Yesterday the Worlds
There
is so much to say, so much happened and yet I don’t know where to
start! Maybe somewhere near the beginning…
First it was great to meet up again with all the awesome people
I’ve met up with along the way. The Finns, the Brits, the Italians
and everyone else. It’s been so difficult managing to stay on the
good side of everyone - since not everyone gets on with everyone
else - this event was no easier!
It started off with measurement - and the great pro-grip debacle.
Our boat went through measurement with no problems - after being
approved by the same measurer in Weymouth. The problem was that
2002 World Champion John Winning had enough nouce to notice that
neoprene-style pro-grip doesn’t fit the common-sense interpretation
of the class rules which say centre-case packing must be “soft
carpet or felt”. Since almost all the British boats had pro-grip
somewhere in their casing - it became an everyone versus the Brits
scenario pretty quickly. The fun part was that as the Australian
measurer I agree with John, what made it even more fun was that our
centre-case had pro-grip in it, and I only put it in after being
forced to remove the felt by the measurer back in Weymouth. Fun
yes.
Anyway the protests went ahead… essentially the other Australian,
the Argentinians, New Zealanders and Americans against 6 British
boats using pro-grip. We weren’t included in the list because we
bat for both teams so to speak. In the end, and for the sake of the
event, the jury threw out the protest after the measurer classified
carpet as a floor covering and pro-grip as a floor covering. From
then on the Winning was to become known as John Whining.
But then again the regatta did open with America’s Cup legend,
former Swiss darling and former New Zealander Russell Coutts making
a speech about how great our class is… before flying to New York
to try and get out of his multi-million dollar contract with his
billionaire former boss… and we thought pro-grip was
important.
So all this happened during the first day of the regatta - after
which we were placed 5th with a good 1,2,3,3 score.
Also to my amusement I was nominated to the Executive of the 29er
World Council, and since the position was unapposed I was appointed
to the committee - for the next four years! This all happened in
one of the most remarkable general meetings I have attended.
Incredible to see the politics behind the ISAF-Bethwaite-Class
triangle - which is sure to make for some interesting email threads
over the next few years.
Anyway, Silvaplana decided to show what its made of as the regatta
progressed. I was very happy with the .5mm Sea titanium pants I brought
from Australia - especially when it started to snow! As the
temperature went down - so did the wind, and things started to get
tricky on the course as the rain poured and the mountains
disappeared in fog. Fun times indeed.
I’m not sure what drives the association to hold the World
Championships in a place which snows at the height of summer,
allows wind limits to be thrown out, has no facilities to speak of,
and holds courses with upwind finishes - but maybe that whole
politics thing might have something to do with it. Above all that,
something else that made St Moritz interesting - was the price.
This would have to be the most expensive place on earth - even in
the low season. The “Beach Club” on Silvaplana would happily sell a
milo masquerading as hot chocolate for $7, and an average pizza for
$30, then charge $160 per night to pitch a few tents in the
freezing cold. What a place. I did make the most of it by avoiding
paying for the Internet as much as possible - but hey I do that
everywhere.
So the change in conditions brought a few changes in the results.
The first 3 boats started their move away from the fleet, early
contender Pepe from Argentina got some big scores to carry through
the regatta, as did John. Some of the Brits started to drop back as
the stream of protests began to weigh against them. Shit
happened.
At the end of the 10 qualification races the top 25 split off into
Gold fleet. The top 3 were separated by only 5 points, with almost
30 points to the boats behind. It was going to be Tristan &
Alain, Lauri & Miikka and Dave & I all the way to the
wire.
So Silvaplana did its thing again for the first day of the finals -
and racing was cancelled for the day.
The second day saw the committee start in a light northerly - a
very bad idea. The breeze went left, right, left, up, down, left,
down, right, down, left, up on and on. We started badly as did
Tristan & Alain, but they banged left harder than anyone and
benefitted from a 40 degree shift to lead around the mark with us
behind in 3rd. Over the next two laps things got even worse. We
moved into 2nd, only to have 4 boats sail around us on the work to
the finish while everyone sat in no wind from every possible
direction. Perhaps those wind limits are in the class rules for a
reason? Dylan talked up the skill involved in that race when he
came from last to finish 5th, and everyone else laughed… as time
would tell.
Thankfully they decided not to start another race in that
northerly, postponing for several hours while the Maloja filled
in.
Dave decided to go missing when we were due to go out for the
afternoon’s racing and panicking Peter jumped in the car to find
him. 5 months of patience conditioning has done me well it seems,
as we avoided the distraction to go out and win the next race. The
shifts got the better of us however in the next one, pushing us
back to a 9th and our 2nd drop of the series… ouch.
So somewhere in there the American’s learnt not to fly the stars
and stripes from their mast, after two of their boats were found in
the lake one morning and another with a hole in it. Accusations
went flying when it came out that the Kiwis had been making
physical threats the night before after a protest on rule 42. A
security guard was brought in to look after the boats from then on.
Oh the serenity.
But wait, there’s more…
During one of these brilliant postponement things, Serious Simon
decides to measure the height of his spreader tips and compare it
to the other Brits. I’d noticed that the Pommie spreaders seemed to
vary in height in a strange coincidence with the crew weights back
in Travemunde and I did mention it to Squithy the Brit coach back
then - but after the evasive “I’ve only been in this class for a
while” answer I didn’t pursue it. So there goes Simon with his tape
measure - and low and behold one of the “other” teams notices. Tape
measures and cameras come out from every direction, and since
Tristan & Alains were 40mm higher than any other boat measured
- it looked as though those jury people were going to have another
fun night. The threat of protest continued to linger…
Thankfully again our boat went un-noticed by the Kiwargs, with our
spreaders being only a few mm different to CrewSaver’s… hmmm. But
what’s a few mm in spreader rake anyway when the boat builder
supplies a mast tip a good 12mm longer than the old one… no
wonder nobody buys British cars anymore…
And the race committee decides to go for a 9am start on the last
day in an effort to get the last of the races in. Silvaplana does
its thing again and we arrive to ice on the boat covers and several
hours of postponements - now that was worth it.
Finally Moloja decided to blow, and the last four races were on.
Only 6 points still separated the top 3, so the Championship was
still up for grabs. Lauri & Miikka decided to throw their hat
in the ring and won the first two races of the day, yet Tristan
& Alain scraped back into 3rd both times to still lead the
regatta by a point with two races to go. We came in with a 2nd, but
then fell out of contention a little when a 7th ruined the day. Not
to give up however we then went out and won the next race, yet
Tristan & Alain again sailed through the competition to finish
right behind us… damn!
It was still on for the last one… we rounded the first mark in an
average position, but then went hammer down to sail away from Lauri
& Miikka and pass even Tristan & Alain on the last work.
Some really dumb tacks on the line however saw us lose 2nd to both
Tristan and Ed… but it didn’t matter anyway, with the Finns being
close enough to maintain their lead over us.
The Poms had won… bugger eh.
So in the end we came close, but didn’t get it. The Fins have a
saying that roughly translates “if your aunt had wheels she’d be a
bus” and that kinda says a lot… maybe.
And we got some cow bells to take home for our
trouble.
A bit better than the official version
don’t you think?
