Cascais, Portugal

Four races were sailed on Thursday and Friday over here in Portugal for the Tp52 fleet.  The winds have been light all week and this is our weakness on Phoenix.  We have larger appendages than the newer boats and we feel it especially downwind.  On Thursday, we made the mistake of contorting our mast and mainsail set up trying to generate more power.  Normally this is a good idea but there is a such a thing as “too much”.  We hit that wall yesterday.  The set up was heeling the boat over but it was too much drag and the boat would not slip through the water.

We spent an hour out on the water last night after all the other teams went in, sorting through our set up.  We took a lot of photos of both set ups and of other boats.  We analyzed all that in our meeting late last night.  We came out today with a new set up and right from the get go, I could feel the boat was moving better.  While we had a much better day today, we didn’t win any races.  But the satisfying thing has been attacking our weakness and making a big improvement.

In terms of scores, we actually crossed the finish line last in one of the races yesterday and the other one wasn’t much better.  Today we had a 7 and 4 and in both races were were competitive with the top boats.  Again the conditions are not our best.

Yesterday Bronenosec, Quantum, and Sled had very strong scored while Azzurra wiped a bit.  Today Azzurra come back strong with a 1, 2 and took back the lead in the regatta.  These four teams are clearly the fastest in this 7-10 knots conditions were have been racing in.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for slightly more wind, 8-12 knots, but that is just a forecast.  We on Phoenix would certainly be happy with a bit more wind.

For complete scores go to: http://www.52superseries.com

Paul

 

Photo’s by Zerogradinord

San Francisco

The final two races of the 2016 J70 World Championship were held on Berkeley Circle Saturday.  The fleet made the 5 mile trek down to the circle in the customary light morning winds and for one last time, the arduous trek back to the St. Francis Yacht Club in the 20 knots westerly mixed with an outgoing tide and big waves.  I think most will agree, the trek was worth it.  the Circle served up a challenging week for tacticians.  Local knowledge didn’t pan out much of the time.  What worked on one run didn’t work on the very next.  It was a very open race course all week and that is what you need when hosting an event for 68 boats.

The winds were light at the scheduled 11:00 start time and Mark Fisher and his race committee postponed for 60 minutes to let the wind fill to 10 knots at the start of the first race. Joel Ronning and his Catapult team, with john Kostecki call tactics and trimming the main, went into the day with a 20 point lead and managed it very well with a pair of 4th place finished to finish with a 16 point advantage over last years World Champion Julien Fernandez of Mexico.  Judd Smith and his Africa got off to a huge lead in the first race of the day while we on Calvi Network had a bad first race with a 19th.  This switched the two of us in the overall standings.

Like all good one design racing, it is a matter of inches that allows you to cross a boat and then the rest of the line on starboard or if not enough ahead, to duck one boat and then 9 more.  I didn’t get us good enough starts in general this week and that made a difference when looking for those very important inches in the first cross of the first windward legs.

Before the start of the last race, I told out team that we were going to the right corner up and downwind.  That is “old school” Berkeley Circle.  And it was right.  We rounded the first mark 9th, after once again ducking 5 boats just before rounding at the top.  We immediately gybe set and planned off in the opposite direction of the fleet.  This turned into a 1 minute lead at the leeward gate, and life was easy after that!  Wining the last race was a nice way to finish a week in which I felt I did sail up to my expectations.

We on Calvi Network we finished 4th while the fastest boat on the track, Claudia Rossi’s Petit Terrible finished 5th in her first World Championship.

This J70 class has a great future.  The boat’s are fun to sail, especially in breeze, and are very affordable.  I would say that the technical specifications and measurement process needs a little improving.  But that is to be expected with a class that is virtually exploding with over 1200 boats built in its first 3 years.  Next years World Championship will be in Porto Cervo which I am sure will lure close to 100 boats.

I am off to Europe this week for a Star event in Italy and then the final event of the TP52 Super Series in Cascais, Portugal.

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

 

Paul

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