Sunday, November 20, 2021

Attended the Turkey Day regatta at ABYC in Long Beach, California with Colin Baker where the prize was a turkey and Cornish game hen. On Sunday we had Santa Anna winds blowing from the desert with about 15 kts at coast. It was wonderful sailing in the warm breeze and flat water.

Sunday, September 19, 2021

I have now received the professional photos from the Stockholm Archipelago Raid held in August and am posted some pictures to share with you.

Thursday, September 2, 2021

We have now had five days of rest in San Diego and are just about over jet lag and ready to hit the road again tomorrow morning. This time it is a short two hour drive up the California coast to Long Beach which is the venue for the 2021 F18 Americas Championship. Tomorrow we will set up our San Diego boat which is a 2020 Nacra Evolution and go for a practice sail. This weekend we have the ABYC Labor Day regatta that many teams will use as a warm-up event for the Americas. I expect about 14 boats this weekend including some of the best competition. Right now the forecast is for good wind this weekend so it should be fun.

Results for the ABYC Labor day regatta can be found on RegattaNetwork.com at: https://www.regattanetwork.com/html/calendar.php?state%5B%5D=CA

Then on Monday we will probably practice before taking our mast down in the evening to be ready for boat weighing Tuesday morning. After we have completed boat inspection we will do an afternoon practice session. On Wednesday there is a practice long distance race that will be a grand tour of Long Beach harbor among the many ships at anchor waiting to be unloaded. The Americas Championships starts on Thursday with a total of 15 races planned; four races per day except on Sunday there will be three races. At this point we are unsure of the total number of competitors. We believe we will have teams from Argentina and Chile but they are having difficulties getting their boats to California due to the backlog in the container ports. It is also doubtful that many if any Canadian boats will appear since the Canadian border is still closed for recreation travel. Also many of the East Coast teams may be last minute arrivals due to the weather issues this past week. So we could have as few as 25 boats or over 35 boats at this championship. We probably will not know exactly how many boats until we line up on Thursday morning.

Results for the Americas regatta will be available on RegattaNetwork.com at: https://www.regattanetwork.com/html/calendar.php?state%5B%5D=CA

Saturday, August 28, 2021

We are now flying back to San Diego at the end of our 2021 summer adventure.  The boat has been put in storage at the farm in Sonderborg, Denmark with our dear friends Finn and Britta Kuesler waiting for the possibility of new adventures next summer.  Our damaged daggerboards from the Stockholm Archipelago Raid have been left with the German Nacra dealer, Sven Lindstadt to be repaired over the winter and our car is back in its garage in Zweibrucken under the care of Steve’s cousin Frank Reidelhuber.  Our capstone event the Stockholm Archipelago Raid is still fresh in our memories.  The first day of the SAR ranks as one of my most difficult days of sailing ever.  Interestingly most of our races this summer were in moderate to high winds which is why I come to Europe.  We had much better winds than we would see in San Diego.  Also interestingly our best races were in the high winds over 20 knots:

-          SAR Race 2 – 4th place

-          Worlds Race 15 – 21st place (out of 79 boats)

-          Movenstein Race 3 – 2nd place

Here are some interesting statistics for the Europe trip:

Though Steven had never been the navigator on a boat he performed an awesome job at the SAR.  The daggerboard damage was due to a tactical battle with other boats and not his navigation skills.  He was an awesome teammate for the summer and saw what World Class F18 racing is about.

Now some crew perspective on the trip from Steven:

Firstly, I would like to publicly thank Steve for the summer of a lifetime as well as a spectacular introduction to F18 sailing which I hope to continue pursuing in my sailing career. The summer was a combination of sailing world class events and seeing the vast history of European culture. Both left lasting impressions on me that I will remember for the rest of my life. Steve covered the details of every event and all I have to add to these are the highlights from each event.

The 2021 F18 World Championships was a personal highlight from the trip because of its impetus as one of the highest levels of sailing in the world. On the last race of the first day sailing in 25-30 knots through a fleet of capsized and broken F18s while Steve kept cool and calm maneuvering the boat through steep waves and blinding spray made me appreciate his talent and experience holding the rudders. The Stockholm Archipelago regatta is a bucket list item for any F18 sailor. Being new to the class I was unaware of what a “raid” regatta really meant. I quickly learned that it entails full mental and physical exertion through four days of hard racing. Again, even in times of close battling with other boats and scraping rocks, Steve continued to keep calm and collected. This showed me the advantages and importance of staying calm in these high stress situations and taught me to do the same (although I have a way to go until mastering it). Lake Garda is a must see for any wind loving individual due to its clockwork like wind. Every day it was warm and at exactly noon the wind shifted and picked up to the perfect level of fear. I learned more about European culture traveling for three months through each country than I have in my entire academic career. Traveling with Steve provided vast insight into Europe as he was partially raised there and travels there practically every year. Every person I met was awesome and I hope to see many of them again.

As we travel back to the USA, I am sad that this trip has come to an end but excited to return to friends, family, and the Pacific Ocean. I know that F18 sailing will forever hold a place in my sailing career and passions, and I have Steve to thank for that. With one more event to focus on for this year it is not quite over yet. 

Though the Europe trip is over Steven and I still have two more regattas so watch for information in the blog.  We first have five days of rest in San Diego before heading to Long Beach for the ABYC Labor Day regatta on September 4-5 and then the Americas Championship from Sept 9-12 with a long distance practice race on Sept 8.  Due to international Covid travel restrictions we are not yet sure how many boats will complete but it should be more than 30.  Stay tuned for more information.

Monday, August 23, 2021

We have now completed the Stockholm Archipelago Raid (SAR) which has the reputation for being one of the more difficult Raid regattas.  It is hard to know where to start because so much happened over the four day raid.  We witnessed an epic battle between the top contenders and had a challenging regatta but were blessed with sunny skies for three of the days.  Top contenders were Karlsson/Nordblom from Sweden, winners of the raid the past three years, Patrick Demesmaeker/Olivier Gagliani European F18 Champions and multiple time Cata Cup Champion, Backes from France, former F18 World Champion, and Lief Dahl former F18 World Raid Champion.

The first day of the raid was the most strenuous with winds 20 to 25 kts but the majority of the course was downwind but there was one long leg that was close reaching.  I had underdressed so ended being pretty cold as we sailed for hours at 18-20 knots boat speed.  There were several capsizes but we managed to stay upright.  It was awesome sailing downwind for hours at high speed.  We finished the first race in 12th place out of 23 competitors so we were happy.  We headed to the lunch break beach for a much needed rest.  After a little while Patrick Demesmaeker from Belgium arrived in his new orange colored Goodall Akurra with both daggerboards broken.  Patrick is a top contender to win the regatta but now has two broken boards which were wedged into his daggerboard trunks.  After removing the boards by pounding and cutting them, he retrieved two new boards from the spare parts boat so that he could proceed with the race. 

After about a 1.5 hour break we headed out for the next start.  The wind was increasing as the afternoon proceeded.  For this race we had a very long double trapeze reaching leg that was a lot of fun.  On this leg we were catching up to Patrick Demesmaeker and noticed that he was sailing without a jib.  Later we found that his jib halyard had failed and while retrieving the sail from the water ripped the zipper so the sail could no longer be used.  We were surprised by how fast he was going on a single sail but eventually we did pass him.   Near the end of the race there was a very tactical upwind section which we did well with and finished in 4th place ending on the island of Nasslingen.  For day 1 we sailed 65.6 nautical miles over 7.5 hours with a top boat speed of 21.7 knots.  We were very pleased that we did not hit any underwater rocks.  Steven did an awesome job navigating with an iPhone strapped to his wrist using Navionics charts.  He was out in the trapeze holding the sail sheet with one hand and watching the chart as we went along at double digit speeds to point out any underwater rocks along the course in front of us.  We had to make many course changes to avoid rocks.

After the race most sailors headed to the sauna to get their body heat back and then we had a wonderful dinner.  We were parked at a farm and at one point a heard of goats came to check out our boats parked on the grass but the farmer shooed them away before they could try to eat anything on the boats.

For day 2 the wind was from the same direction and we had downwind courses.  It was a beautiful day with sunny skies and a little lighter wind but still very good.  We had awesome spinnaker runs.  At one point we had a narrow channel to traverse with rocks on both sides.  There were six F18s that reached the channel about the same time and the boats very being very aggressive with multiple jibes as we sailed through the channel.  At one point we had to avoid a collision with another boat and right afterwards we jibed but it was too late.  We were already in shallow water and our daggerboards hit some rocks and then the rudders hit.  Luckily we already had the daggerboards up fairly high and were moving slower than normal.  The starboard daggerboard was damaged at the bottom and now had a jagged edge.  The port daggerboard also had some dings but not as bad.  The rudders had popped up with no damage.  This incidence made us both more fearful of hitting again so watched the navigation even more closely and said we should not get into tactical battles in narrow channels.  We continued the race and then finished in 17th place before the lunch break.  This race ended up being our worst for the regatta and the score was discarded.  This lunch location was not as nice because it was difficult to find a good spot to beach the boat safely.  We ended up tying up to a private dock to have our lunch.  The afternoon race was more down wind sailing and we finished 10th with no more rock incidents finishing at the island of Fejan.  We were now in 7th place overall.  Day two was a total of 59 miles over 9.75 hours with max speed of 20.1 kts.   At this stop we parked the boat along a dock which made it difficult to lower and raise the jib with the boat in the water. During our final leg to the finish line a boat in front of us had their mast fall down allowing us to pass them.  We saw that the support boat was already assisting them so we did not stop to make sure they were okay.  Again we hit the sauna right after the boat was secure for the night.  At this island our accommodations were in a building built around 1918 for the Spanish Flu Pandemic.  It was a quarantine location for people coming to Sweden to confirm they did not have the flu.  Very fitting to stay in this building during our Covid pandemic.

Day three started with Steven having an ab workout while he was raising the jib swinging from the trapeze wire since the boat is in the water.  Normally you need to stand next to the forestay in order to raise the jib.  The wind shifted about 180 degrees from the previous day so that meant that when we start our trip heading back south we would be sailing downwind again.  Another difference with this regatta was that we had all downwind starts except for one that was a reaching start.  Though it has been decades since I did downwind starts we had all excellent starts except for one.  In at least three of the races we were in first place after the start because we launched out on the fleet but in many of the cases the area after the start was lighter wind where it was also very tactical.  With a downwind start you need to time the raising of the spinnaker correctly so it does not accelerate you over the line but you want it up and at full speed when the starting horn is blown.  The morning race was a lot of fun in good wind.  At one point we crossed in front of a cruise ship heading out from Stockholm.  We finished this fifth race in 13th place.  The lunch break was at a very nice island with a beautiful sandy beach.  We were able to take a walk into the small village to see how the local population lived. 

The afternoon race was in a dying wind so it became very light at one point being totally becalmed with the boat going in circles.  We were about to start paddling when we noticed a good wind line behind us.  The new wind which was fairly strong came from the rear so it reversed the standings in the fleet.  We rode this wind to the finish at Lokholmen island and finished in 13th place.  This overnight stop was at the Royal Stockholm Yacht Club (KSSS) summer junior camp.  We slept in bunk rooms with four people to a room.  They also had a nice wood fired sauna at this location.  People would heat up in the sauna and then jump into the cold Baltic Sea and then head back to the sauna.

The final race day started with a reaching start with about 8-10 kts of wind.  We finished in 9th place in this race and went to another nice sandy beach.  Because it was Sunday and closer to Stockholm there were many beach goers who were surprised to see a fleet of F18s descend on their beach.  The final race was primarily upwind in a long fiord in lighter wind.  It was very tactical with many changes in position as people tried to stay in the stronger wind and work the 20 degree wind shifts.  The first boat reached the cut-off point for the longer course option just 2 minutes before the deadline so they sent us on a longer upwind course which was very painful because of the dying wind.  We managed to work this area pretty well to finish in 10th place ahead of Frederic Karlsson who won the regatta the three previous years.  Patrick/Oliver finished the final race in second place racking up finishes of 19-13-2-1-1-1-1-1 to win by three points over Frederic.  There was one throw-out race in the series but with two poor races on day one Patrick/Oliver overcame a large deficit to win the SAR for the first time.  There are many famous sailors on the trophy which very fittingly is a broken daggerboard!

There is also a comprehensive description of the event and pictures at www.stockholmarchipalograid.com

Monday, August 16, 2021

The Movenstein regatta sailed at the same location as for Travemunde Week was a multi-class regatta.  Their local rule is there must be at least eight boats of the same class to obtain a start.  So there was a fleet of thirteen International 14 (I-14) monohulls which is a very complex and tippy boat with a very large spinnaker.  The second fleet was A-Cats which is a single handed foiling catamaran with eleven competitors and then the F18 fleet of fourteen boats.  Unusual for us we were the third class to start so we spent a lot of time waiting between races.  Saturday we sailed four races in high winds that varied from 18 to over 25 knots with relatively flat water since the wind come from the shore.  The wind was also very shifty with large changes in velocity so Steven had his work cut out for trimming the mainsail.  Of the three fleets racing F18s were able to handle the high wind the best.  The I-14s were capsizing all the time and many A-Cats also were over.  The local rescue boats were busy to make sure all the capsized sailors stayed with their boats and did not drift off.   On Saturday we had finishes of 6-5-2-4 and ended the day in fifth place only two points out of fourth place.

On Sunday the wind was lighter but still extremely shifty and variable in speed which made for very tactical racing with many changes in position.  Our results on Sunday were 4-4-8-3.  In the final race we were first around the first weather mark but made some tactical mistakes on the downwind leg so ended with the third but were happy that we were well in the mix with the top boats.  With one-through out we finished fourth overall.  The Lindstate son/father team was first, followed by Dirk Bleiker who is the President of the Germany F18 association and Dieter Mauer my friend from many years in Europe.  Dieter is about six months older than me so claims the “Old Man” of the fleet status.

We are now already in Sweden driving about 800 km (500 miles) today and will arrive at the Royal Swedish Yacht Club around noon on Tuesday to set up the boat for the Stockholm Archipelago Raid (SAR) and hopefully have a short practice session in the afternoon.  For the SAR the key challenge is navigating amongst all the Swedish islands (over 10,000) to find the race way-points which are buoys or small islands to get to the next stopping spot without hitting any rocks.  We have downloaded a set of Baltic Sea charts to our iPhones using the Navionics navigation software.  So Steven’s job will be to navigate using the iPhone strapped to his forearm while trimming the mainsail or spinnaker with some handoffs to me when he needs to focus on the navigation.  Right now we are unsure of what weather will be in store for us but it has been raining a lot today during our drive.  We will have a lunch stop each day and then stay overnight at three different islands sharing bunk rooms with other teams.  The expected distance to sail each day is between 50 and 100 nautical miles. In honor of the SAR we have changed the motto on the cover page of this blog to: “No Fear - No Fun” used by Robert Schultz at the Movenstein Regatta. This is a good representation of F18 sailing which is most fun when it is most fearful due to tremendous speed, number of high speed boats around you and fear any mariner has of hitting an unseen underwater rocks.

There will be no blog updates during the Raid but there may be information and pictures available at:  https://www.stockholmarchipelagoraid.com/

Thursday, August 12, 2021

After a short break doing tourist activities in Sczczesin, Poland and Berlin we have been back in Travemunde since Monday training. In Poland we managed to find most of the safety gear items that we need for the Stockholm Archipeligo Raid (SAR) including a red parachute flare, emergency strobe lights for the lifejackets and various dry bags to keep our gear dry as we race to different islands. We have had three good days of sailing interspersed with rain and thunderstorms. Today the wind is very light so we are not sure we are going to go sailing but there might be some short Thursday evening races. This weekend we have the two day Movenstein Regatta which is a local club regatta with 17 F18s registered. The wind forecast is good in the 15-20 kts range for both Saturday and Sunday so we are looking forward to some great racing.

We may not have time to provide updates so you can look up results at this website: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/71bb5d3c-97a2-4dc0-ab48-562db33d5457#!/results?classId=c77b3492-c389-4c56-909c-fca812c236cb

On Monday we hit the road for Stockholm which will be a day and half trip. From that time forward we will be very busy with our preparations for the SAR. On Tuesday late afternoon we will have a trial sail with all our safety gear and navigation to make sure we are ready. On Wednesday is the safety inspection and meeting providing us the course for the first day. Each day is 50 to 100 miles of racing with a short lunch break at an island in the archipelago with approximately 23 F18s participating. Each night we stop at a different island. This is a bucket list event for any serious F18 sailor and we are looking forward to it.

We will provide updates of our experiences during the Raid the week of August 23 as we get ready to return to San Diego on August 28th.

Sunday, August 1, 2021

Day 4 of the Travemunde Regatta gave us perfect conditions for the end of the event. The day started out a bit lighter around 8-10 knots and built with large gusts and big lulls from 8-14 knots. We started the first race with decent boat speed and sailed a good race tactically to land us in 6th. The second race was very similar and we sailed through some shifty conditions and finished 5th. The upward trend in finishing continued into the third race of the day with us getting a 4th. The fourth and ultimately final race of the day we sailed smart and had our best finish being a 2nd. We started a fifth race and almost reached the top mark of the final lap but it was abandoned due to thunderstorms brewing nearby and we were told to head to the beach. The conditions throughout the day were very shifty and puffy making it difficult to make correct decisions, but also provided passing lanes and made the racing very interesting and fun. Overall we sailed a great day and it put us into 4th out of 20 overall. The Sach brothers, who placed 4th at the F18 World Championships in Formia took the win here at Travemunde Week with 4 bullets in the last 5 races. We are coming back to Travemunde in two weeks for another event so we kept the boat at the yacht club and will be visiting Poland and Berlin in the meantime.

We have also made a schedule change for our final regatta and are going to sail the world-famous Stockholm Archipelago Raid from August 19-22.

Saturday, July 31, 2021

We arrived at the club at 8:00 and were informed they were planning an earlier start at 10:00 but by 9:00 they postponed. I figured at that point if we were not sailing early we would not sail at all because the weather forecast got worse as the day proceeded. And I was correct we had no sailing today because wind gusts were as high as 39 knots. We are scheduled to start at 10:00 tomorrow with high probability of sailing because the winds are moderating but there may be rain. We could sail as many as 5-6 races before the time limit of 15:00. Dirk, the president of the German F18 association turned 50 years old today so we had a nice BBQ party amongst the sailors at the club. Stay tuned for results tomorrow.

Friday, July 30, 2021

Today we had our first race at 1:00 with the wind around 22-25 kts. As the race progressed the wind gusts got as high as 30 kts and today was supposed to be a more normal day. There were many capsizes including ourselves on a jibe when going down wind. The boat went turtle - totally upside down so it took us a little longer to right. We then continued the race to finish in 12th place. One boat that we were catching up to capsized right before we go to them. The race committee then decided that it was too windy to race so sent us back to shore for a postponement. As the afternoon progressed the wind moderated so they started us again at 4:00 pm and ran three races. In the first race a boat capsized litterally right in front of us and the mast almost hit our boat. I had to dodge the boat and then still make it around the off-set mark. Steven was doing a great job calling upwind tactics and we finished 4th in that race. The wind kept dying and was very shifty. We finished the final two races with an 8th and 11th. We came back to the harbor around 7:00 pm so have had a very long and tiring day. Overall we are in 7th place. Tomorrow the wind forecast is still for very high wind with gusts into the 30 kt range so we will need to see what happens. Below are the results after the first day of racing out of 20 boats.

Thursday, July 29. 2021

There was no racing today because of high winds which were gusting from 29 to 34 knots. We were disappointed but felt it was the right call. One of the very experienced F18 sailors when out for a photo shoot demo sail around 10:00 and had a severe capsize in a large gust of wind. The wind forecast for tomorrow is good so we should be able to sail 4 or maybe even more races. The forecast is for 14 to 20 kts. The forecast for Saturday is similar with today’s so that day is an unknown. We will keep you informed.

Monday, July 26, 2021

After a short hiatus in our racing schedule Steven and I just arrived at our next racing venue - Travemunde, Lubeck Germany. During the past two weeks I flew to San Diego for my youngest daughter’s wedding and Steven remained in Italy touring Rome and Florence. We then reunited in Rome and took a short trip to Naples where we spent a day on a power boat going around the Island of Capri swimming into numerous sea caves and viewing the mega-yachts of the rich and famous. We decided to change our schedule to attend Travemunde Week instead of Lake Como Nacra Championships because the competition appears to be better and Travemunde is potentially the site of the 2023 F18 World Championships. Just as we arrived at the club there was a huge thunderstorm with hail coming down on our car and that caused some flooding in Travemunde. Looking at the forecast we could have a very windy regatta with wind from 20-30 kts forecast for the first two race days on Thursday and Friday. There are 21 boats entered in the regatta with 19 German boats, 1 Danish and ourselves.

We will attempt to post updates daily but they will have good on-line results available at: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/a3014e6c-7d56-4108-a277-55265a5afa23#!/results?classId=7d972372-dcef-4764-9a55-16073cace8f1

Below are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Friday, July 8, 2021

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog but the final two days of the championship were very busy for us.  When we entered the water on Thursday there was practically no wind and I was even wondering if it would ever arrive.  But the race committee was patient and about two hours after floating around the thermal wind finally arrived fairly strongly.  We sailed two races and we had finishes of 34 and 30.  We have been doing better on the starts but still sometimes start accelerating too late so are rolled by a boat to windward.  The R/C considered a third race but because it was late in the day raised the signal for us to head back to the harbor.  That evening we had the regatta dinner which consisted of a four course Italian meal with us sitting under the stars at the regatta venue.

Friday brought much anticipation because the wind forecast all week was for a windy day.  People were wondering if it was going to be like Monday which resulted in so much carnage in the fleet.  The wind came up early and everyone launched so we actually had our first start on schedule at 1:00.  The first race was already exciting and the wind kept building.  By the third race the wind was about 18-20 kts but not quite as windy as on Monday.  The waves also had not yet had time to build but it was still a super exciting race.  The fleet had learned from Monday and therefore was doing much better but in the third race there were still many capsizes.  One Windrush from Germany capsized right in front of us as they trimmed in their spinnaker so we quickly avoided them.  Another German competitor capsized just shortly before the finish line.  We had good control over our boat and Steven did an awesome job in the trapeze downwind.  Even though we stuffed the bow many times (meaning the bow digs into a wave tending to trip the boat), Steven was secured with our “chicken line” so he would not fly forward.  The “chicken line” is attached to the back of the boat and Steven grabs it to secure to his trapeze harness which anchors him to the back of the boat.  There were many occasions when our bow dug into a wave and if Steven had gone flying forward like superman we probably would have capsized.  On Friday we had finishes of 29-31-21.  With the last race tied for our best finish of the regatta same as the third windy race on Monday.  Clearly we do better when it is very windy.  Overall our finishes in this regatta were very consistent but it was disappointing that we could not have a few finishes higher in the fleet.

On Friday the second competitor of the event required an ambulance ride to the local hospital.  He was hit on the elbow by the bow of another boat.  Though not broken it was a severe hit.  The first hospital trip was on Monday by my good friend Mikko from Finland.  He hit is head hard during a capsize resulting in a head bleed and potential concussion.  He normally wears a helmet but didn’t on that day because the wind was light when he left the harbor.  I am a big proponent of F18 sailors wearing helmets no matter what the weather.

Mitch Booth and his son Ruben sailed a great regatta winning handily.  Cruz Gonzalez Smith was second and Agustine Krevisky was third tied in points with the German Sach brothers in fourth.  The top five was rounded out with the French team of Cedric and Laurent Bader.  Three of the top five teams were family which is really cool.  By boat manufactured the top five include three Scorpions (1-2-3), one new Goodall Akurra (4) and the new Nacra Evolution (5).  The new Cirrus 901 had a difficult regatta finishing 24th overall.  The crew on the Cirrus 901, Matthieu Marfaing lives in San Diego so he and I attempted to get a Covid test together for our flights home so he told me that they were making a significant change on Friday to rake their mast back further.  Their results showed significant improvement of two 12th places and in the final very wind race they were 4th.  When new boats are developed it takes a lot of testing and regatta experiences to get it dialed in for what the right setting are.  They are planning on racing the Cirrus 901 at the Americas Championship in Long Beach, California in September so we have to see how the boat performs there.

Another noteworthy fact from this Worlds that it is the first Worlds where 100% of the boats had decksweeper main sails.  So from when the DS was first used in 2017 at the Copenhagen worlds it has taken five years for the top fleet to totally convert.  It was also noteworthy how many people had new F18s.  Having a year off from sailing in 2020 due to Covid resulted in many people investing in new boats.

Other awards presented at the awards presentation included:  Top Family Team – Mitch and Ruben, Masters Team (both crew over 50) – Sach Brothers from German; Top Mixed team – Estella Jentsch Steimer from Germany and Max Puttman from Australia ; Top Youth Team – Myrto Papasopoulou from Greece and in a big surprise I was recognized as the oldest competitor in this World Championship. 

Now our summer sailing will take a short break.  On Sunday I fly back to San Diego for the wedding of my youngest daughter so will be home for about ten days.  Meanwhile Steven will tour Rome and Florence.  Our next regatta is uncertain because there are some doubts that the Nacra European Championships will be held at Lake Como.  We are making contingency plans to race at Travemunde Week instead which is a very good option since it is a potential location for the F18 World Championships in 2023.  We will keep you all updated on our next plans.

Also Steven is writing a crew’s perspective of the regatta and searching for more pictures to add within the next few days.

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Today though we were expecting light winds like yesterday we were pleasantly surprised when the sea breeze came in stronger and varied from about 10 to 13 kts. The race committee took advantage of the good wind and gave us four races to get us ahead of schedule. The whole fleet is being very aggressive on the starting line so now we are having the “Black Flag” up for most of the starts. This means that any boat over the line up to one minute before the start is disqualified. About 6-8 boats received black flag disqualifications primarily in the first race today.

We are doing better starting but it is difficult to find clear wind sailing lanes. Usually it is best to go either far left upwind or far right but not to play the middle of the course. So you are forced to decide which way to go with limited clear wind lanes unless you get a really good start and can be faster than all the boats around you. Overall our boat speed was good today especially downwind. Due to the lighter wind forecast we moved our mast rake forward a little and put 4 softer battens in the top of the mainsail to get more draft (curvature) in the mainsail to generate more lift in the lighter winds. The leeward gate mark roundings were crazy with so many boats converging at the same time. We had several close calls with boats hitting us but managed to avoid contact. We had finishes of 37-42-21-46 with the third race being our best so far. We are still in 34th place overall. We still have five races to go with one more throw-out to be applied on Thursday.

Mitch Booth sailing a Scorpion with his son Ruben is the clear leader 23 points ahead of the second place Sach Brothers on a new Akurra. Mitch was previously F18 World Champion in 2000, 2001 and 2002. The Sach Brothers were World Champions in 2006 so there are very experienced sailors at the front of the fleet. Cruz Gonzalez Smith from Argentina is currently in third place. With this size fleet the point spread is still relatively small between the top ten boats so a lot can change in the following races.

Thursday has a similar wind forecast with Friday expected to be windier - maybe as much as on Monday.

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

After the high winds on Monday I believe most of the fleet was glad to have a lighter wind day on Tuesday. We definitely would have preferred more wind than the 5 - 9 kts that we experienced. We are getting better at the starts but having clear wind when going upwind the first leg is very critical but difficult to achieve with a 79 boat fleet. Today the races were also longer averaging 45 to 55 minutes. We had some very tight leeward mark rounds which were stressful but we managed to come through them better off than our competitors. Our finishes for the day were 30-57-40. We were also assessed a 2 point penalty for failing to sign out. Now that we have sailed six races one throw out race is applied which is the 57th so we have a total of 166 points to put us in 35th place. If there had been split fleets this would have qualified us for the gold fleet which was our first objective.

At the top of the fleet we have Mitch Booth representing Australia, then the German Sach brothers in 2nd followed by Patrick Demesmaeker from Belgium. Of the top four boats all are former F18 World or European Champions so it is a very competitive fleet. The new Cirrus 901 is not doing so well currently in 27th place.

The wind forecast for Wednesday and Thursday is currently light with Friday to be windy again. We still have 9 more races so a lot could change.

Monday, July 5, 2021

Today was an incredible start to the 2021 F18 World Championship that will be amongst the sea stories we tell decades into the future. There are 79 boats that measured in - a low turnout due to COVID issues in several countries but there are 24 countries represented including 4 continents so it is truly a World Championship. Besides all the typical European Countries others present include Argentina with 6 boats, Chile with 1 boat, Australia 2 boats and Israel 1 boat. Since we were below the cutoff for dividing the fleet into different heats we are all starting on the same starting line at once. This can be very hectic.

We left the ramp around 12:15 for a scheduled 1:00 pm start but the wind was very light. We arrived in the starting area still with light wind but could see further out to sea there was a very strong wind line with white caps behind it. It took a while for the wind to arrive but when it did the wind went from less than 5 knots to around 15 kts in about 5 minutes. We could tell that it was going to be a windy day. We had a poor start in the first race and were sailing in a lot of wind interference the first part of the race so finished 30th. The wind was increasing in strength the entire race so for the second race were were set up for maximum wind conditions. Another poor start but decent boat speed put us in 28th place for the second race. The course was shorter than normal for Worlds resulting in races that lasted only about 30 minutes when they should be about 45 minutes long. This means that there is less time for the boats to spread out so the mark roundings were very hectic. There were a number of capsizes in the second race and we had two close calls but saved the boat from going over.

By the time the third race was ready to start the wind was very strong about 25 knots. Even more problematic was there were very short and steep waves that you could not surf down. Instead the bows just tried to submarine into each set of waves. Before the race started I told Steven this was a survival race and our goal was to stay upright and finish the race. In a heavy breeze it is easier to control the boat sailing upwind so the first leg was not too bad. Just avoiding other boats became an issue because you did not want to bear off significantly to duck someone who had right of way because the boat would build up tremendous speed. Once we got close to the weather mark it was a different story. As boats were bearing away to set their spinnakers boats were capsizing all around us. We avoided several capsized boats as we rounded the mark and set our spinnaker. As the bows started digging into the waves I could tell that it would not be long before we capsized so I told Steven to take down the spinnaker. A lot of the other boats were doing the same. There was same hairy maneuvering at the leeward gate due to the number of boats and difficulty of controlling your course. We went upwind for a second leg and almost capsized on a tack but saved the boat. Going down wind this time was even more difficult and we did not even attempt to fly the spinnaker. Half way down the leg we jibed and could not stabilize the boat so we capsized. I hung on to the boat but Steven was separated. Luckily he was able to swim fast enough to catch the boat. We then righted it and continued the race. When we finished the race there were only two boats who finished after us but we finished 33rd. So there were 44 boats that did not finish the race. We saved a lot of points by getting around the course and currently stand in 23rd place. Patrick Demesmaeker sailing a new Goodall Akurra is currently in 1st place with an incredible record of 2-1-1 finishes. During this race there were too many capsizes to count. The new Cirrus 901 had finishes of 15-25-25 also capsizing in the third race. One boat from Hungary capsized and both team members were separated from the boat. Then the boat righted itself due to wave action and started to sail towards the shore without anyone on it. Then a power boat tried to catch up with it and couldn’t so the boat hit the rocky shore which severely damaged the hull. Another boat broke their mast and spinnaker pole. There were several serious collisions requiring hull repairs over the evening and several torn sails.

This evening we also had an opening ceremony for the Worlds with us marching through the downtown street of Formia to a plaza. They had kids carrying the flags of each of the countries present. Then there were speaches, music, a flag raising ceremony and Happy Birthday sung to our F18 International President Olivier Bovyn.

Tomorrow the wind forecast is for more reasonable wind which should please most people.

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Steven felt strange today to be where there is no acknowledgement of our Amercian Fourth of July Holiday. But we celebrated together and were surprised when around 9:00 pm some fireworks were set off a flew blocks from our apartment. There must be an American family living close by. Due to my annual European sailing adventures this has been the sixth out of past seven years where I have missed the Fourth in the US.

In the morning we saw the racing results from yesterday and we were pleased to find out that our finishes were 28-10-9 which put us in 10th place out of 45 boats. This does not mean much because many boats sailed only one or two races. The first race was light wind and the final two were once the sea breeze had developed.

Today it was very hot with little wind. We rigged our new spinnaker to the boat for the first time holding off on using it until the World Championships. Peter Vink the head sailmaker at Nacra reviewed our spinnaker setup and gave us a few helpful hints. There was a lot of waiting around since the wind came up very slowly. Finally at 2:30 pm we went into the water. Because of a 4:00 pm time limit I was expecting only one race which was sailed in around 7 knots with about 1.5 foot waves that made it hard going. We managed to do better in this light wind race and maintained our overall 10th place standing. They did start us for a second race, but did no finishes just to give us all a little more practice.

Tomorrow on Monday the World championships start with a competitor’s meeting at 11:00 with the first start scheduled for 1:00. The will be an opening ceremony in the evening. The wind forecast is still good for 15 kts which would be perfect for us. We are not yet sure whether we will be divided into separate fleets for the first two days of qualifier races or sailed all together in one fleet. There are around 23 countries represented with our flags all flying around the boat launch area. There will be five days of racing with 3 races scheduled per day. You can follow results and get pictures at: http://www.f18world2021.org/en/ The internet in our apartment is very slow in the evenings so we will post results each morning for the previous day. All the boats will carry a tracking device so it will be possible to watch the races real time through the Worlds website.

Saturday, July 3, 2021

We arrived at the marina around 9:30 to start getting ready for the Italian regatta. It was already very hot with no wind. We did some prep work on the boat and caught up with friends from previous worlds. They finally said we could go on the water around 1:00 but the wind was still very light. We were one of the first boats to launch. It is fairly difficult to launch and retrieve boats from the ramp but they have a good support crew that is making the job easier. We headed to the race course which was about two miles away. The race committee kept the race postponement flag up a long time waiting for the sea breeze to materialize. Finally around 2:00 some wind filled in so they started the first race. There were about 30 boats racing but not all had formally signed up for the races. We sailed three races with each one getting more wind when for the third race it was over 20 knots of wind. This was the windiest race so far for Steven and I since arriving in Europe and the waves were bigger than at Lake Garda. We are struggling to get good starts but getting around the course is going well. I have not been able to find results yet on line but believe we are in the top 25% of the boats. In the final race we saw a boat rip a brand new white spinnaker almost in half, on a boat in front of us the helmsman fell overboard, and there were many capsizes. There was one serious collision at one of the starts where two boats require some fiberglass repair. We had one almost capsize situation where the bow of our boat started to dig into a wave and trip the boat into a pitchpole capsize. Steven went flying forward but managed to grab the shroud wire (which holds up the mast) to prevent flying further forward. The bow came back up so we continued to sail.

Tomorrow we leave the dock at 1:00 pm and I suspect we will have similar wind conditions. We are going to try our new spinnaker which we have not used yet. Our goal for tomorrow will be to race but not to take any risks for damaging the boat, sails or people before the start of the World Championships on Monday. Now the wind forecast for Monday is very windy which we like. For the World Championships each boat is assigned a bow number for the race committee to use to spot boats over the line. Our assigned bow number is “01” since I was the first boat to register for this event in 2020 which carried over to this year.

Friday, July 2, 2021

The organization of the regatta has been a little chaotic with no signup sheet for boat weighing appointments. Therefore, we decide to be at the marina early on Friday morning to put our boat at the head of the line for weighing which is supposed to start at 9:00. We were first in line at 8:30 not sure if they were even going to weigh boats since no one was there yet. The measurement team arrived at 9:30 so we were their first boat. The process took a while but we were finally done. The boat weighed at 185.8 kg - only .8 kg over the minimum weight so we do not need to carry any extra lead on the boat. Also Steven and I weighed in at 158 kg (348 lbs) 8 kg over the minimum crew weight and a very good weight especially if there is good wind.

We then rigged the boat to go for our first sail on Gaeta Bay. An unusual situation in this harbor is that high speed ferries come to Formia every few hours and we are not allowed to be on the water in the harbor when they arrive. They have a red flag system so that when a ferry is approaching the red flag goes up and we can not launch our boat or come back into the harbor until the ferry has cleared. We were on the water by 1:30 - the last boat allowed out before the next ferry. We sailed almost two hours in a very nice wind of around 15 kts. We have now had three straight days of good wind so maybe the light wind forecast is not accurate. Sometimes it is difficult for the wind forecast models to accurately forecast thermal wind systems which is what we have here.

We also registered for the Italian local regatta with the first race starting at 12:30 on Saturday.

We are taking advantage of having a kitchen in our apartment by cooking our own evening meals. Last night we made our own spagehiti with sausage.

Thursday, July 1, 2021

We spent all day yesterday driving from Lake Garda to Formia, Italy. Most of the drive was on the Autostrada and took us about nine hours including stops. When we arrive we dropped the boat off at the Marina for the Worlds base station. There were already about fifteen boats there some being assembled and others still on their trailers. We got our first look at the new Cirrus 901 F18 with its radical hull design. This will be one of the most interesting aspects of this Worlds to see how this boat performs. Yesterday and today the wind is very good in the 15-20 knot range which would be perfect but the weather forecast for the next week is for it to warm up and have less wind maybe just in the 7 - 10 kts range which would be very disappointing. This area is known for frequent afternoon thunderstorms but there are currently none in the forecast.

Friday morning we are going to try to be at the head of the line for having the boat weighed and then set it up for a sail in the afternoon. There is a weekend pre-regatta scheduled to start on Saturday. We plan to participate.

Here in Formia we have rented an apartment for our ten day stay which is called the “Aussie Dream House”. We have a great view over the Bay of Gaeta where we will be racing and nice breezes through the apartment. Gaeta is also the homeport of the Flagship of the US Sixth Fleet, the USS Mount Whitney. The Flagship is the ship that carries the Admiral in charge of the entire fleet.

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

This update is primarily written by Steve Leuck from the crew’s perspective.

The final day of the event was the windiest we had seen; from the start of the morning it was already blowing consistently 15 knots and building. Knowing that we were quick in the breeze and already having 2 OCS race finishes, we adjusted our starting strategy to be much more conservative. On the first race of the day, we started near the boat in the second row hoping to tack out to the right side of the course as soon as possible. We did this successfully, but at the same time realized that the top 5 boats were all going out to the left side after starting near the pin end of the line. This worried us, but we committed to going right because that was what seemed to work in previous days.  We ended up converging with the top boats at the first mark in a what seemed like controlled chaos. After weaving around a boat tacking from port to starboard at the mark and rolling another on the reach we found ourselves in a decent position for the downwind and held onto it for the remainder of the race. We finished 10th in this race.

In the second race we had the same mindset and execution for the start and first leg of the race.  After finishing the first downwind we noticed that the breeze had gone way right to where we could almost lay the top mark without another tack. This did not last and there ended up being some 40 degree shifts and wild puffs that mixed up the top of the fleet. We lost a couple boats by not playing the big shift on the next upwind but still managed a single digit finish in 7th place. 

Everyone that I’ve ever talked to that has sailed at Lake Garda always says, “you have to go to the right side of the course”. On the final race of the regatta, we ended up being the furthest boat on the left side of the course after the start and rounded in the top 8. On the next and final upwind we went all the way left again and gained a few more boats. On the downwind we passed two more boats for a 4th place finish which was the best of our event.

Going into the last day of the event we had a couple of goals set and frameworks in place to achieve those goals. The goals were to have no more letters in our score line and single digit finishes. Ultimately we achieved this goal, but more so we learned a ton more about how the boat sails and teamwork within the boat. We are on our way down to Gaeta for the World Championships with a caravan of at least 15 other F18s from Lake Garda.

As always, the most exciting part of the event is seeing the carnage that occurs after 3 days of sailing in 15-22knots of wind. On our boat we had no major breaks, just a couple of small malfunctions in rigging that did not hinder us that much. After arriving on shore after the last race there were a half dozen boats already in the parking lot. One boat had two large tears in the sail that were caused by a windward boat capsizing on the downwind and puncturing their sail with the mast. The other carnage included a broken spinnaker pole from a crew landing on it during a capsize, a broken jib halyard, and some battens sticking out of the sail from the wrong end.

So our final result was 13th place.  Turns out there was only one throw-out race so the two disqualifications hurt us a lot.  Here are the final results. You may wonder how a French/Danish team can win the German National Championships. If the regatta is designated as an “Open” event as this one was then a team of any nationality can win the event.

1st:  France – Cedric Bader and Nicolaj Bjornholt (Denmark) sailing a Nacra Evolution

2nd:  Germany – Manuel and Fabian Wunderle sailing a Naca Evolution

3rd:  Germany – Bob and Marc Baier sailing a Exploder Scorpion

4th:  Germany – Helge and Christian Sach sailing a Goodall Akurra

5th:  Germany – Kim and Vreni Tolsdorf sailing a Windrush Edge

 Two interesting facts: 4 different boat builders were represented in the top five.  I believe that the more critical factor was consistency in calling where to sail and not making mistakes.  Another interesting fact was that in the top five boats four of the teams had the same last name meaning (2 pairs of brothers, a father/son team and a husband/wife team).  Also nine of the 29 teams had a female team member which is a much higher ratio than we have been achieving in the US.

Monday, June 28, 2021

Today the wind filled in even sooner and by the third race it was blowing 15 to 22 kts. We had a reasonably good start in the first race and were working well up the course so were rounding the weather mark in the top 12 boats. When we reached the off-set mark to do a jibe-set of the spinnaker the top of the spinnaker got stuck on a mainsail batten and started to rip. We managed to get it off and get going. Luckily the rip did not expand and we could keep racing with the spinnaker. We ended 18th in that race. For the second race we thought that we had a good start since there were two boats above us. Turns out all three of us were disqualified for being over the line early. In the final race with the strongest wind we placed 9th. So not a great series but Steven and I are learning a lot working together in high wind and stressful racing conditions. There were several capsizes where we passed boats that were in front of us and we sail a solid last race. Overall we are currently in 17th place. The top two boats remained the same only one point apart. The French team of Cedric Bader and Nicolaj Bjornholt moved into third place and the Sach Brothers now in 4th place. The photo boat was out today but I have not found any pictures of the racing that I can share. We will be fixing the spinnaker tonight and continue with the racing tomorrow.

An interesting note concerning the robotic buoys. Today one of the German teams hit one of the bott buoys serving at the leeward gate and knocked out the GPS controlling system. They were presented a bill by the Italian club for 2,300 Euros (about $2,700 USD). Now that I know that I will especially avoid hitting those expensive buoys.

Sunday, June 27, 2021

The first day of racing started with a competitor’s meeting at 11:00 where they described the courses. A big change from when I was here before is that they are now using GPS controlled buoys (we call botts) instead of anchoring buoys. Lake Garda is so deep over 1,000 ft (300 meters) that it is difficult to anchor. In the past they used cinder blocks and just left them on the bottom after a day of racing.

We have 29 boats on the starting line and completed three races today. At first we were not sure if we would have the normal wind because at 12:30 the wind was still very light but it came in strongly right on schedule before 1:00. For the racing we had 15 to 19 kts which was perfect conditions.

We were off to a good start in the first race but knew that we were close to the line near the middle of the starting line. Though we finished 4th were were disqualified for being over early. We also had an extremely exciting finish needing to gybe to get across the finish line. Our bow crossed the line and then we promptly capsized but had finished. In the second race we started at the wrong end of the line and finished mid-fleet in 15th place. For the final race we started in the pack near the committee boat and finished 9th place. There will be one or two races to be discarded depending on how many races we have. We are very happy with our boat speed both upwind and downwind. We just need to do a better job on starts and boat handling at the leeward mark.

The current leaders are Bob and Marc Baier with very good results of 2-1-1 followed by the “Wonder Brothers” Manuel and Fabian Wunderle with 1-4-3 finishes in a Nacra Evolution. In third place are the Sach brothers (4-5-2) sailing the new Goodall Akurra.

Saturday, June 26, 2021

On Friday we had another training session which went well. It is amazing how consistently strong the wind is on Lake Garda. You can set your watch to when the wind comes up. There were about 15 boats on the water Friday going up wind together and then downwind. It was so much fun going up and down the lake.

On Saturday we had a personal training session with Peter Vink who is the technical director at Nacra in charge of boat building and sail making. He followed us going upwind in a rib boat providing critic of our sail trim and making good suggestions. He also followed us for a few down wind runs. For the most part it was confirming that we had the boat set up well with a couple of adjustments. We only stayed on the water for about 1.5 hours to save energy for the next three days of racing. Most likely we will have three races per day Sunday through Tuesday.

There are 31 boats registered for the event: Germany 20 boats, Austria 4 boats, Denmark 2, France 2, Finland 1, Italy 1, and USA 1.

There are many new boats here including 2 Akurra’s by Goodell (an Australian company). One is sailed by the Sach brothers former F18 World Champions and the other by my good friends from Denmark, Jan and Penny. They just picked up their boat on Thursday so they quickly assembled it after their arrival yesterday. There are also many new Nacra Evolutions like ours and a strong fleet of Windrush Edge F18’s also from Australia. It looks virtually the entire fleet will have decksweeper mainsails with only a few exceptions.

We have a competitors meeting at 11:00 am on Sunday and the first warning signal at 1:00 pm.

Thursday, June 24, 2021

We have had a very eventful four days since my last update. On Sunday we had a nice drive from Wurzburg into Austria with a short run of only about 300 km. Shortly after we entered Austria close to our hotel we noticed an old castle on one hill and a fortress on the opposite hill with a hanging bridge between the two. We decided to stop and toured the area hiking about six miles and then had lunch in the cafe. We have found very different Covid restrictions as we travel around. Most places if you eat outside there is no checking except that you have to register for contact tracing purposes. In Austria we had to show either a vaccination card or recent Covid test to be seated outside. We had a nice lunch and then proceeded to our hotel.

Since our hotel was in the country and not on the main road we had difficulty finding it due to a construction detour. Since we were traveling slowly without air flow through the engine all of a sudden the engine overheating alarm sounded and the dash board told us to stop the car immediately which I did. We opened the hood to let the engine cool off and I set off on foot to walk 2 KM to find the hotel. At the hotel they offered to have one of their cars tow the boat to the hotel. Meanwhile Steven stayed with the boat resting on the trampoline. Once I returned the car had cooled down so we could start it to drive to the hotel. From looking at the engine we determined that the fan was not running when the car was stopped which caused the overheating. That evening I researched VW car mechanics and found a location only 17 KM from us. We took off in the morning confident that we could get there since the car would be at speed getting air cooling. The car mechanics were great. They quickly troubleshot the problem and found a blown fuse and damage on a controller that sat on top of the battery. Luckily they had an older VW sitting on their lot that they could cannabilze the part from. They installed the part and the fan then worked fine. We had a very unexpected bonus when we found that the air conditioning was now also working. We had resigned ourselves to driving through Italy with no A/C so this was especially appreciated.

On Monday, after a short drive through the Austrian Alps we arrive in Lake Garda. We were able to set up the boat in the afternoon so that we would be ready to sail on Tuesday. There were already about five F18s here so we would have training partners including my good friend Dieter. On Tuesday we took the boat out for its first sail in about 15-18 kts of wind. It was just awesome with the warm temperature and cool fresh water spraying over us flying along the gorgeous lake. This is truly the best place in the world to sail. We made one mistake on a jibe so ended up capsizing. It was good to get this out of our system early and we figured out what we did wrong. When we came in from the sail we had a small punch list of things to improve on the boat.

On Wednesday we went for our second sail once the afternoon wind came up around 1:00 pm. Again just awesome conditions. It is so popular here that there are a lot of kite boards and windsurfers to avoid. Also the Optimist (a youth sail boat) World Championships will be here next week so there are more than 100 Opti’s already practicing on the lake.

On Thursday we did a double practice session going out at 9:00 for the northerly morning breeze. We almost stayed out too long. We then had lunch and a siesta before going out for an afternoon session. In training with other boats we are happy with our boat speed both upwind and downwind. Of course every evening we are having wonderful Italian meals.

Now more boats are arriving for the German National Championships. There are currently 31 boats registered (which is small due to Covid). In 2017 for the same regatta there were 60 boats. Surprisingly there are no Italian boats entered but there is one Finish boat and two Danish boats. We start racing on Sunday for three days. Then next Wednesday all 31 boats will be heading to Formia, Italy for the World Championships.

Saturday, June 19, 2021

We have had three eventful days. On Thursday we finished final touches on rigging the boat including aligning the rudders. Then the F18 class measurer for Netherlands came by to check our boat and sails. We were happy that the boat weighed 0.5 kg (about 1.1 lbs) under weight. We will have to carry 0.5 kg of lead on the dolphin striker to make up the difference but then as the boat ages and gets heavier we will be able to remove the weight. The measurer came from the CatPoint sailing club where Matt Morris and I sailed in 2017 so he remembered me. Afterwards Steven and I went swimming in the North Sea which was surprisingly warm - probably about 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

On Friday morning we picked up the boat from the Nacra facility and started down the road with the goal to drive about half way through Germany to Wurzburg. We were barely an hour into the trip when an engine computer warning light came on. Once we were into Germany we researched a VW auto mechanic who could check to see what was wrong. He determined that is was a temperature sensor cable which luckily he had in stock so within about 1.5 hours we were back on the road. The German Autobahns have significantly improved in that last two years with their expansion from two to three lanes in many places so we made good time to arrive in Wurzburg around 7:00 pm. It was extremely hot all day reaching a peak of 35 degrees Celcius (95 Farenheit). We found a nice bar with food right on the Main River with the Wurzburg fortress looking down upon us.

Today we spent the afternoon touring around Wurzburg including climbing the hill up to the fortress. Steven has been very energetic preparing for our regattas by running and working out every other day.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Today we have been at the Nacra shop in Scheveningen, Netherlands to pick up our new Evolution. We are excited to get the new boat. We spent all day assembling the boat in the Nacra shop. It was nice to be out of the sun because today was the warmest day in Netherlands so far this year reaching 80+ degrees (30+ Celcius). The new boat is basically the same as my boat in San Diego but they have made a few updates. The most significant is a system whereby you can adjust the mainsail outhaul easily from the trampoline when you are in the trapeze wire. We are very interested in trying this new system. Below is a sequence of pictures as we started to assemble the boat. Tomorrow we will align the rudders and do some final preparations. We will also have the boat and sails measured by an independent measurer tomorrow to provide the certifications we require to sail in the World Championships in Italy.

June 13, 2021

We arrived in Europe on Wednesday, June 9th after navigating all the Covid requirements for the long trip. Even though we are both vaccinated with the Moderna Covid vacine we had to get tested within 48 hours of our flight. We also had to submit the Covid documentation to the German Government for entry under the allowance for people to travel for international sports events. The trip was even more complicated because we flew through Copenhagen and also had to meet their requirements. The best aspect of the trip was that on our long flight from Chicago to Copenhagen the plane was only about 1/3 full so we each had a row of seats to use as a bed.

We spent one day in Zweibrucken preparing the car and gear for the trip to Denmark to retrieve the boat. We even had time to take a tourist trip into France where we visited one of the sections of the Maginot Line used to defend against attacks by Germany during WWII. We were the only visitors so had a private tour through the bunkers and even got to help to operate one of the gun turrets which has been restored. They were very surprised to see visitors from the US.

On Friday we drove towards Denmark stopping in Hamburg for a nice German dinner. This was Steven’s first drive on the German autobahn were he was able to test the car’s capabilities up to 100 mph. Once we have the boat trailer behind us we will be traveling in the truck lane.

On Saturday we drove to Denmark to pick up the boat. We had no issues at the border where they were only doing random car checks so there were no further Covid checks of us.

We met with the Kueslers on their farm to retrieve my boat which had been stored there since August of 2019. The boat needed a good cleaning and we started reorganizing the gear in the catbox. The plan is to take the boat to the German Nacra dealer near Hamburg on Monday to turn over to sell before we pick up a new Nacra Evolution in Netherlands on Wednesday. After visiting with the Kueslers a little we went into Sonderborg so Steven could see a little of a Danish town. We walked around the fort and went to the Sonderborg Yacht Club where I have previously sailed.

On Sunday we finished organizing the sailing gear to prepare the boat for sale. We then had time to explore the wonderful city of Hamburg. We started in the harbor area taking the pedestrian and bicycle tunnel under the Elb river. Afterwards we joined a harbor cruise going under the bow of the largest containership in the world. We walked a total of 14 miles ( 22 km) around the city and enjoyed another wonderful German dinner.

May 23, 2021

Finally it looks like we will have a racing season in Europe. This past week the EU announced that they will open travel to Europe for vaccinated people from the US so I now have made flight reservations for us to depart for Frankfurt on June 8th. I have a new sailing partner, Steven Leuck, 23 years old who will be going to Europe with me. He graduated last year from from the College of Charleston where he was a member of the #1 collegiate sailing team in the US. Lately he has been doing a lot of coaching for a high school sailing team north of Chicago. In the meantime we have been having a good series of regattas in Southern California. Coming up next weekend is the ABYC Memorial Day regatta in Long Beach where we are expecting ten F18s. We are currently training in Long Beach and seeing the typical 12 to 20 kts of wind in the afternoon.

So our game plan for Europe is to fly to Frankfurt on June 8th, then spend a few days getting over jet lag visiting my cousin Frank and getting the car ready for the summer trip. Then we drive to Denmark to pick up the trailer and my 2012 Nacra Infusion. We will take the Infusion to the German Nacra dealer to put up for sale on consignment. Then we will head to the Nacra factory in Netherlands to pick up a new Nacra Evolution to be my new European boat. We are looking forward to assemble the boat and are glad that we have been sailing an Evolution for the past year in California so that we are comfortable with the boat.

After the F18 World Championships in Gaeta, Italy I will fly back to San Diego for a one week stay because my youngest daughter is getting married which I would not miss. Here wedding date falls during a gap in our racing schedule so it will be a nice trip home to walk my daughter down the aisle. For this trip I will be flying from Rome and then return to Rome. While I am in San Diego Steven will be exploring Italy.