough wind to sail since the class minimum is 5 knots. All of a sudden we heard loud thunder and the RC saw lightening only 5 miles away so they decided to cancel the race and send us back to the beach. It took us quite a while to get there due to the lack of wind.

One unique feature of the beach at Burlington is that there are high voltage power lines that are along the beach. So the boats when stored are almost directly under the power lines and with the tall masts pick up an electrical charge. So once we put up our mast we were getting small electrical shocks anytime we touched the mast or other metal items on the boat. The solution was to take a metal wire to ground the boat to the sand. Some boats even hooked up vehicle battery jumper cables.

On Tuesday the championship started. The wind was light but better than Monday. It was also off-shore with frequent wind shifts of 20-30 degrees. It was also very spotty so we needed to focus on going where there was more wind. The team from Chile dominated, the conditions being similar to the lake they normally sail. In the first race we placed 18th. In the second race we placed about the same but after the race we were notified that we had hit a mark (which I did not see) so we retired and received 44 points. Ouch. The thrid race we placed 22 and on the final race after we finished we found out we had been over the start line so got another 44 points. What a terrible start to the regatta. Charles Froeb was also UFD disqualified in the same race so was also down in the standings.

On Wednesday, we had a shore postpone to wait for the wind to develop which it finally did around 1:00. Now the wind was on-shore so much more steady though there were still small shifts and better wind pressure on the left side of the course. We started well with a 4th in the first race with good start and going to the left. There was only time for two more races where we placed 19 and 13. We moved a little up the standings since now one of our 44 scores was discarded. Also Charles Froeb moved into 1st overall once his UFD 44 points was discarded.

On Thursday, the wind was off-shore again but a little stronger. This was our best day of the regatta with good starts and going in the favored direction. The first race of the day we were 1st with a strong lead over the second place boat. Then we placed 8-3-6 for the final races. It was nice battling with the top teams. Chile performed well this day and moved into 1st place overall but only 2 points ahead of Charles Froeb.

On Friday the wind was stronger in the range of 9 to 12 kts again off-shore. But the waves were very lumpy because the wind had been blowing down the lake all night which made sailing upwind difficult to maintain good angles and boat speed. We were struggling in these conditions and had finishes of 19-10-22-15. We did manage to move up to the top 10 with another throw-out this day. Charles Froeb and Matthieu Marfaing had a great day with finishes of 1-1-2-2 to clinch the title. The race committee did a great job and we completed all 15 scheduled races for the regatta which is unusual. In the top fie boats there were two Nacra Evolutions (1st & 5th), one Goodall C2 (2nd), one Goodall Akurra (3rd) and one Nacra Infusion (4th) demonstrating that the older generation of F18 (C2 and Infusion) are still very competitive. The California teams had a great celebration of Charles and Matthieu’s victory that evening and James Melvin surprised me with a birthday cake at the awards ceremony. Many thanks to James for sailing with me for this regatta during beautiful “Indian Summer” weather.

Final race results can be viewed at: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=15700

An article I wrote is also posted at: https://www.f18-international.org/seesaw-battle-at-north-american-championships/

A full gallery of pictures taken at the event is on-line at: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMwoSU-SEdEgXJNeQd1GQXivbQdktM_u4UM_C5_KrQoLjOlZXCuQPxMhyPtn-L99w?key=SGdVbGhnajVORTFyS2VCN2NUSnRuZHlNUGlNaDZn

This is the final major regatta I will sail this year so there will no further posts until next year. I am not sure what I will sail next year but am interested in sailing the Croatian Challenge again in May.

Monday, September 18, 2023

We did go out for the practice race today but there was little wind. Then when there was lightening only 5 miles away they decided to send us back in and we got some rain. Tomorrow the racing starts so we will see what happens.

Sunday, September 17, 2023

James and I had a great practice sail on Friday. We were out with two other boats and had fun sailing in the moderate breeze. The weather is incredible warm for this time of the year. A true “Indian Summer” has hit the area. On Sat and Sun I was involved with the weigh-in and measurement of all the boats as part of my class duties. We have almost all the boats completed with about five to do Monday morning. James spent the time doing great work on the boat especially one rudder and the daggerboards. Then today he recruited one of the young club members to go for a sail with him. Mateo left the boat cold but with a big grin on his face. Tomorrow we have a practice race at 1:00 and then a class meeting in the evening. We had some light rain this evening but the forecast for the entire week is for relatively warm weather but the winds will probably lighter but raceable.

Thursday, September 14, 2023

A new series of blog posts will now start for my final major event of the year: F18 North American Championships. I left San Diego with two boats in tow to drive almost across the entire country. I also brought Charles Froeb’s F18 with me. I first drove about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) alone to meet my wife in Michigan at her summer cottage that she shares with her sister. If was a very uneventful drive with no rain during the entire trip. After a few days at the cottage I drove the final 300 miles (480 km) to Burlington, Canada the venue for the championships. Unfortunately this leg was not as uneventful. Only 60 miles from Burlington my low tire pressure light came on. After I pulled over to check my tires I found one tire on the truck with a slow leak from a screw wedged into the tire. I managed to limp to Burlington without having to change the tire and will have the tire fixed on Friday.

The regatta will be sailed on Lake Ontario just west of Toronto. I was planning on sailing with Michael Risoer but he injured a calf muscle playing pickleball a few weeks ago so I was able to recruite James Melvin to sail with me. James and I sailed in the ABYC Long Beach Regatta over the Labor Day weekend two weeks ago where we placed 2nd right behind his father Pete Melvin sailing with his brother Luke. James took some good natured ribbing for being the “slowest Melvin” that weekend. We had a very good turn-out for that regatta with 9 boats participating. James knows the Nacra Evolution extremely well having sail with his father on the boat for many years including the World Championships in Florida last year. James flew to Toronto yesterday and we started on rigging the boats this morning. We managed to get a good sail this afternoon with one other boat out with us.

Right now I am expecting 43 boats to race this event with 18 Canadian boats, 23 USA boats and 2 from Chile. Tomorrow we are planning another practice sail. The weekend will be busy with boat measurement and weighing with a practice race scheduled for Monday afternoon. Then the championship starts on Tuesday. Stay tuned for updates.

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Final resolution to the accident on the autobahn I now have a new license plate number and was able to select it except for the city designation. Also I have arrived back in the US and making preps for the cross country trip with two boats to Burlington, Canada. I leave San Diego on Tue, Sep 5th.

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Yesterday was the most beautiful summer day I have seen in Travemunde this whole summer. Thomas and I went out for a sail in the late morning hoping the sea breeze would develop since it was so warm. Unfortunately the wind stayed light so we came in at 1:00 to start de-rigging the boat. At the beginning of the process I drove my car the 2001 VW Bora close to the boat and lowered both front windows to cool down the car. As I did that the right side window crashed down because the window mechanism broke. The window was stuck totally open. I started to panic about what we would do for the drive to Denmark planned for Thursday and then on to Belgium. I immediately looked for a VW repair show on the internet and found one 15 minutes away and went straight there leaving Thomas with a list of things to do on the boat. When I got to the shop at first they said they had no more appointments available but when I explained I needed to drive to Denmark they had someone look at the window. They determined they could get the window back up and lock it in place with wedges and tape so that we could drive. They said it would be a bigger job to get the window fixed but there solution was fine for me. And they charged me nothing for doing this temporary fix. I went back to the sailing club relieved and we finished derigging the boat.

This morning cold and rainy weather returned to the area as we drove three hours to get the boat to Denmark where it is stored for the winter. While on the Autobahn a police car noticed that the trailer did not have a license plate so they pulled in front of us and turned on their lights saying “Follow me”. They took the next exit and guided us to the police station where they stopped. I showed them the police report that I had about the lost license plate and told them I have an appointment on Monday to get a new plate and they were satisfied. So we were back on our way. The boat is now all covered up for the winter and will be put in a barn soon. Unfortunately, my friends, the Kuesler’s were not home so we could not visit. Thomas and I are now driving to his home in Belgium where I will spend the weekend visiting.

This is the last blog posting for a while until I do the North American Championships in Burlington, Canada from Sep 1`8-22. I fly back to San Diego on Tuesday and then will sail the Long Beach ABYC regatta on Labor Day weekend with Michael Risoer to practice for Canada. Then I will be driving two F18s to Canada stopping by our cottage in Michigan to see the results of the tremendous effort Alida has made this summer having the cottage remodeled.

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Today we first had to take the trailer for its every two year road safety inspection with the German authorities. They found that one of the trailer wheels bearing was starting to go bad and two other smaller issues so I failed the inspection. Luckily there was a good trailer repair shop just a few kilometers away so we took the trailer there and with some pleading they agreed to fix it today. We then were able to leave the trailer and go back to the club for a sail. There was some rain in the morning but as it cleared we got set to go. We had a wonderful two hour sail with about 8 - 11 kts of wind. Thomas wanted to focus on a lot of boat manuevers and spinnaker sets and douses. We were getting pretty good on the tacks even though Thomas was wearing not his own sailing gear and going bear foot since his suitcase is still “lost”. We then returned to shore to check if the trailer was ready for pick-up which it was so we could not go out for a further sail but that was fortunate because half an hour later a small thunder storm came through. It was a good day with a nice sail and the trailer is all fixed ready for another season next year. Tomorrow the wind forecast is light but it should be a sunny day so maybe a sea breeze will develop. After sailing we need to pack up the boat to get ready to go to Denmark Thursday morning. It is important that all the gear is put away very dry.

Monday, August 14, 2023

This morning I took Max to the airport to fly home to Stockholm and picked up Thomas Moerkerke who is going to sail with me for three days (weather permiting) and then help take the boat back to Denmark for the winter. Thomas used to live in San Diego and sailed with me many times there and two agos moved with his family back to his native country, Belgium. We will drive together to Belgium on Thursday & Friday so I can spend the weekend seeing the cat sailing scene in Belgium where I have never race. Today the wind was much better than expected so we had a 2.5 hour sail. The wind shifted to the North East which makes retrieving the boats up the ramp much more difficult. Also the airline did not deliver Thomas’ bag so we hope to get it tomorrow. Luckily I have enough extra sailing gear that we were able to fit him out to sail tody.

Sunday, August 13, 2023

We finally had wind and were able to complete four races on Sunday before the time limit was reached. The wind was out of the south and very variable from8 to 13 kts. In the stronger puffs the boats were able to move very well. We had 20 F18s on the starting line but were also sailing on the same race course as A-Cats, I-14s and Musto Skiffs so it was very crowded. For all the races except the last one we sailed three laps. For the first race we had an OK start but failed to maintain a clear lane so dropped back. We finished 9th with Jesse & Sven Lindstaedt leading the race. In the second race we had a very good start near the leeward end of the line and the left side of the course was favored and we were the boat that went the furthest left so we rounded the weather mark in 3rd place with Lindstaedt and the Wunderle Brothers ahead of us. Dirk Bleiker managed to get ahead of us on one of the downwind legs so we finished 4th. For the third race we again had a less than ideal start and were struggling in the pack. At the second leeward mark rounding we selected to around the right gate but during the final approach towards the mark about 10 boat lengths away became sandwiched between two A-Cats. We had to give room to the boat to the right of us but the boat on the left is required to give us both room since I had an overlap well before the 3-boat length circle. I hailed the outside A-Cat twice to give us room at the mark but he made no response. As we were coming into the mark the A-Cat then came up directly in front of us with no where for us to go. We hit him directly in the middle of his boat. The other A-Cat that had full rights had to go on the wrong side of the mark trying to avoid a collision but the A-Cat that I hit then hit the other A-Cat broadsides. In the process we also hit the mark which is a penalty. We yelled protest at the fouling A-Cat, cleared the mark, and then did a 360 degree penalty turn for hitting the mark to be safe. At the end of the race we informed the race committee that we were protesting. I was sure that I was right and did not want to pay for the damage to two A-Cats which could be a lot of money. After all this we continued the race and finished 13th. In the final race we finished 12th also with a poor start. Because there were less than 5 races there were no scores discarded.

Then we won the most important race of the day: the race back to the boat ramp and were the second boat out of the water. I went through the process of filing the protest paperwork. The hearing was held around 6:00 by a very competent jury of three people from Lubeck Yacht Club. The hearing took a long time. Both A-Cats said that I did not have an overlap but I found a F18 that was rounding the marking at the same time further out that said I did have the overlap. I won the protest and the outside A-Cat was disqualified for two reasons: 1) failing to give room to two boats that were inside of him, and 2) not taking maneuvers to avoid a collision. Of course I felt it was a good decision but the A-Cat sailors all sided with his story so there were bad feeling at the end of the day. A terrible way to end my last European regatta of this summer. The damage to my boat was relatively minor - probably about 200-250 Euros to repair and the boat can still be sailed. I will have the work done next summer before the start of the season.

Saturday, August 12, 2023

The wind forecast did not uphold and today was even lighter with almost no wind most of the day with a little drizzle rain. Luckily they did a shore postponement so we never went on the water. We are having a regatta BBQ this evening. Tomorrow the forecast seems that we should have wind for a good series of races. We are going to start at 10:00 and have extended the racing limit to 4:00 pm so we could get 4-5 races. Hopefully we get some races. I will be staying in Travemunde for a few days afterwards so we are in no rush to unrig the boat tomorrow.

Friday, August 11, 2023

For the first day of the regatta it started out very cloudy and light wind but we were able to get to the race course with decent speed. They initiated the sequence for the first start just a little late. We had only about 15 seconds to go and had good position on the starting line and then they sounded two horns and raised the postponement flag because there was a large wind shift to the right and a drop in wind strength. It is a class rule that F18’s don’t race with less than 5 knots of wind. We then waiting around for three hours with very little wind but periodic hopes that the wind would come up before they cancelled further racing for the day. Because we were so far out with no wind we were given a tow back by one of the regatta power boats. We had a line of five boats and just as we were nearing the ramp the last boat on the tow line capsized when a puff of wind hit them. We got safely ashore and were able to dry everything out since this was the first day of this summer in northern Germany when it did not rain. So tomorrow we start racing at 10:30 and the current wind forecast is for good wind (hopefully not too much) but we may see some rain. We will sail a minimum of 4 races tomorrow and maybe more since we had none today. In the evening I attended the German F18 class association meeting which was interesting to observe and I talked to them about potential F18 rules changes that will be voted on in the fall. There was also a large debate over the location of the German Championships for next year with the vote coming down to Lake Garda or Walchensee in the Alps south of Munich. They voted for Walchensee for June so that might be a regatta I am interested in for next summer.

Thursday, August 10, 2023

I now have my boat back after chartering it for the Worlds. After a one week break visiting my cousin in Zweibrucken, I returned to Travemunde picking up Max Tjarnsved along the way at the Hamburg airport who had flown in from Stockholm, Sweden. Max and I sailed the summer together in 2019 and are now having a mini-reunion to sail the German Championships. The first day it was too windy for us to practice with the weather continuing its poor behavior since the Worlds. On Wednesday we did sail but the wind was very blusterly so we did not stay out too long. To make up we had two sails today. First in the late morning by ourselves to practice our team work and boat handling and then later in the afternoon to sail against Finland 5, the only other not German boat in this coming regatta. Today’s sails very very nice but the wind was very variable. We feel ready to start the German Championships tomorrow but the wind forecast is for very light wind for the next two days so we will need to see what happens. There are a total of 22 boats registered.

Friday, July 28, 2023

Before I get into today’s results, to add information regarding yesterday’s results: Patrick Demesmaeker from Belgium who was in 2nd place was disqualified on an upwind port/starboard crossing situation so he dropped to 5th place; also Spain Pablo Volker who was in the collision was found at fault so he kept his DNF score which had him stay in 7th place in stead of potentially moving up in score if the other boat was at fault. A great act of sportsmanship occured by Brett Burvill who is the Australian boat builder of the Windrush Edge F18’s stayed up late to fix the Spanish boat so they could race again on Friday.

Then Friday arrived with the wind forecast being very accurate saying there would be minimal wind. We kept reviewing the wind status every hour with a shore postponement until finally at 2:45 they cancelled further racing therefore the final results from Thursday held. We had a trophy presentation at 4:00 pm. with the winners from Sweden, Emil Jarudd and Rasmus Rosengren sailing a Scorpion. Emil is a top Nacra 17 sailor working on representing Sweden in the next Olympics . They had a 13 point lead over 2nd place, Gavin Colby and Kai Colman from Australia also sailing a Scorpion. The podium was rounded out in 3rd place with Brett Burvill and Max Puttman from Australia sailing a Windrush Edge. 4th place was Cederic Bader from France sailing a Nacra Evolution. Ravi and Henry finished in 8th place and the Gucks had a good showing for their first European Worlds in 18th place. Again this event demonstrated that there a four very competitive brands of F18s with the skills of the sailor being the more important factor. In the top 10 there were 4 Scorpions, 3 Goodall Akurras, 2 Nacra Evolutions and 1 Windrush Edge.

Here is the link to watch a replay of any of the Gold/Silver fleet races:

https://www.f18-international.org/2023-worlds-final-races-to-be-tracked-by-metasail-starting-on-thursday/

For complete race results go to:

https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/39a1c448-341c-4cb2-99f7-325117fb6646#!/results?classId=828d047c-0d97-4ba9-b317-0915ed7aaebb

I will add some more pictures later when I have more time.

Thursday, July 27, 2023

I did not go on the water today to watch the races so the information I have is from the tracking system and talking to sailors. The other key information is that the wind forecast for tomorrow is for extremely light winds so it is feasible that the end of the championships was today, but, then almost every day the weather forecast has not been very accurate. The Gold fleet managed to complete 4 races today to get back on schedule but they were out very late not coming to the beach until after 6:30 pm. It has been very tight racing and both US teams moved up. Ravi and Henry had finishes of 6-6-15-8 and now their worst race in the Gold Fleet is also discarded but they remained in 8th place. The Gucks had finishes of 12-10-27-17 and moved up to 18th place.

Right now with provisional results the leader board is (1) SWE 141 with a clear lead, (2) BEL 1 Patrick Demesmaeker but he is in a protest where he could be disqualified which would move him down, (3) AUS 5 Gavin Colby with no open issues, (4) AUS 3 Brett Burvill. 7th place boat from Spain was in a serious collision and the boat almost sank and had to be towed in. There is a protest involved with that so if he wins, he could move up the standings or if he loses move lower. Also Brett Burvill rendered assistance so could get redress points for helping out. So it is very unknown at this time what will happen and hopefully there will be wind so the championship can be competed for on the water.

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

The first day of the Gold/Silver fleet championships started with a lot of waiting. The R/C rightfully waited to send to boats onto the water until a few squalls passed through so we would not have a repeat of waiting for hours on the water. At 1:30 they finally lowered the shore postponement flag sending all boats out. Luckily for the class organizers the postponement gave us time to issue trackers to each of the boats since they arrived at 10:30. Now people can watch real time as the races are being sailed and view the races afterwards. I will provide the link to view the trackers at the end of this post. I also went out on the water with Peter Vink again for the final time since he is leaving town tomorrow for other committments.

Out on the water more squalls passed through but there were finally able to launch the first start of the Gold fleet. The whole fleet was very aggressive especially towards the committee boat end of the line and there were a large number of boats over the line. So the General Recall flag was raised and the boats went for a second start attempt. This time the R/C also put up the dreaded “Black Flag” which means that anyone over the line within the last minute is disqualified from the race. This tamed the fleet and there was a near perfect straight starting line. The wind was strong about 15-18 kts with rain clouds over the race course which indicated that the right side of the course would be favored and it was. It was a lot different with the Gold fleet because all the competitors are good and the competition was fierce. Ravi placed 6th and Gucks placed 32. The winner of this race was SWE 141 with Cedric from France in 2nd. They then lined up for the start for the second race in similar wind. The R/C was taking no chances and put up the Black Flag again. But this time there was again a large group of boats over near the committee boat. So after the General Recall signal all the boats had to check a white board on the back of the committee boat to see who was disqualified. There were about 7 boats listed who had to sit out the next race. They then got off a good start. Ad (from Netherlands), our F18 Class General Secretary and his son, opened a huge lead after the first weather mark and sailed a perfect race. Ravi finished 12th and the Gucks finished 20th. It was then past 6:00 pm so the R/C decided to call it a day even though we had 3 races scheduled and there was good wind to race. That means that we will attempt to have four races tomorrow. Overall Ravi is in 8th place and the Gucks in 20th place.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Both USA teams were assigned to the Alpha course today so it made it easy to track them. I went on the boat with Peter Vink again to watch the races. The forecast was for no rain today so I thought I would be able to stay warm. The first race started about on time but we could not see Lars and Olin (USA 2) anywhere on the start line. We followed Ravi around the course but he was about mid-fleet. As the first lap was completed the race got very light and there was a large wind shift so the race committee cancelled the race. After the race was cancelled we saw the USA 2 boat sailing over from the other race course (Delta). The Race Committee had incorrectly sent them over to the Delta course after they checked in. Luckily, since the race was cancelled, they did not miss the first race. (If they had missed the race they could have applied for redress from the jury.) The second race was started after a short while in moderate wind but we could see black clouds forming over the land and moving towards us with rain. Shortly after the fleet started turning at the first weather mark the wind shifted about 50 degrees and the wind/rain came on strong. At one point there were three boats capsized in the same area. The R/C decided to cancel this race too. After the squall passed through and the wind steadied some the R/C started a third race but this was a general recall because too many boat were over the starting line. Finally after 2:30 the first good race was off in good strong wind but still some shifts. The following two races were similar. Ravi/Henry placed 7-13-6 and Lars/Olin had a good day with finishes of 12-5-9 (equal to Ravi’s points for the day). So both USA a teams are placed in the Gold fleet which starts tomorrow. Ravi is in 10th place with 29 points and the Gucks are in 17th place with 41 points. The leader is a Spanish team helmed by Pablo Volker who has been sailing very well who have 9 points. Pablo was the F18 World Champion in 2016 when the Worlds were held in Argentina. In second place is Gavin Colby from Australia and in third is Patrick Demesmaeker from Belgium.

Monday, July 24, 2024

The first day of racing was in moderate winds with the wind very variable over the course. I went on the race course with Peter Vink the head of Nacra Sailing on his rib boat which was formerly a Dutch police boat. I had good views of the racing and we viewed both race courses at different time. And I believe for the first time since arriving in Travemunde ten days ago we did not have any rain during the day.

Sunday, July 23, 2023

The Gucks decided not to sail the two practice races today to take a break and to make some improvements to the rudder steering system. They did not miss much since the wind was light for the practice races. Registration was completed and we have 97 boats competing. We have boats from 17 countries and people from 19 countries (some crews are different countries) including from 5 continents. Prior to the opening ceremony there was a race in front of a spectator crowd on the Trave River. It was a lot of fun to watch since the leads changed often in the large current and light winds. The Italian team won the Trave race. Ravi was seeded first in the fleet to race on Alpha course tomorrow and as the only other American team the Gucks were assigned to the other fleet on the India course.

Friday, July 21, 2023

The Gucks have been working all week on the boat and sailing almost every day. They are going out with Ravi Parent and also the German Sach Brothers so they have good boats to compare boat speed. The weather has been very variable with periodic squalls coming through with rain and high wind. Today we started the boat registration process which makes for long days for myself. Olivier Bovyn, Pierre-Charles and myself are leading the effort with a support group of locals. Today we checked in 33 boats which is about 1/3 of the fleet. There are quite a few new boats and many new sails for this major event. So far we have 20 nations from 5 continents represented. Today was a little challenging when a few rain squalls came through which got the boats wet since we want the boats to be dry when we weigh them. We are checking to insure boats meet the minimum required 180 kg (396 lbs) otherwise they need to carry lead to bring their boat up to the minimum weight. My boat passed inspection at 182 kg and Olin and Lars weighed in at 156 kg (343 lbs) so they don’t need to carry any crew compensation weight either.

Saturday, July 15, 2023

We made it to Travemunde on Wednesday, sporting a cardboard hand drawn license plate. We rigged the boat and went for a sail on Thursday but the wind came up strong so we did not stay out too long. On Saturday we had a longer sail but the wind was on the light side. Today Olin changed out the trampoline on my boat and re-did most of the running rigging to be ready to sail with his father tomorrow. We pick up Lars at the Hamburg airport tomorrow morning and then will go to the club where they can work on preparing the boat and maybe go for a sail. I will remain in Travemunde for the entire world championships in a support role to Lars and Olin, and helping out with boat measurement for all the competitors so will get to meet them all.

Ravi Parent is also here from the US and is the defending World Champion having won it in Florida last October. He has a different crew this year - Henry Lee who has sailed Nacra-17s and is also a F18 boat owner who sailed at last years Florida Worlds. Also both Olin and Henry are on the University of Rhode Island sailing team. The Championships start on Monday, July 24 and go for five days. Even though I am not sailing I intend to update my blog, hopefully daily, to provide information on the event. We are expecting around 100 boats so the fleet will be divided into gold and silver fleet for the finals after the first two qualifying days.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

I was not going to do a blog update until we reached Travemunde but today we had an incident on the German autobahn only 8 km (5 miles) from our planned hotel stop for the night. Last night we spent outside Munich after driving 580 km (362 miles) from Italy. Today we were driving through most of Germany south to north for 625 km ( 390 miles) and made excellent progress when traffic slowed down very quickly shorty before our exit off the autobahn. I stopped behind a large truck when I felt an impact on the trailer with the boat. The car behind us, a brand new VW California Van failed to stop in time and hit the trailer. We had no idea how much damage occurred but I could tell that we could still drive the trailer but there was a problem with the turn signals. The driver of the California van immediately stopped and said he was so sorry and that he was at fault. He wanted to stay there on the side of the autobahn but the emergency lane was very narrow and we would have caused a huge backup so I said to drive off the autobahn and I would follow. Olin immediately took a picture of his license plate in case he decided to run but he was honorable and found a safe spot on a side road for us inspect the damage and share information. It turns out that he hit the light bar that is behind the trailer as far back as the tip of the mast. The bar was bent in the middle and the bolts were bent so the lights are facing up at a 25 degree angle. The right lights had come unplugged but when we plugged them back in they all worked find. We lost the license plate and the two lights to illuminate the license plate were badly damaged. The German driver made a police report but since there were no personnel injuries the police did not come to the accident site. The driver works for VW and it is a company owned van. He estimates that it will cost 2-3 thousand Euros ($2,100 - 3,200) to replace the damaged parts. He was also a very nice guy and even is a Hobie 16 sailor who had recently come back from Croatia.

Luckily, we can still travel with the trailer and only have 250 km (156 miles) to drive tomorrow to reach Travemunde and then the boat stays there until mid-August so there should be plenty of time to have the light bar repaired and get a new license plate. The other driver (or his insurance) will pay for all the repairs and to get a new license plate.

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Crew Perspective by Olin Guck:

The conditions started to settle into a nice strong wind earlier than yesterday, this allowed for some good racing. The first race we were able to get off the line well, unknown to us a false start, and tacked along the left shore to the top mark. For most of the day it was a one way track, with some outliers, but mainly the left side worked out. We finished that race among the top of the fleet and were happy with our tactics. The second and third race we faced some struggles but I am thankful to have made it back on shore with a floating boat, unlike one bold Italian who caused a collision that ended his day of racing (no one was injured). I felt like we sailed well and I was able to focus on key aspects of racing to also prepare myself for the worlds that I am sailing with my dad soon. I had a wonderful time sailing on an amazing venue with the mountains as a beautiful backdrop.

Helm Perspective by Steve:

Today was the classic Lake Como day with the wind behaving as it should which resulted in great racing. We sailed a great first race finishing in 6th place but found out when we got ashore that we had a “U Flag” disqualification for being over the line sometime in the last minute before the start. In the second race we had a jib down haul line failure which resulted in sailing without a properly set jib which hurt our boat speed. Also the wind picked up to about 18-19 kts which is not ideal for our combined crew weight. In the second race there was a pile up of boats at the leeward mark and one boat turned on port tack and broadsided a boat and then capsized with his mast hitting a third boat. We never saw the resulting boat damage but there was a Hobie Widcat that was in a major collision yesterday (see picture below). Olin was able to fix the jib downhaul line between racings by hanging forward in his trapeze and tieing on a new line. The final race we were being cautious because we did not want to be in a collision right before the boat is going to be raced in the World Championships. In the last two races we finished 13 and 15 and placed 13th overall out of 27 boats. Though this was Olin’s and my first regatta together with only two practice days before hand, our crew work and team work was extremely good. Downwind the jibes were great and fun to get to full speed on the new tack quickly. One time we passed a boat that had just broken their spinnaker pole and another boat that we were dueling with, the helm fell overboard right after the jibe and then the boat capsized. Olin is very smart tactically and was a big help on deciding where to sail.

We got the boat derigged and are ready to hit the road tomorrow morning to start driving towards Travemunde, Germany. Our goal is to spend the night tomorrow outside Munich.

Saturday, July 8, 2023

On Lake Como, like Lake Garda the wind is supposed to shift like clockwork from the north to the south around noon and then the breeze fills in by 1:00 or 2:00 to provide great racing. Well it did not do that today. We had a short shore postponement and then the race committee sent us out around 1:00 but the wind toyed with us for several hours. It was not until after 4:-00 that there was enough wind for a race. We have good fleet of 26 boats with one German, one Finnish, one Croatia and one USA team with the rest Italian. The first race started in a nice 12 kts of wind and we were in relatively good position at the first windward mark in seventh place. But then we lost a number of boats downwind and finished around 12th in this 3-lap race. But a few boats in front of us had started prematurely so were disqualified and we placed 9th. For the second race it was even windier but very shifty. It was a demolition derby start with boats going every which way with several close calls. But we managed to stay clean and tack into a clear lane to have a good upwind beat. We rounded the windward mark in 6th place and were able to hold that to the last mark but then a boat managed to sneak past us beating us by one foot so finished in 7th. Olin and I felt that we had sailed a great race except for the mistake right at the end and were enthusatic at the end of the day. It was then past 6:30 so they called for the day so we are in 6th place overall only 2 points out of 4th place. We will have to see what the wind brings tomorrow.

Friday, July 7, 2023

Today was a hectic day. First we had to derig the boat to drive it to the other side of the Lake since we could not sail it as planned. Our original plan was for Olin to sail to boat to Dervio singlehanded while I drove the trailer around. But this was not feasible with the broken tiller bar. Once we arrived in Dervio we then sought assistance from the locals for solving our problem. One team came up with the idea to customize the part from some available aluminum tubing. Another old friend of mine got on the phone looking for if anyone had the part in the area. Luckily he found there was the right part in inventory in a warehouse in Milan. While Olin worked with the other team on fabricating a new arm, I drove to Milan about a 1 hour drive away to hopefully get the part. I was also concerned since it was late on Friday and businesses like to close early and traffic could be bad. I made it to Milan in record time and then returned with the part. We then rigged the rest of the boat to be ready to sail on Saturday.

Thursday, July 6, 2023

We had a few more boat work items this morning as Olin is getting the boat prepared for the way the Guck’s like it set up for the Worlds. Then our plan was to hit the water right after a fleet of 60 29ers headed out to race. The wind came up very early today and by 1:00 it was blowing over 15 kts. We went out and had a very long upwind sail to the southern portion of the lake. We noticed thunderheads starting to form in the mountains so set the spinnaker to head back up the lake with the wind 17 to 19 kts. When we got to the area where the 29ers had been racing there were no boats so obviously the race committee had sent them ashore to avoid the thunderstorms. We then headed straight for the club to get off the water. Everything was going fine until the last moments before reaching the boat ramp when I went to raise the port rudder it would not come up. It had gotten stuck a little before so I just tried harder to raise it. On about the 4th or 5th attempt, all of a sudden the aluminum bar going to the rudder head broke. Now we had a real problem. Olin then went to try to raise the rudder while I held the boat. Then the wind started to increase as the storm got closer to us. It took us about 15 minutes but finally Olin managed to raise the rudder. It was then a race to get the boat up the ramp and the sails down before the thunderstorm hit. We managed to get the sails all stored away in the cat box (storage box) before it started pouring rain with close by lightening. So now we will need to take the mast down and trailer the boat to the other side of the lake tomorrow and hope we can find a rudder arm to borrow so we can sail the races on Saturday and Sunday. Otherwise we will need to get a new arm at the German Nacra dealer in norther Germany on our way to Travemunde.

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

I have commenced phase II of my European summer. I arrived in Frankfurt last Tuesday and Olin Guck arrived on Thursday. This year I am chartering my boat to the father/son team of Lars and Olin Guck to sail the F18 Worlds in Travemunde. Olin, on summer break from the University of Rhode Island, will sail with me for one warm-up regatta on Lake Como in Italy. I left my boat at Lake Como in May after completing the two regattas with Nicholas. Olin and I drove to Gravedona ed Uniti through France and Switzerland arriving yesterday afternoon. Since it is Olin’s first trip to Europe we spent some time visiting tourist sites during the past four days to get over jet lag. We visited the French citadel at Bitche, went underground in a section of the Maginot Line, walked throughout Strasbourg and around the European Parliament. We also visited the WWII concentration Camp outside Strasbourg that was very sobering. We had dinner in the picturesque town of Colamar before heading to Basil. In Basil we ate at an Italian restaurant. When Olin took his first bite of the pizza the look in his eyes just said how good it was and his first comment was this isn’t like any pizza you get in the US. I had the agree that is was one of the best pizzas I had with a perfect tasting tomate sauce. The next day for the drive to Lake Como instead of taking the long St Gotthard Pass tunnel we drove the windy road to the pass summit which was beautiful and then south towards Italy.

Yesterday we stepped the mast and now will go for our first sail today. We spent the 4th of July viewing the natural fireworks of a thunder and lightening show. Luckily we had good weather today with perfect 12-15 kts of wind. Lake Como was showing off its best side to Olin.

Monday, May 15, 2023

Today we put our boat back on the trailer so it is safe for the high 40+ knot winds forecast for tomorrow and we were lucky to have a four hour window of no rain so our gear is relatively dry in the cat box. I have now had some time to reflect on the highlights of this event. After racing in Europe for eight summers, this has been the longest period of bad weather that I have seen. It was very unfortunate because the local organizers put so much effort and heart into the regatta. In spite of the weather challenges, we managed to have one good long distance race and two good buoy races in challenging wind. Because all the competitors were on an island with only one open restaurant and we had a lot of non-sailing time to get to know our competitors and it was a great group. Also the restaurant was very good so we stressed them when virtually all 44 sailors descended on them every evening for dinner. Logistically operating off the island was challenging since the south beach was difficult/impossible to launch off in a strong southerly wind and the boats using the harbor had challenges with north winds using the ramp and maneuvering boats between concrete flower pots on the land. Once in the water, this area is beautiful and would be even more so with sunny skies. There are many options for islands to round for the long distance races and generally the water is deep close to most of the islands so navigation was easier that the other raids I have sailed and there was a much lower chance of coming home with broken daggerboards (but it could still happen!)

When the Italian boat had their mast broken in the collision by the French boat, Klaus of the Austrian team who was not racing at the time but had his wet suit and life jacket on, jumped into the water to help the Italians disconnect their rigging to free the broken mast. Unfortunately their mainsail and spinnakers also ripped during the accident. Klaus gets the good sportsman award for this event though many other people assisted in the boat recovery since it had to be towed back to the harbor stern first and upside down. Luckily it was not a very long tow.

After derigging our boat, Nicholas and I decided to visit Split about a one hour drive south of here. It started to rain during the drive and then we explored the beautiful historical old city that has structures dating to Roman times. The alleys are a maize like in Venice, Italy so it is fun to explore and find a good place to eat.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are sheltering in place as the hugo storm passes through and Wednesday morning we hit the road again heading to Italy. It will be a 1.5 day drive to Donoratico where we plan to have a practice sail on Friday and then race on Saturday and Sunday. The wind forecast is good but it may also be rainy.

Sunday, May 14, 2023

On Saturday we woke to pouring rain and a strong northerly Bora wind out of the north.  At the competitor’s meeting they postponed the starting time to 1:00 pm to provide time until the wind shifted to the south as forecast.  They specified options for long distance races and doing windward/leeward buoy races in the protected bay.  We had some difficulty launching off the ramp due to the wind direction but managed to get onto the water.  For boats stored on the south side of the island it was a very difficult launching situation with the wind blowing directly on-shore.  The Nacra team boat did launch but almost severely damaged the boat on rocks.  The rest of the boats did not launch from the south beach.

 The race committee waited an hour before starting the race but then we were off in 15 – 24 knots of wind but flat water.  It was very sporty with about 12 boats racing.  The course was two laps with the weather leg about two miles long.  Each race took about 45 minutes.  In the first race at the first leeward mark we had a dicey situation.  There was a capsized boat right at the mark with its mast sticking out to the side and we were coming in hot with the French team.  We noticed the capsize boat and I was planning on going wide around it.  The French team jibed inside of us but lost context and crashed into the mast of the capsized boat immediately breaking the mast and causing that boat to turn upside down.  We were right behind them but I noticed the capsized boat had drifted down wind enough to give us a gap to turn upwind between the buoy and the boat so we were off.  The French team had minimal damage to their boat so continued to race.  We finished 4th and the French team finished 5th.  They were protested for failing to avoid the capsized boat and continuing to race after causing major damage.  After the protest hearing on Sunday they were disqualified.

The final race of the day was a little lighter wind but with still significant puffs coming down the course.  We finished again in 4th place.  The race committee then signaled no further racing for the day and we headed to a different beach to pull our boats out to secure them with our trailers for the high wind expected over the next three days.

On Sunday morning they cancelled further racing due to the wind as we expected and scheduled the awards ceremony for 11:00.  There we were presented with the second place medals with 10 points.  A German team sailing a Windrush Edge F18 won the regatta with 8 points and a young Croatian team sailing a Hobie Wildcat took third place with 12 points.  The trophy was a small statue of a sponge diver which is very representative of the Island of Krapanj because that was a center of diving down to 30+ meters to harvest natural sponges from the ocean.  I also presented a Mission Bay Yacht Club burgee to the head of the new club.  It is their first burgee to hang in their new club house.

Friday, May 12, 2023

We gathered for the competitor’s meeting at 9:00 am where they gave us two long distance race courses.  They postponed the start until 11:30 since the wind was light but supposed to build.  For the first race they gave us a course that took us outside the close-in islands and then headed out to round several other islands further north.  We had a fleet of 20 boats on the starting line and got off to a good start.  They set a normal upwind starting line with one buoy as a weather mark before we head towards the island marks.  We were in good position heading towards the weather mark but could not lay the mark on our first tack on a lay line and then lost many boats.  At one point when we were approach the first island to pass we were in about 15th place.  We then headed through the passage between the island into the open water.  There was a fair amount of tacking and wind shifts.  Even when we were in the open water there were many wind shifts so it was fairly tactical to play the shifts.  We had a long upwind leg to the next island to leave to starboard.  Then we could set the spinnakers for the first time but the wind got very light and there were a lot of changes in positions between the boats.  In this area we were in about 10th place.  During our entire first part of the race we could hear thunder in the distance and see lightening.  At first we thought we would be safe but after we rounded the northern most island we were heading straight towards the thunderstorm and could see rain in the distance.  At one point we totally stopped when there was no wind while the breeze from two different directions was battling.  Finally we go a good breeze from the thunderstorm that allowed us to double trap going up wind.  Because everyone had spread out with the different wind directions we just happened to be on a good wind line and were surprised to find ourselves in first place.  The French boat sailed by Nicolas (who beat me in the Costamarican race last year) and Alex were just behind us.  During this long leg Nicolas managed to sail a little higher and get inside on the wind lift to pass us.  We hung close by and managed to stay ahead of the other boats converging from the shore.  Whereas earlier, we had been extremely hot in our wetsuits, no it started to rain hard and we cooled off and even got cold.  As we approached the next island to pass we noticed that the race committee had set up a finish line to shorten the course so we finished in 2nd place.  Overall we sailed 25 nautical miles to get around the course.  They then cancelled further racing due to the late time and threat of the lightening.  We had a fun regatta dinner later in the evening.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Today we had a good practice sail going pretty far off-shore with one other German boat. The wind was blowing 12-15 knots. While it was shifty behind the islands once we were in open water is was fairly steady. At one point while we were sailing upwind with the German boat they stuffed their bow into a wave and capsized. We waited to make sure they were OK and could right their boat. Overall we sailed 2.5 hours and then went in. The navigation is going very well and we are getting the know the major islands in this area. More boats arrived today. In total 22 boats are registered for the event from Germany, Austria, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Croatia and US. Tomorrow we get more information about the races at the competitor’s meeting. There is only one restaurant open on the island right now and we overwhelmed the single waiter this evening with all of us eating there. The weather forecast is for rain to start tonight and keep raining most of the time for the next several days. It is was they call a “Hugo” weather system with wind from the south that carries Sarah Desert sand with it from Africa. Though Friday and Saturday look like sailable weather conditions (though in the rain), the Sunday forecast is for wind over 30 knots so there is a good chance we will not race then.

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

I am now sitting in our quaint apartment on Krapanj Island off the coast of Croatia. Last Friday I picked up my crew, Nicolas Tosi, who sailed with me last fall at the Clearwater, Florida World Championships, at the Hamburg airport. Because his bag with all his sailing gear did not make the quick connection he had in Frankfurt we had hours to burn Friday morning. We used the time to go to the German Nacra deal and made a modification to our mast set-up. Nacra has determined that it is better to attach the diamond wires 13 cm (6 inches) higher up the mast so we changed to longer diamond wires and made new attachment points (tangs) to the mast. Nico’s luggage arrived as promised around 1:00 pm and then we hit the road to drive to Croatia. We took three days to travel the 1,650 km (1,050 miles) with an extended stop to visit Regensburg Germany for an afternoon. We had relatively good weather and an uneventful trip except when the map app routed us to go through a difficult Austrian pass which I ignored.

So far almost half of the boats sailing the race have arrived. No cars are allowed on Krapanj Islands so we have to rig our boats on the mainland and sail them across which is only about 200 meters. Today we had a nice sail first starting with very light wind and then built to a comfortable 8 knots. Nico is getting used to the Navionics charts on my iPhone and did a good job navigating today. The waters do not seem as treacherous here compared with some of the other raids that I have sailed. Today we were training with the Austrian team that has won the previous two Croatian raids. This year we are sailing in a new locations so none of the international teams will have any prior experience with the geography here.

Racing will start on Friday for three days except inclement weather is forecast with a lot of rain and windy conditions. Tomorrow is forecast to be a perfect sailing day so we will go out and practice again.

 Tuesday, April 18, 2023

On Friday my wife and I will depart San Diego to start a five day road trip to Michigan where she will spend the summer managing the remodel of her summer cottage on Lake Huron. On April 27 I will fly from Detroit to Frankfurt, Germany to start the first session of racing in Europe. I am most looking forward to racing in the Croatia Challenge which is a 3 day regatta consisting of long distance races in the Croatian archipalago. I attended my first Croatian Challenge last summer which was a beautiful regatta sailing amongst the Croatian islands. This year’s event will be sailed from a different location off Krapanj Island further south than last summer. I will keep the blog updates as I progress through our travels which will be more limited than last summer.