2013 Chronicle #2 - First Practice week

Sunday, June 23 – Second day of sailing new Nacra Infustion. We changed from the race (white) spinnaker to our practice spinnaker (black) that we brought from San Diego. We went out with Simone and Rachelle who are chartering the Nacra Infusion to us. They sailed on a Capricorn while we sailed the Infusion. They recently placed 10th in the Italian National Championships in a fleet of 40+ boats. We sailed for several hours doing windward leeward courses with them. We were clearly faster upwind. The longer dagger boards worked very nicely. Downwind we had some problems with the tack line releasing (which Matt fixed once we got off the water) and we were a little slower than Simone & Rachelle so we have some work to do. Simone & Rachelle had to go in early to head back home. Overall we were happy with the boat’s performance.

Changing the Mainsail from Switzerland to USA

Monday, June 24 – We went out by ourselves in a stiff 15 knots of wind. The wind gradually built to 25-27 kts. It was a lot of work but we were pleased that we were able to keep the boat under control. Today we broke our all-time speed record and achieved 24 mph. The 3rd best Italian boat (based on 2013 Italian National Championships) came out when the wind was at its peak and decided to go back in after 15 minutes. We went in shortly thereafter not wanting to risk breaking the boat. It was exciting sailing the boat through the surf into the beach on a beam reach.

Tuesday, June 25 – Highlight of today was sailing against the 3rd best Italian boat (on a Wildcat identical to Steve`s in San Diego) again in a more reasonable breeze. Initially our boat speed was fairly equal going upwind, but we were able to fine tune our sail trim so that we had better boat speed and point slightly higher. Once we set the spinnaker, we took off and put significant distance between us and the Italian boat.

Wednesday, June 26 – Definitely the worst day for wind so far. The wind was very shifty and went from 6 kts to 11 kts and then back in no time at all. And there was a lot of chop so getting the boat to move through the waves was difficult. Matt was having fun trying to figure out the thermal patterns. We still sailed about 3 hours because we could have a day of Worlds races in similar conditions.

Thursday, June 27 – We were the only F-18 that went out though more boats are arriving and being set up. The wind came in like clockwork at 12:30 at a strong 12 knts and then built to 15 knts with some gusts to 18 kts. Matt and I sailed long windward leeward legs enjoying the excellent breeze. We worked out the kinks with setting up the chicken line and had great downwind runs. We sailed a blast reach into another scenic Italian coastal town (with a castle on the hill) reaching 23.4 mph per our GPS. Overall we sailed close to 50 miles today with an average speed of 12.3 mph – our highest so far in Italy. We practiced a lot of tacks and gibe and feel we have them down. We are set up to go practice against the boat from Oman tomorrow. Their coach approached us and wants us to sail with them. Last year at the Worlds in Long Beach they were first in the first race, second in the second race but then the skipper was seriously injured in the third race so they had to drop out of the regatta.

Friday, June 28 – We sailed for a couple of hours against the Oman boat with their coach going along side in a power boat. We did straight line speed runs both upwind and downwind and then also split tack and split jibe drills. Overall we were able to hold our own with them and many times were faster. At the end of the day the coach said we were fairly evenly matched both upwind and downwind and asked us to sail with them again tomorrow. They then went to the beach but we went sailing for another hour.