2013 Chronicle #1 - F-18 Worlds in Italy

Matt and I are finding it difficult to keep all our family, friends and supporters informed of our F-18 Worlds Campaign so we are initiating this blog to post every few days (hopefully).

Steve & Matt at 2012 F-18 World Championships

Matt and I arrived in Rome, Italy on Monday, June 17.  We spent the next five days thoroughly exploring the city including attending an audience with the new Pope (along with 120,000 other people).  The stories about Rome will have to wait until our return because this chronicle’s focus is on our Worlds campaign.

We arrived in Grosseto, Italy after riding the train from Rome.  Almost overslept so had to rush to make the train but then the train was late (of course, we are in Italy) :)  In Grosseto we took a walk along the beach since we were early for our 1:00 appointment to pick up the boat, found the yacht club, and there was a trailer with two boats waiting to be unstacked and the bottom one was ours!

We helped unload the boats and then started to rig it up.  The owner of the boat is an Italian dentist and he is as meticulous about his boat as taking care of people's teeth.  It is in beautiful shape.  Matt was so anxious to get it out on the water for the first time!

We finally hit the water around 2:30 and then sailed for about 3 hours.  The wind was great building from 10 kts to about 15 kts as the afternoon went on.  The locals thought we were crazy going out in board shorts, but the water was nice and warm.  After sailing for a few hours we realized wet suits would be much appreciated.

Rigging the Nacra Infusion for the first time

In the evening we had dinner with the couple we are chartering the boat from at a beach cabana owned by an F-18 sailor who is the 3rd best in Italy (as of the last championship).  We received numerous helpful tips about the local sailing conditions and the boat.

We tested the GPS tracking system that they are planning on using for the regatta so you will be able to watch live or replays of each race through the Worlds web site at:

http://2013.f18worlds.com/

Grosseto is making a big deal of the Championships

Thanks to all our supporters in this endeavor and we hope this blog is a suitable means to keep everyone informed.

Stay tuned for the next post!

Steve and Matt