2016 Chronicle #7 - Lake Garda Races, Croatia

Traveling to Lake Garda, Italy

Our second trip through the Alps was very uneventful. This time we took the Autobahn through Austria’s Bremmer pass straight into northern Italy. We only had twisty roads for the last twenty miles into Lake Garda. We arrived in Riva del Garda looking for our hotel and the GPS took us down some very narrow roads and we still had the boat with us. That was exciting and the farmers were looking at us strangely.

We dropped the boat off at the Catamaran club where it would be in storage while we traveled to Croatia. We spent the day doing maintenance work on the boat and then went swimming in Lake Garda while getting familiar with this beautiful resort area.

Trip to Croatia

After two nights at Lake Garda we departed for Croatia. It was about a six hour trip to the town of Pula, Croatia on the Adriatic coast. After we checked into our apartment we went into the old city. We were surprised to find an old Roman Amphitheater that looked like a smaller version of the Coliseum in Rome. We had a good dinner and discovered a very popular street festival was going on with multiple concert stages.

On Saturday we headed about half an hour south of Pula to their National Park which was full of swimming areas. We spent the whole day exploring the beach areas and doing a lot of swimming in the warm Adriatic. That evening we went into Pula again where they were continuing the street festival. Pula also has a very large shipyard near the downtown so it was interesting walking along it to view their shipbuilding activities.

On Sunday we departed to drive to the capital city of Zahgreb but decided to stop along the way at another national park (Plitvice Lakes) that is famous for its waterfalls. We arrived at the waterfall park around 1:30 and thought that two hours would be sufficient. We were very surprised to find that it is a huge park with probably over 10,000 visitors each day. We did manage to find parking and took the short tour (2-3 hours) along the waterfall trail. It was absolutely amazing but unfortunately they did not allow swimming. This is a UNESECO protected site and for anyone visiting in the future I recommend getting a hotel for two nights close to the park and spending a whole day exploring it.

We then drove to Zahgreb and arrived there in the evening. The next morning we hooked up with a “free” walking tour of the old city which was a very good way to learning about the history of the city and see the key sites. The city had a lot to offer and they are continuing to develop their old town area into a good tourist attraction. There was still a lot of evidence especially in the countryside of the Croatia war for independence from 1991 – 94 but the country has come a long way and will develop even faster since they joined the EU in 2013. Most importantly we got our passports stamped with the evidence that we had left the Europe Schengen countries which govern our visa limit of 90 days.

Matt exploring the Zahgreb cultural scene

German and Italian F-18 Nationals, Lake Garda, Italy, Aug 26 - 28

When we returned to Lake Garda we found already more than 20 boats rigged and practicing on the lake. We rigged our boat and had two days of excellent training.

Lake Garda is one of the most beautiful places to sail with high cliffs on both sides of the lake. The wind funnels along the length of the lake blowing out of the north in the morning and between noon and 1:00 it changes direction and blows out of the south quickly building to 15 – 22 knots.

Due to the excellent sailing many of the sailors spend extra days to enjoy the venue. The registration list grew to 60 boats from eight different countries: Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, France, Austria and USA. So this is our biggest regatta of the summer even exceeding the 50 boats at the European Championships in Brest. There were four boats at this event who had also sailed at Brest and comparing results we found this fleet to be just as competitive as the European Championships.

Lake Garda Races

Three days of racing was scheduled with three races per day. Each race was three laps windward/leeward course with downwind finishes. For this regatta the offset mark from the windward mark was set about 1200 feet away whereas it is usually a few hundred so we had a very long double trapeze blast reach. This was the most fun part of each race because it was typically very windy (> 20 kts) at this spot on the lake and our boat speed was also > 20 kts. At the offset mark we needed to perform a 180 degree gybe maneuver while Matt is raising the spinnaker to head to the favored left side of the downwind course.

The race committee set the start line just off the beach so it was good for spectators. The line was quite short for the number of boats so it was very difficult to get a good start. Also everyone knew that it was favored to head to the right side of the lake towards the tall cliffs. Most boats tacked within a minute of the start and then it was a drag race to the cliffs. Picking the point to tack towards the weather mark was key and we were able to catch boats by tacking earlier and taking advantage of a typical lift towards the mark. All three races the first day were very similar. We found that we had great upwind boat speed and as long as we could get off the start line with clean wind we could do well. The first day we finished 11th, 9th and 6th. In the final race we had a great start near the pin end and when we tacked over had a great lane to head to the cliffs. We rounded the weather mark in 4th but did lose two boats downwind during the next two laps around the course. At the end of day one we were in 9th place and had not used a throw out of which two were specified if we completed all nine races.

Heading upwind looking to tack towards the cliffs

The second day of the regatta (Saturday) was very similar. In the first race we were doing well in around 10th place around the weather mark. On the first downwind leg when executing a gybe near a starboard tack boat we made a mistake and capsized. Matt quickly retrieved the spinnaker and we got the boat back up and going again. It was a good thing that we practiced capsize recoveries when we were at Lake Como. We were surprise to find that we still finished in the top half of the fleet in 24th though this became our first throw out race. The second race we placed 13th and in the final race we had another great start so rounded the first weather mark 6th. We then were able to sail the next 2 ½ laps without letting anyone pass us. The Sach brothers from Germany who have won the Kiel Week regatta nine out of the past 11 years finished right behind us. At the end of this day we were still in 9th place. The first place boat is a former Tornado catamaran World Champion and Olympic competitor from Greece.

Completing the gybe-set at the offset mark

Sunday was the third day of identical weather conditions so we were confident that we would sail three races. For the first race we had a terrible start and never were able to work our way back up the fleet so finished 29th. For the final two races we had consistent finishes of two 11th’s. Even though the 29th race score was discarded we dropped to 11th place overall – still a good finish – better than we placed in Brest in a smaller fleet. The Greek boat won with a local Italian as crew and places 2nd through 5th were all Italian boats so it seems that local knowledge did help but they all were also very fast. The top German boat (our training partners Finn & Merle) placed 6th and they also placed 6th at Brest. Our friends and training partners (Magnus/Jesper) from Denmark placed 7th followed by the Sach brothers in 8th.

There is a good video of the second day of the regatta in which we appear a number of times located under the Video Tab for this blog.

Next Events:

1) Nordlichtpokal Regatta at Scharbeutz, Germany, Sept 2 - 3

This is a local club regatta just north of Lubeck on the Baltic. It will primarily be the same people we competed against in the Movenstein regatta three weeks ago. We are expecting around 17 boats with Robert Schultz (the hocky player) probably our prime competitor. Because it is a small regatta I am not sure there will be results posted on line.

2) Danish Open Championship at Sonderborg, Denmark, Sept 11 - 12

This will be our final regatta in Europe. It will be a small event since the F-18 fleet in Denmark is not very large. There will be about 5 – 8 Danish boats but a number of Germany boats will also compete. Both Fin/Merle and Magnus/Jesper who beat us at Lake Garda will be present so it will be a good event. We are also fortunate since this event is held in the same part of Denmark where my boat is stored at Henrik’s parents farm. Henrik is a former exchange student of ours. We will be staying at the farm for the regatta and then put the boat into storage when we are done.

3) North American F-18 Championships at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, USA, Sept 19 - 23

Three days after the Danish championships we will fly back to New York to prepare ourselves for this final regatta of the trip. We will have five days to prepare and get over jet lag before this event starts.

Stay tuned for the next Chronicle after the Danish Championships are completed.

Steve and Matt