RC44 Trapani-Day 2

Trapani, Italy

Four races for the RC44 fleet today in the Mediterranean Sea just off Trapani’s north shore. Winds were 7-15 knots from the north-northeast. The sun was out and it was a beautiful spring day.

The first two races were quite shifty but for the second two, the wind steadied down quite a bit and the right side of the course, along the coast, paid.

Onboard Artemis we had a decent day…nothing flash. We collected 25 points which puts us in 7th place but just 7 points separates us from 2nd place.

Katusha had a slightly better day with 22 points, 12 of those in the last race.

Many of the boats were quite inconsistent. Cereef, with Igor Lah at the helm, had the best and most consistent day with scores of 2, 5, 3, 2.

Racing continues tomorrow through Sunday. For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC44 Trapani Day 1

Trapani, Sicilia, Italia

Today was the first day of the RC44 event here and match racing was on the menu. The match racing is a rolling series throughtout the season-one day per event. A cumulative score decides the winner at the end of the season.

Today was a challenging day wind wise but race officer Peter “Luigi” Reggio managed 6 flights in the 3-10 knot breeze. The direction was anywhere between 060 and 270 as thunder clouds covered the race course all day. Tricky day for everyone.

Onboard Artemis, with Torbjorn Tornqvist, we managed to go 3 and 3. Nothing really remarkable other than every race was in question right to the finish line. Our stablemates Katusha won the day going 4 and 0 including winning the in-house derby despite being penalized at the start. Some teams had byes and others raced all 6 flights.

For the season so far, Katusha is leading the match racing series, Artemis second and Aqua third.

Tomorrow the fleet racing portion of the series begins and continues through Sunday.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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Magnus Olsson

Magnus Olsson was a giant bottle of “Positive Attitude” that you could pour on anything and make it shine.

For Magnus it wasn’t a matter of the glass half full or half empty. The glass was just full all the time.

His personality and enthusiasm were magnetic. He was the center of gravity of every boat, every meeting, every project. From heads of state to children sailing optis, Magnus could hang with them all.

He is one of the very few people I have ever known who everyone liked.

It is very sad to lose a guy like Magnus. Irreplaceable…. most definitely one of a kind, a legend!

But it is fair to say that few, if any, got more out of their time on this planet than Magnus Olsson.

For those of us who were lucky enough to have shared part of his life with him, we are blessed.

Thank you, Mange. We are all smiling thinking of you!

Paul

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