2013 Chronicle #3 - Second Practice Week

Here is the second of our chronicles for the F-18 World Championships in Grosseto, Italy.

Saturday, June 29 – We went sailing against the team from Oman again with their coach in an inflatable power boat. Wind started out light (8 kts) but built very rapidly up to 15 kts. We were able to handle the sail trim transitions better than them and had slightly better speed upwind especially once the wind was in the 18 kts range. A Phantom F-18 from Argentina joined us for the downwind run. The wind was now building to 20 kts and we had an awesome downwind run. Our boat speed was equal to the other two boats. Playing the left side was definitely favorable going down wind for the wind shift. When we got back to the town the wind was in the 25 kt range with gusts to 27 kts. We decided to go in and not risk breaking something on the boat. We used the rest of the afternoon to fine tune equipment on the boat.

Sunday, June 30 – Had some trouble getting the jib to hook when raising it so it delayed our getting on the water. We had to capsize the boat on land to fix the problem. We did some practice starts with the Oman boat and some short races but they had to go in shortly thereafter to work on their boat. One of their rear cross bar bolts came loose and had stripped.

We sailed the rest of the afternoon going up against teams from Argentina, France, UK, and Italy checking boat speed. We were doing very well on some of them but the people sailing the Phantoms had a little boat speed on us, but we are able to stay close to them. This was a perfect sailing day with the wind steady 13-15 knots once it came up.

Monday, July 1 – The forecast was for light air and it was correct. Wind started around 5 kts and most we saw was 10 kts. There was no organized practicing since the Oman team was fixing their boat. But we were able to get groups of 3-4 boats to go up wind together to check boat speed and then back down wind together. We are finding the Nacra to be very fast in light air. We were having no problems moving out on the Phantom F-18s in light air upwind. And most of the time our downwind boat speed is also good.

Boats are starting to fill-up the staging area – the other USA boat is front center with Magic Marine logo

Tuesday, July 2 – The other US team showed up this morning. They are Taylor Reese and Matt Whitehead from Panama City, Florida. They have chartered a C2 from Belgium which is the same boat they sail in Florida. They will be a good training partner since they placed 12th in the last Worlds. They spent most of the day rigging their boat and only came out near the end of the day.

Wind conditions today were a repeat from Monday, light 5 – 10 kts but there were more boats out. The Oman coach organized practice starts and short course races which we participated in. We had about 9 F-18’s at the peak and we were doing very well. We always had a clean start and were always in the top half of the boats and in one race we were first to the weather mark. Our upwind speed in the light air is excellent but we have some work to improve our downwind speed. It was good to be practicing maneuvers close to other boats and there were several close port/starboard situations.

Wednesday, July 3 – Again another light day but we had more boats out for the practice races – about 12 including a top sailor from Great Britain. We did well on starts and boat speed again staying near the front of the pack but also made some errors like hitting the weather mark when we rounded in third. These are good lessons to learn in the practice race. We were also able to get the boat moving better downwind. We are feeling that we are ready for the real racing to begin.

What's Next

We are scheduled to measure in the boat Friday morning and that is when Matt and I are weighed to see if we meet the minimum crew weight (150 kg / 330 lbs). We have been loading up on pasta but we still expect to need to carry a pound or two of extra lead.

Races start on Monday, July 8 and complete on Friday, July 12. Three races are scheduled per day with the first race starting at 1:00 pm. Races start so late because the best wind is typically from 2:00 – 5:00 pm. Right now the weather forecast for the first two days is light wind (5-10 kts). The first two days decide which boats compete in the gold fleet vs the sliver fleet.

Thanks to all our supporters and we hope you are enjoying this newsletter.

Here is the web site where you can find race results and the race real time tracking and replays:

http://2013.f18worlds.com/

Notice the Sailing Supply Sticker on the flag delineating the US boat area.

Happy Fourth of July to you all! We are celebrating by cooking hamburgers and hotdogs in our small Grosseto apartment.

Matt and Steve