photos by Zerogradinord

San Francisco

Two races were held today on Berkeley Circle for the J70 fleet. The first one was in non-planing conditions of 8-12 knots and the second had winds of 15-20 knots.

It’s impressive how competitive the fleet is.  Yesterday’s convincing winner, Flojito, scored a 20 and 10 today.  Judd Smith who is third overall scored a 19, 1 today.  Claudia Rossi (ITA) is the most consistent; other than her 15th in the first race, she has been in the top 5 each race but has yet to win one. She is now leading with 19 points.

Today’s winner was Joel Ronin in his Catapult with John Kostecki calling the shots.  The score a 1, 3 and are now in second place overall, 2 points behind Rossi.

There was actually a third race today that was abandoned at the half way point when the race committee realized the course had been set with 20 degrees of error.  In this race Ronin and Smith were 1, 2 which is nearly identical to how they scored in the re-run of the race so justice was served there.

The top 5 are starting to shape up and with 5 races to go, any of them could win.  Rossi is both fast and getting good starts so she is going to be tough to beat.

Onboard Calvi Network, we had an ok day.  In the first race we made a nice comeback to finish 5th.   In the second race of the day, I took us to the left side of the course looking for the early ebb current coming out of the South Bay but the right hand shift outweighed the current.  We rounded the first mark about 15th and only managed to come back to 11th.

We are in 4th place overall, 10 points out of first.  With 5 races left, there is plenty of opportunity to move up and down the scoreboard.

Tomorrow’s schedule has three races planned. The forecast is calling for 15-20 knots.

For complete results go to: https://www.regattatoolbox.com/results?eventID=klcyTZvX7U

 

photo’s by Zerogradinord

San Francisco

68 J70’s lined up for the first two races of the 2016 World Championship on Tuesday on Berkeley Circle… the eastern side of San Francisco Bay.  After three days of “non San Francisco” conditions over the wekend-85 degrees with sailors waiting around for wind while complaining of it being to hot in the parking lot-“San Francisco” came back.  In the second race of the day, conditions ranged from 18-25 knots with choppy seas which left more than one competitor on his side with the gennaker up.

I am sailing as tactician on Carlo Alberini’s-Calvi Network.  I sailed with Carlo and the rest of the team two weeks ago in Riva del Garda as a training exercise.  We got a few days of training in here in San Francisco but we are still relatively new to each other.

In the first race, which was delayed until noon, the fleet was anxious and pushed the line too hard resulting in an eventual “black flag” start.  16 boats were identified in the black flag start.  As boats are not called in a black flag start, they don’t go back or get out of the way of those who started properly.  This factor had a negative effect on our race as we were in the fourth row at the start and had to dig our way out ultimately only getting to 23rd at the finish.   Further, I didn’t make the best calls tactically so we didn’t move up as much as we should have in the 12-14 knot southwesterly winds.  The first two boats across the line had been identified as “Black Flag” and therefore the third boat actually won the race.  This was Judd Smith and his boat Africa. Second place went to Joel Ronin in his Catapult with John Kostecki calling tactics and trimming the mainsail.  Current world Champion Julien Fernandez in Flojito y Cooperando with Bill Hardest calling tactics scored 3rd.

For the second race, the famous San Francisco fog started to show itself and the wind came up to 18 knots at the start.  This start was again under the black flag but we found a low density place along the line and had a clear start.  Our speed immediately was good although Judd Smith was just to leeward of us and going a bit better, eventually forcing us to the right.  We went all the way to the right which is historically the way to go when racing on Berkeley Circle.  We rounded the first mark first with a 100 meter lead.  The downwind was about high speed planing and keeping the boat under control when gybing.  Carlo sailed very well in these tough conditions and we managed to hang on and win the race.  In close pursuit was Claudia Rossi, also of Italy, and the current European Champion, with her Petit Terrible who were faster than us both up and downwind.  They are going to be very tough in this regatta in my opinion.  In third was a good friend of mine Chris Kostanecki of Ross, CA in his Jennifer with my childhood friend and Olympic medalist Jeff Madrigali calling tactics.

Today’s schedule is for three races beginning at 11:00.  The forecast is for 12-16 knots of wind from the southwest.  The water will be choppy again as the current will be going out of the bay most of the afternoon. This will be a long and tiring day-as if three races wasn’t enough, there is the one hour sail home after racing to get back to the Club.

For complete results and live tracking go to: https://www.stfyc.com/j70worlds2016

Paul

 

 

Photos Max Ranchi

Mahon, Menorca

Two races were held today off the east coast of Menorca. The wind in the first race was 8 knots from the Southwest and the second race had 16 knots from the Northeast.  There was a big wind shift between the two races and the Race Committee did a good job being patient and waiting for the front to pass and the wind to settle.

In the first race, I made a mistake I will regret for a while and its a mistake I have made before.  I started over early with the black flag enforce. It was self inflicted as I had the leeward end of the line won and it was just up to me to decide when to pull the trigger.  So we were disqualified at the start.

There was a big split in the fleet with Azzurra heading hard right and the group we were in, including Quantum, to the left.  The right won out and Azzurra sailed a great race to win easily. Quantum showed incredible ability to come back and finished 2nd after being 6th at the first mark.

After the front went through and we all changed mainsails, the second race was underway around 16:00 in 18 knots from the Northeast. The swells were huge…2 meters +. It was a difficult condition to keep the boat moving fast.

There was one general recall then two black flag starts.  This time Quantum got caught by the black flag so they were immediately disqualified.  Unusually, the race committee flew a general recall at that black flag start.  More unusually, the race committee only called one boat over early, that was Quantum.  Anyway, the next start was also black flag and the start was all clear. We had a decent start, albeit conservative given what I had done in the morning and we were off.

At the first mark, Baronosec was the early leader with Azzurra second.  We on Phoenix rounded that first mark 6th and were were about the same at the bottom gate.  Up the second windward leg, we sailed fast and passed two boats to round the second windward mark 4th.  Down the last run we passed Baronosec to finish 3rd.  Azzurra won both races today!  Downwind on port gybe there was some great during opportunities and we topped out at 18 knots of boat speed in the 17 knots of wind.

Of course the Black flag didn’t help our efforts here.  We will once again be looking to move up tomorrow.  Two races are scheduled with the first race at 12:00.  The forecast is for 6-12 knots from the north.

For complete results go to: www.52superseries.com

Paul

Photo by Mauro Melandri-Zerogradinord

Mahon, Menorca

Today was the second day of the 2016 TP52 World Championship here in Mahon.  Lighter conditions prevailed for races 3 and 4.  Onboard Phoenix we made a few changes and were very competitive in terms of speed.

In the first race, after a good start, we fouled Alegre half way up the first windward leg on a close port starboard cross. After completing our penalty turn we were 100 meters behind the group. We managed to recover a bit but in the end we never passed anyone finishing 11th.  Quantum sailed smooth and fast to take the win.

Race two was a short coastal race, a 17 mile race along the eastern coast of Menorca. It was essentially a double windward leeward with the second lap being longer than the first lap.  The race started in 10 knots but dropped to 7 knots by the time we got to the first windward mark. We were about 8th at he first mark, 6th at the end of the first lap, 4th at the second windward mark and 5th at the finish.  It was a nice improvement in scoring.

The big thing for me today is that we improved dramatically our boat speed from Tuesday when we faced the same conditions in the practice race. Light air is our weakness and we were very competitive today in 6-11 knots.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for 12- knots from the west.  This could be tricky because we are racing on the east side of the island.

For complete results go to www.52SuperSeries.com

Paul

Photos by Marta Rovatti Studihrad

Riva del Garda

Five more races we held over Saturday and Sunday for the J70, Alcatel Italian Circuit Championship.

The conditions continued to be challenging on Saturday, in that they were not classic Lake Garda.  Saturday featured light winds where the left side of the course paid hugely most of the time. Today, with an 08:00 first start, we finally got a strong northerly wind called Peler, that does typically blow in the mornings here. This was good training for San Francisco.

Not much changed in the scoring with the Italian team named L’elagain, dominating the series winning with 31 points..  It was noteworthy that even when this team got behind on the first lap, they had trouble digging themselves out, thereby scoring a 21 and 18 in two of the races.  Second place, with 44 points went to Petite Terrible with 22 year old Claudia Rosi, European J70 Champion, at the helm.  We, with Calvi Network, finished third with 46 points.  That is a fairly high score for 7 races but is indicative of how competitive the fleet here is.

For us, onboard Calvi Network, this was our first time sailing together as a team.  I am the only “new” person to the team but still that is a 25% crew change. The four of us who sailed together here, will race in the World Championship, later this month, in San Francisco. This week was fundamental for us, mostly me, to learn how to sail on a J70 with this fantastic team.  The front of the boat is quite physical and it certainly will be in San Francisco.  I love when sailing becomes physical and am really looking froward to the challenge of the World Championship in my hometown.

The side of Lake Garda has shear walls in some places which are good for other sports.  Check out the rock climbers, off our bow, in this photo.

For complete results go to http://www.fragliavelariva.it/sites/default/files/regatta/r2042-result-f4662.htm

Tonight I am headed to Mahon to join my team on Phoenix for the TP52 World Championship.

Paul