scott.projectsomewhere

With my hours of 49er sailing, followed by 29er training… I’ve
been losing more and more kgs… now I’m down to only 66!

And with only 66kgs (plus Tristano’s 77) - it makes for hard going
uphill in 25knots!

So Nathan & Ayden have arrived… and we’re planning to trek up
the mountain today - Nathan needs to lose a few kgs… should take
us a good few hours to get up there and back. We should be bringing
Dave with us (he needs to lose a few too)… but he has school work
to finish.

Anyway… things are good. Two-boat training starts on Thursday -
as well as the 49er sailing… argh!

Some photos from the walk up the hill below…

Thankfully the trip home from Weymouth was uneventful. No
detours or broken masts this time. Arriving in Riva was fantastic,
sunny, warm and unbelievably more inviting than the drab UK.
So we’re back into the sailing now, trying to recover the time
that we’re behind the Pommie crew… there’s still a way to go
yet.
Nathan & Ayden arrive tomorrow, and we should have a good
few days training against them on the 29er - we can’t get a much
faster training partner than these guys… should be fun.
The trouble is that I’ve got to fit the 29er training into my
newfound crewing job on a 49er (it’s hard you know). I’m crewing
with Tristano since his normal crew broke his ribs in a nose-dive.
It’s pretty fun going training on the 49er in the morning, then
doing a switch over to the 29er when Dave finishes school in the
afternoon… tough.
Anyway, back to working on my tan (a long way to go there) in
this great weather… the Ora isn’t far away…

Well we just finished the second round on the EuroCup series in
some interesting conditions in Weymouth on the weekend. We were
well and truly spanked by the Pommie combo of Jaques/Sign, they won
every race and we only just scraped in for 2nd overall. Dave was
well and truly un-impressed to be knocked off his high-horse… but
hopefully we will be able to turn it into a good thing…

An interesting trip over from Italy, we managed to have a bit of an
incident with a French toll gate which resulted in a new mast tip
and a whole lot of frigging around to get our stuff back together.
Good times… Hopefully the trip home on Wednesday is slightly less
eventful.

Here’s a quick report I wrote on the weekend…

–
Tristan Jaques & Alain Sign dominated the second round of the
29er EuroCup raced on the weekend from the Weymouth & Portland
Sailing Academy.

With winds ranging from 25 knots down to only 5, the British duo
devastated their competition, winning 6 races from 6 starts. Fresh
from their win in the RYA Youth Nationals, Jaques and Sign now put
themselves firmly on top of the European fleet in the lead-up to
the World Championship.

Second place went to the Australian team of David O’Connor &
Scott Babbage aboard Harken, with the Finish team of Lauri Lehtinen
& Miikka Pennanen on Arcada finishing a close third.

The first day of the regatta saw an aborted first race, with a
postponement in the final minutes of the start sequence as winds
gusted over 25 knots. After a two-hour postponement on shore, the
fleet was back on the water for 3 races in very fresh conditions.
The breeze slowly moderated throughout the afternoon, with the
fleet returning to shore very wet and cold at 6pm.

The wind continued to moderate overnight, and an earlier start on
Sunday brought light and variable winds. Jacques & Sign made
the best of the conditions to lead around almost every mark.

The fleet of 18 29ers races some exceptionally close races on an
outer-trapezoid course, with the tight reach leg making for
difficult sailing when the wind reached the high-end of the
scale.

The EuroCup now continues with the next event in Travemunde during
late July, followed by the World Championships in Switzerland and
the final EuroCup in Denmark during September.
–

Dave, Peter and Myself made the trip across France to catch the
ferry to the UK. I’d have to say the drive was more than a little
stressful!

First of all were the French toll gates… they have this nice
little artificial 2m height restriction on the toll booth, although
no height restriction exists anywhere else on the road (or in the
toll gate for that matter). So… the mast is sitting in the
trailor above the car at about 2.05m. Unfortunately we approach the
sign a little fast, even though I’m standing outside trying to
guide us through…. the mast spears the sign and the whole thing
comes crashing down - blowing the mast tip in the process… $500+
later we have a new tip on the way to Weymouth to meet us…
fun.

We made it to Auxerre the first night and stayed in a Formula 1
hotel, for the first and last time… enough said.

We made a quick trip to Charles de Gualle in the morning to meet
Julian and pick up a set of sails and some foils for the Sibellos.
Then drove through Paris - for the Paris in 30mins tour. That’s one
way to do it I guess…. but I think I might have to come back
again.

The ferry ride was interesting… hard to make Dave concentrate on
the Maths with a busload of French schoolgirls stalking him… oh
well. It was good to finally make use of the EU passport… getting
straight into the UK with no issues, while Dave & Peter had to
fill out cards and wait. I can’t see myself using it when I get
back to Italy though, the thought of National Service doesn’t
really appeal to me at the moment!

We make the trip home on Wednesday, hopefully a little less
eventful… no broken bits, no crap hotels, no excursions on the
autostrada, and no unwanted detours through Torino… I can only
hope…

Nick and Mike from Ozboyz were talking up
the quality of the free channel 26 at their hotel over the weekend.
On and on they went about the various… stuff…

Anyway, late yesterday as the guys were to leave… one of the Poms
told us that channel 26, which was supposedly free - was not so.
Ian Williams (Team GBR helmsman) had been forced to pay for it. It
looks as though the perks associated with Grade 1 Match Racing do
not extend to porn.

It would’ve been interesting to see them checking out, and paying
the bill at 6am this morning. Being charged by the hour for “TV” is
definitely going to have an impact on their America’s Cup
budget!

Don’t you hate it when you write a huge blog post only to lose it
damn.

Anyway, we had to move apartments on Mayday, it was a very early
start after our late night out with the recently relegated Match
Racing Aussies. We had to be up and the crack of dawn to pack and
get out of town before the hoardes of tourists decended.

So I left my historic loft apartment with water views, for
something quite different. Past the cemetery further out of town we
arrive at our new place, in its stalin-esque building and
furnishings straight from the 1940s. You can’t help but feel
someone died here recently.

The view outside is still nice. You don’t want to focus too hard on
the carpets, or furnishings inside though, such ghastly patterns
may cause epileptic seisures…

Even so, it does have character - of a sort. You’ve gotta love
it.