European 18ft Grand Prix: Lake Garda

Day 1:

The European 18ft Skiff Grand Prix got off to a challenging start in Lake Garda on Friday, with central European weather systems playing havoc with the usually predictable thermal breezes of the Italian Lakes. 17 Teams from 7 countries have turned up to this opening event of the circuit, which bodes well for a large turnout at the International Series in two weeks time in Six Fours, on the South coast of France, when the Australian and US teams will join the action.

As the teams arrived at the dinghy park on Friday morning, they were greeted by a 20-25 knot Northerly, with little sunshine in the sky. This was gradient wind which was forecast to stay for the day, so No2 rigs were the weapon of choice by the whole fleet. However as it came to launching time, it was clear the wind was dying and becoming marginal for the small rigs. Most of the fleet continued to go afloat, while Ronstan was the only team to try and squeeze in a rig change to the No1 before the starting gun.

The fleet got away to a tidy first start, and with the wind being strongest in the centre of the lake, and hence the right of the course, most of the fleet tacked off early. However it was PICA, helmed for this event by rising UK 49er star Dave Evans, crewed by Simon Hiscocks and Stewart Mears, who came into the top mark leading, having hung on to the left a little more before tacking and getting the benefit of a long lifting tack. They were closely followed by Investec helmed by Mason Woodworth, and Pindar with Andy Richards at the helm, last years European Grand Prix champions. There was still enough breeze for a three wire blast down to the leeward mark, but with the wind dropping it proved to be a more tactical one with Pindar moving up to first when Investec fluffed their kite take down, and PICA and sailed too far to the right of the course and out of the wind.

Pindar went onto to round the next top mark holding off Investec, who then promptly tipped it in on the bear away letting PICA up through into the second. A quick recovery by Investec just kept them ahead of the Danish Bodotex team, and Ronstan scything through the fleet with their big rig on, managing to get up to 5th place even though they started a few minutes late. The rest of the fleet struggled into the finish in the dying breeze, with the race officer then signalling to everyone to get ashore quickly ... a phone call from the other side of the mountains correctly predicted a thunderstorm with rain and 40 knot winds which luckily hit the fleet after everyone had got safely to shore. End of racing for that day.

Saturday is forecast for similar conditions, while Sunday is hoped will clear up to give traditional Garda breezes and sunshine.

Day 2:

Day 2 of the European 18ft Skiff Grand Prix as predicted started with overcast skies, with a fairly light northerly 5-10 knot breeze. The teams all duly rigged up with their larger No1 rigs but approaching the start at midday, the wind switched to its southerly thermal "Ora" direction, without it seemed any prospect of it building during the day with the lack of sunshine - this assumption was soon blown away by the end of the first race!

4 races in the end were run in which was to prove a very eventful day. First out of the blocks were PICA (GBR) showing the fleet the way round the course after a perfect port end start enabling them to tack across the fleet and sail off into the distance, with Dave Evans and his team proving that their second place in the yesterday's race was no beginner's luck. Ed Browne in Gill / Wild Graphics (GBR) showed they were back on the pace with a second place, leading a bunch of boats crossing the line within seconds led by GP Covers (DEN), Ronstan (GBR) and Pindar (GBR).

By the time the second race started, the breeze had built to a challenging 15-18 knots, giving the crews a handful with their No1 rigs. Elcotec (ITA) showed that their winter training in the lake breezes had paid off leading the fleet round the first mark, but they were soon overhauled by Pindar and GP Covers. The breeze then got up to over 20 knots and the second downwind leg was a scene of devastation as only the leading three boats were upright at on point, with the rest of fleet coping with tricky bear-aways at the top mark or pitchpoling antics at the gybes into a unusually steep Garda chop. This resulted in a couple of breakages, not least PICA who snapped a main shroud, and Ronstan who snapped a cap shroud - amazingly through quick thinking both managed to save their rigs intact! A more serious incident however occurred one of the German skiffs, when in a nasty pitchpole downwind, the middleman suffered a broken leg and torn ankle ligaments - a sober reminder to all the teams that these skiffs must always be treated with respect once the breeze kicks in. Pindar managed to hang onto their lead with GP Covers just behind, and Space Models (GER) showing that good boat handling and just hanging in their can get you a great result coming in third - only 7 skiffs out of 17 finished that race!

Race 3 was by now overpowered for No1 rigs, and Ronstan had managed to quickly change over to their No2 rig after their No1 cap shroud damage. They had close battle with Pindar who had decided to hang in with their No1 rig, with Ronstan having the edge upwind and Pindar closing up downwind. However Ronstan showed the way home followed by Pindar and Elcotec who also stayed with their No1 rig.

IN the last race of the day, PICA managed to also get back out in their No2 rig, and again showed the fleet the way round the course followed by Ronstan. Pindar were bringing up third, but then an uncharacteristic pitchpole on the downwind leg dropped them back to eighth, with Mason Woodworth and his Investec team getting back up the leader board to finish 3rd.

The final day of racing takes place on Sunday with another 4 races planned. The event is wide open, especially when discards start taking effect. Sunshine is forecast with hopefully some more breeze!

Top 10 Results (5 races, one discard)
1. Pindar (GBR) 9pts
2. Ronstan (GBR) 12pts
3. Gill / Wild Graphics (GBR) 16pts
4. Investec (GBR) 20pts
5. GP Covers (DEN) 21 pts
6. PICA (GBR) 22pts
7. Space Model (GER) 27 pts
8. Liberty Sailing Team (HUN) 27 pts
9. Elcotec (ITA) 31 pts
10. Bodotex (DEN) 33pts


Report written and prepared by dear friend:

Christophe Favreau

www.christophefavreau.book.fr

Velocity Made Good in May!

The Spring season means something different to each of us, whether a boat owner or crew. If you are a college sailor, this time of year makes the Christmas rush seem like a slow stroll as they balance school, training, practice, regattas and maybe the occasional non-sailing social affair. The day-to-day life of a college sailing team and respective coaches would surely bring most of us to our knees.

To really keep this young pool of talent on their game, the ICSA has modified their format for teams to qualify for the National Championships. For all those college basketball fans who invest countless hours in making their picks for March Madness, we can now add College Sailing picks to the yearly agenda. This is an excellent sign of how far college sailing has come. The number of potential qualifiers has grown such to create individual conferences, according to an April report from ICSA, there are currently seven.

Visit the Velocity Made Good Blog presented by SailFast for full report...

Sailing Road Trips...

...are never without something occurring! We corralled for a 0730 departure from Noank, CT...



and maybe two hours into our trip the trailer's tires chose not to continue on with us...




...four new tires later and we made it out of the state for a rather uneventful trip to Annapolis. Well, I take that back...driving a M30 through narrow toll stations and getting gas make for a new sort of adventure.




We arrived to Bert Jabin's BEAUTIFUL Yacht Yard a tad too late for use of the crane, but quickly prepped our girl for first shot at it the following morning.

The crew was very focused on weigh-in, over anything and the scale was the first thing unpacked when we arrived to the yard!

Being a cautious team, everyone joined in a light run that night and thanks to the efficient efforts of the yard, we all remained in good spirits for the finals push to get the boat ready for an afternoon of practice on Thursday.

All in all, aside from tire troubles, our boat and team where very prepared for the event this past weekend. It was amazing to see the impact it had on our sailing. We were able to fit in plenty of practice, address concerns as they arouse, still make it to the tent party and have team time while making it to bed at a decent hour to hit the "repeat button" next morning.

I am extremely proud of the team this weekend and believe our success of a productive regatta to initiate the M30 season was a result of early communications about weights, members taking time on the weekend to complete boat projects and arriving to the event early and well prepared.


Photo: Ian Burman

Furthermore, we made time to debrief before and after sailing, enjoyed the social venue however ended each night as a team and started each day as a team over a nice breakfast (boat owner Scott Baker gets the gold star for getting our butts out of bed and in gear! While tactician Randy Shore inspired us to take time for a team sit down breakfast.)

Oh and I can not forget the team bonding over electronic golf our last night...good times on the water and shore side at Annapolis NOODS!

Special Thank You to SailFast Apparel for keeping us in fashion and cool (it was hot hot hot the first two days), Bert Jabin Yard and to the organizers of the event; we had a wonderful time despite the fickled weather.

Fresh like the season...

A new look for the home site:



SailTrim's been referenced as bit of a "Chameleon" since it does constantly change face. I've come to appreciate the way of a Chameleon, reptiles are some of the oldest living creatures on this planet. They know how to survive and no matter what color the Chameleon changes to: it's still a Chameleon!

SailTrim was born out of a passion for sailing and science and a mission to ensure sailors stays active on the water. SailTrim is a way of life and will keep tweaking the appearance till the right shade matches the needs of the global community.

Not into Chameleons and prefer sticking with sailing analogies...do you let the sails luff or find over trimmed sails to be fast? No... to survive the race course and stay on top involves a lot of tweaking along the way...

Cheers and thank you!
Jenn

High School sailors rock!

The sun may have been out in beautiful Hyannis, MA but it was bitter cold with water temperatures in the high 30s and wind-chill in the 30s or less, breeze on Saturday started in the high teens and worked up to gust in the 40s...why am I sharing this and how does it related to High School sailors rocking it out?

I rejoined the incredible coaching duo of Tim Fallon and Kyle Shuttuck for the "Raising the Sail" 420 Advanced Racing Clinic hosted by Barnstable High School Sailing Boosters Club and Hyannis Yacht Club. We had 42 enthusiastic kids present, representing 5 different New England High Schools and all with a clear passion for sailing.



The break down for the weekend was similar to last years clinic (see here for last year's post) with a balance of "chalk" talks, land-based warm ups, on the water drills and both fleet and team racing...all in one weekend! The best quote which explains how and why this is pulled off with great success comes from one of the coaches:

"You have to be smart enough to be stupid enough to want to do it" (to spend a day practicing in the freezing cold with your sailing pals to be a better sailor) ~ Kyle Shuttuck

It was very cold but beautiful weather made perfect by the participants, event organizers, volunteers, coaches and the numerous sponsors ~ THANK YOU!







On Sunday it was all about Team racing and having a bit of fun with making the other boat go S L OW!!





Three of SailTrim industry partners where supporters of this event:

SailFast Clothing (Check out some of there new design for Spring/Summer)
Atlantis Weather Gear
Harken

I'll have a slide show up when I get all the photos downloaded ~ have a great season!!

Fair Winds,
Jenn