2016 Chronicle #5 - Lake Como and Nacra Championships

Lake Como, Italy

We arrived in Lake Como which is just south of the Swiss Alps. We had to tow the boat through one of the mountain passes around 7000 feet maneuvering the boat trailer through more than 30 mountain road switchbacks. The first day at Lake Como we setup the boat in between several thunderstorms so could not do a practice sail as planned due to the lightening risk.

But we had a bonus regatta made available to us since the local club was holding two long distance races on the lake for Saturday and Sunday. We signed up and prepared for the races which were held handicap style with 23 boats in the spinnaker class.

We also had another surprise when we found that Simoni and Rachele were members of this club and came to race. Simoni was the person who chartered his boat to us for the 2013 Worlds and was also the person who rescued Alberto (MBYC Cat Sailor) from the ocean at Cata Cup in 2014. It is a small world.

On Saturday for the first long distance race we sailed the course which took about two hours. It was basically a windward/leeward course up and down about ¼ of the lake. It was very confusing because there were so many buoys for racing and they had not conducted a skipper’s meeting. We were about the sixth boat to finished (we think) and felt we had sailed fairly well though two C2 F-18’s finished right in front of us. The other boats in front of us were Carbon 20 foiling catamarans that owe us a lot of time. But when we get back to shore to look at the results we found that everyone was classified as “DNF” Did-Not-Finish because we all had sailed the wrong course. So the whole regatta would depend on the Sunday race.

On Sunday the wind was very light and we spent three hours bouncing around waiting for wind. Finally some wind came up around 4:00 pm and they quickly started a race. We had a good start and were doing well when about half way up the first leg they cancelled the race and sent us back to the club. So this ended being a non-regatta but we learned a lot about the lake and some of the sailing conditions.

Lot of waiting around for races to start due to lack of wind

Nacra Championships

The Nacra Championships is a relatively new event that the Nacra company is trying to facilitate. It is intended as a lower key, family affair for anyone who races a boat manufactured by Nacra. Nacra is now a Dutch company but was originally based in Southern California hence the name NACRA = North American Catamaran Racing Association.

Lake Como is oriented north/south. Usually during the morning, the wind comes out of the north and around 12:30 – 1:30 the wind shifts and comes out of the south. Normally they plan to start races at 1:00 for this reason. But the week we were at Lake Como we were not getting the usual winds (very typical of regattas). There was a lot of instability and thunderstorms developing in the mountains.

There were fifteen F-18’s entered. The first group of boats to race was the open class which included the Olympic Nacra 17’s, Nacra F-16’s, one Nacra Inter-20 (which placed 2nd), and the new Nacra-15’s. The second group were the Nacra-20 foiling catamarans which consisted of 8 boats. It was awesome to be on the same race course with these full foiling boats though we had to keep a good eye out for them. We were the last group to start which was advantageous to be able to look to see how the other classes were fairing on the different sides of the course but then we would catch up with the open class boats since they were slower than F-18’s.

Day #1; Race #1

Wind is out of the north west about 8-10kts. We had a terrible start, hit pin end; did 360, then went right and started working our way through the fleet; wind 8-12; two laps; finished 11th

Race #2

Four laps; great start near leeward end; about 20% up leg tacked to right to get to favored shore, had great lift and better wind by the shore, rounded weather mark in 2nd behind Gunnar (current F-18 world champion), back & forth with other boats finished 6th

Race #3

Good start, partially up leg went back to right (mistake), then came back left in top 10 around mark; finished 9th.

Day 2; Race #4

Wind was out of the south but light 8–10kts. Weather end of starting line was favored and very crowded; we were most leeward boat to start but only ½ way down line; entire fleet tacked quickly to head right; we were last boat to tack but had a great lane heading toward the shore. We got lifted inside the fleet and had great boat speed. Quickly we worked our way into the top five boats with Gunnar in the lead. When got to starboard lay line close to shore were able to lee bow the closest two boats and take off to the windward mark. Were third around the weather mark. Gybed right away to the left shore side. Went to the shore with the better wind then gybed. Saw that we were low of the gate so went into double trapeze downwind mode and had much better speed so passed the 2nd place boat. In 2nd at leeward gate and held that position for the rest of the race. Closest boat behind us finished about 3 minutes after us. Ranked 5th overall in the regatta at the end of the day.

Threat of thunderstorms caused rest of racing for day to be cancelled. After the race they interviewed Matt and I. The resulting video that includes the interview is on the Video tab of this blog.

Race #4 coming into the second weather mark

Day 3; Race #5

Wind was out of the south again and light very similar to day 2. We also sailed the race very similarly and were very happy when we placed a solid second again behind Gunnar. We moved up to fourth place overall.

Day 4; Race #6

The race committee was feeling the pressure that we were to the final day with not many races sailed. The goal had been to sail 12 races so they announced an 8:30 first race start. It was difficult for us to to get up so early but must have been very difficult for the Italians. There was a good north wind blowing at 10-12 kts. We were tangling with Gunnar at the start but he got the better of us and we ended stalling on the start line so had a terrible start. We went a little further to the right than the rest of the fleet and sailed into a huge hole with no wind. Later in the race we managed to pass a few boats and finished 11th. The R/C then sent us back to the beach to wait for the southern wind to develop.

Race #7, 8, 9

At 1:00 the normal southerly wind came in and quickly increased to 15 – 18kts. The R/C was in the mode of quickly getting off three races. The first race was 2 laps the next 3 and the final 2 again. We had relatively good starts in all the races but our boat upwind boat speed was not with the top boats though downwind boat speed was very good. We finished 8 – 9 – 8 in the three races.

There have still been no results posted so we do not know exactly where we finished but I expect probably about 7th place.

Next Two Events:

1) Nordic Championships, Tallin, Estonia, Aug 8 -10

We are expecting 20 to 25 F-18’s from Estonia, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden for this three day event. We will have three days to practice before the regatta.

2) Movenstein Regatta, Travemunde, Lubeck, Germany, Aug 16 - 17

I sailed in this regatta last year so am familiar with the venue. It will be a local regatta with about 10 - 15 boats many who also participated at Kiel Week and the Surendorf Cup.

Traveling to Estonia

We are taking four days to travel the 1500 miles to Tallinn, Estonia and will arrive on Tuesday, August 5th. There will be a one hour time change so while there will be 10 hours delta from California. We are taking our time for the trip since the road conditions in the three Baltic countries is unknown. I was in Poland last summer and found the majority of the roads there to be fine. We can only travel as fast as the trucks anyway so it will be a leisurely pace. We are overnighting outside Nuernberg and Berlin, Germany, and then one night in eastern Poland and one night in Latvia before arriving in Tallinn.

The trip back through the Swiss Alps was awesome traveling through the Julien Pass at around 7000 feet.

Boat resting at the top of the Julien Pass, Switzerland

Stay tuned for the next Chronicle after the Movenstein regatta is complete.

Steve and Matt