scott.projectsomewhere

Below is a quick (ish) report I put together on the racing at the
regatta in Travemunder… 29er.org carries a slightly different
one.

–

Travemunder EuroCup

Light winds forced the abandonment of the final two days of racing
at the 29er Eurocup event held in conjunction with the 115th
Travemunder Woche Regatta in Travemunder, Germany.

42 entrants from 8 nations contested 7 of a scheduled 12 races in
predominantly light conditions.

Overall winners were the current EuroCup leaders, Tristan Jaques
& Alain Sign on CrewSaver, followed by the Australians David
O’Connor & Scott Babbage on Harken, with the Finnish girls crew
of Silja Lethinen & Silja Kanerva on Audi in 3rd.

The British team arrived early and their preparation showed, with
all members of the squad finishing in the top 8.

Early series leaders were Lauri Lethinen & Miikka Pennanen on
Arcarda. Lethinen/Pennanen were pushed out of their overall 2nd
placing however after a jury disqualification for failing to wear a
bouyancy vest.

In the first race, Arcarda took the pin-end advantage and led to
the first windward mark with the Italian duo of Luca Maffessoli
& Marco Micheletti in 2nd. CrewSaver broke free of the pack in
the next lap to close the gap on Arcarda. On the final run, Harken
ran down Justin Visser & Simon Wheeler on Musto to take 3rd
place on the finish line.

Audi demonstrated the potential of their new boat in the second
race, fighting their way into the lead ahead of another British
combination of Ed Chapman & Tom Peel on Harken/P&B.
CrewSaver followed in 3rd, with 4th & 5th split between Arcarda
and Harken in another close finish.

After a break for the 49er fleet, the 29ers returned to the course
later in the afternoon to complete another 2 races in light winds
and lumpy seas.

Another pin-end favoured start saw CrewSaver & Harken lead
early in the third race. Harken led at the top by a boat length,
only to trail by a boat length at the bottom gate. CrewSaver sailed
away for the win with Harken struggling with weed and slowly
slipping back in the placings. In the end, Arcarda were 2nd, with
Finnish team mates Mikael Lindberg & Dennis Paetau in
3rd.

CrewSaver sailed away from the fleet again in the fourth race.
Breaking away from a mediocre start to take the right hand side of
the course were Harken along with the British team of James
Stewardson & Tom Morris. CrewSaver led at the windward mark,
followed by Audi, then Stewardson/Morris & Harken. The Finns
and the Australians were pushed out of the placings on the first
run after being rolled downwind by the British and the German
combination of Benjamin Friedhoff & Johanna Munding
respectively. The Germans then continued on to pass
Stewardson/Morris on the next upwind leg, holding onto 2nd at the
finish.

More light conditions greeted the fleet for the second day of
racing. Arcarda again won the start and tacked early to cross to
the right hand side of the course with the Swiss combination of
Nathalie Keller & Caspar Buettner. A progressive shift to the
right saw Arcarda and the Swiss round in front, with CrewSaver
rounding well back in the fleet after taking a disastrous start and
the left-hand side. With the wind continuing to shift further
right, passing opportunities became limited however Harken ground
down Audi & Harken/P&B to slip into 3rd, losing another
close finish on the line to the Swiss in 2nd.

The fleet separation closed up with a resetting of the course for
race 6. Audi & Harken/P&B again featured at the first mark,
with another Swiss team of Fabio Muller & Matthias Keller also
fighting for the lead. The lead changed several times in the
remaining laps, with CrewSaver slipping through to take the win
after some smart sailing. In another close finish, Harken/P&B
defeated Audi for 2nd, with Harken following close behind for
4th.

Race 7 saw another huge right hand shift after the start again skew
the course yet again. Arcarda won the start again, with CrewSaver
ducking sterns off the line to opt for the right hand side early.
The pressure held on the left just long enough to see Arcarda round
ahead, closely followed by Audi, Harken, CrewSaver, Muller/Keller
& Stewardson/Morris. Audi rounded ahead after the downwind leg
and opted for the right hand side, with Harken getting inside
Stewardson/Morris at the gate. Audi & CrewSaver opted for the
left hand side and paid for it, with the wind continuing to shift
right. Arcarda stretched their lead while the remainder fought
closely for position, Stewardson/Morris rounded the top mark inside
Harken, however a late set and gybe from the British saw both boats
overtaken by the Swiss, Audi & CrewSaver. At the bottom gate,
Stewardson/Morris held the inside advantage on Harken, followed
closely by the Swiss with Audi and CrewSaver again heading left.
With Arcarda in the lead, less than a boat length separated the
next 3 boats, with Stewardson/Morris slipping ahead of Audi and
Harken.

Monday saw the fleet sail two legs of the course before failing
breeze forced the abandonment of the race. With storms forecast for
the afternoon, racing was cancelled early. The 49ers started first
on Tuesday and with the win again failing in the afternoon, the
29ers were towed back to the beach.

Travemunder Woche demonstrated its standing as one of the premier
European regattas yet again, with more than 400 000 visitors
traveling to watch over 1500 boats participate. The 29er teams
split from the regatta to attend the Nordics in Denmark and the UK
Nationals in Weymouth - with a few teams intending to compete in
both.

Full
results available on http://www.travemuender-woche.net
–

The 306 was packed to the gills with crap after Peter, Dave and I
stripped the apartment in Riva. It was a sad day to finally be
leaving the place, but bigger things are on the road ahead.

Up and up and up we drove from Riva towards Switzerland and Lake
Silvaplana, St Moritz - venue for the coming World Championships.
Now who would think to run a World Championship in the most
expensive ski resort in the World?

Anyway, it was very very good to dispel all the rumor and finally
get an appreciation of the venue for ourselves. Silvaplana turns
our to be another visually spectacular Garda-esque place, with
regular thermal breeze and freezing freezing cold water.

At 1800m of altitude there’s a tad less oxygen, and after 50 gybes
there is a noticeable loss of stamina - that will be interesting
early in the regatta…

On cloudless days the breeze gets up to a steady 20 knots, though
with cloud things start to get patchy and a bit shifty.

The place is small, but not as small as everyone has said, easily
big enough to run a 29er course. The small size does make for a
noticeable lack of waves - thank god, since getting splashed in
this place is not a good idea.

After 8 hours on the water - I’m pretty confident I have a
reasonable idea of what’s in store come August. Now off on the
campaign trail to Travemunder…

I’ve just spent the last few days holed up in Lago di Iseo doing a
hell of a lot of listening to Italian. By the end it was pretty
good actually - one of the best ways to learn the language. In the
beginning I had the feeling I was both deaf and mute, totally
incapable of communicating with anyone. David of course didn’t have
any problems with the Italian - although he didn’t need to speak
all that much being permanently attached to Bea.

Anyway, the place was idyllic. We were hosted in Casa di Micheletti
as they called it, Marco’s place on the waterfront of the lake. I
think our hosts used our stay as an excuse to hold continuous
parties, with everyone getting together night after night after
night. I definitely ate well - with Elena and Simona shovelling
amazing Italian food into me at every opportunity.

Most of the time was spent at the converted machine-gun factory -
Associazione Nautica Sebina, doing a lot of work on the boat,
playing cards and finishing off the odd novel.

Despite being unable to communicate, another of the problems with
the place is the almost absolute lack of wind. You either have to
be up and sailing at 7am, or sit around all day waiting for the odd
storm to come through. Interesting.

After 6 days, I had spent 20 minutes on the water. Time well spent
maybe.

It was pretty amazing the people you run into in such a small
place. We met up with Glenn Ashby & Corey Caminesh the first
day - A Class World Champion and World’s best F18 crews. One of the
guys who liked to chat was the Italian Tornado coach for the 2000
Olympics. I met up with the runner-up in the Italian 470 Olympic
trials. It was also very funny for the guy who runs the cafe to say
I was focussed like Rod Davis on the Prada AC team. I don’t know
about that.

Now only a few days left in Riva. we depart for St Moritz on
Saturday.

Hobie Cat Australasia has added the F18 Worlds Results to
the F18 web site. The damn Italian organisers are a bit shite with
posting the results on the official site.

Laruffa won the German F18 Nationals on Lago di Garda the previous
week, with Goodall in 2nd.

Yes, its been a while since I’ve blogged. But to tell you the truth
there hasn’t been all that many newsworthy events happening.

We’ve been training a fair amount lately, and even went for an
early sail today - 7.30 on the water!

There are just stacks of 49ers around for the European
championships which are running from Torbole. 92 boats racing in
four groups at this stage. Plenty of close racing to watch.

Bunny the Aussie 49er coach had a few tips for us in a session a
few days back. Some different theories on how to sail the boat -
very European techniques coming from a Pom. It’ll be interesting to
see how they go against some of the quickest teams around.

And the Capricorns have made a visit to Garda for the German
Nationals. The new boat looks good, even with all the crass
faux-Italian livery on one of them. Not sure how they’ll go in the
regatta - will have to wait and see.

Oh yes, Dave is also attempting to diet in order to stay light
enough to be competitive come the Worlds next month. We’ve dubbed
it the farcical diet, since it seems to entail more food
consumption than before. Interesting theories.

Back to the routine…

With the girls leaving in a days time, we had the chance for a
quick day trip to Venice. Since Venice is one of the things that
just has to be seen… and since I haven’t seen much of Italy at
all… I thought I’d better go and do it.

We all packed into a bus early on Wednesday, and were in town with
the million other tourists by lunch. Now I truly hate being part of
the tourist hordes… but there wasn’t all that much of an
alternative.

With the prospect of a day looking at churches and museams - then
spending 8 Euro on an expresso… I gave Adriano a call and we met
up in the Piazza San Marco. Now luckily Adriano lives in an
apartment overlooking the Piazza, just next door to Napoleon’s
Palace and looking directly at St Marks Basilica and the Doge’s
Palace. Not a bad place to relax over a bowl of pasta and some
coffee.

The afternoon was spent with the locals Adriano & Giovanni
walking through the streets… looking at the important stuff…
riding on a gondola… etc etc.

Unfortunately I didn’t bring the camera along… so no photos. I’ll
just have to return for a week or so later in the year to take in
the place a bit more.