Our great
adventure in La Rochelle began with a nice practice sail in sunny 12 to 18
knots on Friday ( the day before the start of the Worlds).
Upon
arrival from ORF, NY, Paris then La Rochelle, Barb, Keaton & I were a bit
jet-lagged, however the beautiful regatta setting made it easy to stay up without
sleep.
I had a work
commitment so Dustin had arrived a few days earlier to get the boat through the
measurement and weigh-in process.
I rigged a
bare hull Rondar last winter from scratch and added about 6 lbs of lead to get
up to minimum weight. It was a bit tense not knowing if our scale was accurate with
the one used by the Worlds officials; to our delight we were within two pounds!
Things were
looking good for team USA as Howie & Andy won the Pre-Worlds and many other
US teams had strong finishes.
So
Worlds race day one arrived with another sunny day, however, as with many
days to follow, the breeze did not fill in until late in the day. The regatta
took on a Cali type feel as most days were under postponement (onshore) which
allowed for a leisurely approach to the day.
Tyler and Howie had the bulk of
the USA boats camped at the container together along with a few Ozy’s for
flavor. The
camp was within a two minute walk to the local restaurants and grocery
outlets and most important “The Wine & Cheese store”. This also allowed for an easy trip to buy
beer for the week, each morning.
The first
day had two races in a moderate sea breeze. The starting area was a bit hectic
with 185 boats and another 50+ support boats. A lot of teams spent the mornings cleaning their sail windows for
better vision (especially on PORT Tack).
As the week
went on our results improved almost every day. Getting a lane at the start was
paramount. If you could sail for three minutes in clear air, you had a chance to
round in the upper third. If you got flushed you could easily end up rounding
in the lower third (125th!!! or worse). Climbing back through 125 boats was almost impossible. However, if we got the
first beat halfway right we would round in the thirties which would allow us to
move up before we ran out of runway.
Our best
race was heat #5 in a shifty 15kt offshore breeze. We gated early just above Tyler
& Big Geoff. Two minutes after the
start we got a nice left shift that held long enough to cross the fleet on port
before it went back right. It was an
awesome sight to see the whole fleet in the main window four minutes after
the start! I think Team Hampton both rounded the windward mark in the top 5! Sailing
down the first run we were concerned about a crack that had developed in our
boom near the goose-neck (cracked booms only seam happen when you’re having your
best day). Dustin did
a good job jury rigging a Rope collar around the boom to keep it from splitting
completely. We held to a conservative game plan trying not to tack or jibe too
much and went on to get 9th! Tyler &
Geoff made a gutsy call to go deeper into the right corner on the first run and
move up to get 4th!
So here
comes the great part: on the way in Holger spotted our boom and offered to sell
us an unrigged one from his stock. However,
instead of working day and night to rig a new boom, a nice gent from Hampton
named Tyler Moore walked up and handed us his (fully rigged!) spare boom. That
was very generous of Tyler as the regatta was only half over! The boom fit our rig
perfectly and allowed us to focus on vacation instead of rigging.
So after three
days of racing we felt good about our boat speed. In fact all of the US teams where
sailing fast in the sea breeze conditions . Unfortunately the breeze began to
fade as the week wore on. Large fleet management in light air is tricky. We
felt a bit off the pace against many of the smaller teams. We could beat most
of the fly-weights to the weather mark however, off the wind they were quick.
We will be
hoping for a bit more breeze at the next one in Barbados!
On the
social side it was great to spend some time with our international friends, many
of whom have unique qualities. We
learned once again to not try to hang with the Ozy’s (late night) as they are
professionals in the Pub. Also, if they
offer to buy you a balloon animal from a passing clown, just say no.
Andy did
manage to win the USA vs AUS YC swim off, although the club manager gave them
low marks for their lack of clothing.
The Brits
have a unique after dinner practice of buying Rum shots for their nearest
international competitors and then disappearing as the drinks arrive for the
balance of the evening.
The Germans
and the French still love to argue with each other on the water - mostly in two
different languages!
The class camaraderie
was up there with a nice boat parade to the race course on the last day
honoring long time British sailor and 79 year old Jim Berry who plans to
retire. Our title sponsor SAP would have none of it and promptly bought Jim and
his wife an all-expenses paid trip to the 2013 Worlds in Barbados.
The French
were great hosts on and off of the water.
The PRO
made some great calls to postpone "onshore" when there scout boats
confirmed that the conditions were too soft to start a race. This allowed us to
relax out of the hot sun in the awesome SAP tent with full access to the net
and espresso. Many thanks are due to
Tyler for organizing the East Coast container and for providing the new Boom.
We had a blast
and will forever have fond memories of 185 5o5 kite’s spread out over two legs
of the course off that sea side port of La Rochelle.
Team Benchmark USA 9041
