-in short a fairly complete shitshow of many, many fouls and 3-5 general recalls every start, and a 10-15 minute delay after almost every A and B fleet race to sort out the inevitable 2-3 formal, unresolved protests.
The organizers and RC are doing a fantastic job of managing the protests and running the races, it’s the sheer volume of contact, fouls, and protests that is causing me to reconsider here. These boats can take a huge amount of punishment. And with that I think the fleet takes far to many “liberties…”
To put it more succinctly, this is a joke.
DAY ONE, GREAT UNTIL IT WASN’T: Day one went well until a SWE sailor (121) chose to come into the weather mark in A fleet on port, in strong A rig breeze, in a suicidal effort to cross a solid line (virtually bow to stern) of 6-7 starboard tack boats (including me). It was like a Kamikazee attacking a ship really. He had absolutely no chance and rather than tacking early he dove down straight into my boat at the last second in a impossible effort to duck and hit his victim (me) nearly bow to bow creating a massive head to head collision with our keel fins. Another boat was also effected. We then, of course, locked together and drifted into the shore, with him sawing the sail winch constantly for 3-4 minutes trying to get the boats to break apart. My boats rudder, keel fin, keel bulb, and hull were all damaged as the boats banged into the sea wall for several minutes (mine of course along the wall) on the other side of the pond before being rescued by a powerboat. He then chose not to withdraw and tried to get out of the protest (went to the hearing, tried to get away with it) creating another 10-15 minute post race delay.
I WASN’T ALONE: He was also involved with another protest which he lost before my protest was heard, which he also lost. Apparently that happened before my incident. This guy is a special one. I was in 7th place at that time of the foul, on a clean, conservative starboard layline. I was in a very good overall position at that point, but the redress “award” 🏆 did not save me from being driven down to the dredded “B fleet” which is even worse that “A fleet” in terms of fouls.
DAY 2: That brings us to Day 2. Fortunately I was allowed to replace my keel fin (at my expense). My rudder was loose and I had to work to fix it in the morning. Somehow my boat seems to leak now, not sure why. Keel trunk seems loser.
The breeze was up today and the wind slightly diagonal across the long rectangular (30 degrees right of straight down) pond creating a bit of a one sided racecourse were the best wind is on the left edge and starboard tack is the long tack, 70/30, minimum. The starting line extends across most of the width pond but the windward or boat end is considerably closer to the windward shore and sits in a slight hole essentially. This improved slightly during the day as the wind backed left slightly, but you get the idea. This creates a lot of congestion. I’ll talk more about the port end starts and the room to tack circus 🎪 clownshow off the lee sea wall which occurs every race tomorrow.
FORESTAY BOWSIE SLIP: In the first race of the day (B fleet) my forestay bowsie slips slowly during the race and I end up having no forestay tension (and therefore height). I was in 6th(ish) around the weather mark and had an fairly good shot at advancing to A. Up the second upwind it began to losen and worsened more throughout the race. I fell back slightly and missed the top 6. By the end of the race it’s hard to go upwind or tack. I wasn’t really sure what was happening. As soon as I took the boat out of the water and measured after the race I could see the mark had moved ¼ inch +. Brand new rig with 120 lb line. What a PITA.
BACKSTAY BREAKS: For the next B race I round the weather mark in 6th (again and easy position to advance) and after being hit by a port tack boat (who actually did their turns) fairly hard in backstay (spinning me down and forcing me to almost miss making the weather mark) while on starboard tack going into the weather mark. The wind was increasing now and was fairly close to C rig conditions. Shortly after turning downwind and with the boat just a few meters in front of me a strong gust hit and the bow went down, the boat stopped, and the backstay broke. I actually heard the “ping!” The knot didn’t come undone, the line itself broke at the crane. I wonder if the port tack boat that had just hit my backstay in full force in top B rig conditions had anything to do with it? Lots of sideload. So, the backstay dragged along in the water behind the boat. Downwind I went with the sails trimmed in slightly to provide some rig support. I lost many places. At the leeward mark I sailed to the shore and retied the backstay which took 20 seconds and that was enough to basically be last. After relaunching I did not have enough backstay, and had to again sail to the shore and add backstay. Ultimately, I was last in B fleet and sent to C fleet. What a costly foul that was on day one. Now my redress score was basically useless. Any chances of a good score at the regatta were gone.
FOULS O’ PLENTY: The amount of fouls here, and recalls, has been eye opening. And the damage a foul can do to a competitor at the right time can be significant.
Obviously, I am not really enjoying this event. Let’s be honest. I feel it is a shitshow. I think RC sailing has a real problem with the sheer volume of fouls committed at this level. More importantly, the sport has a problem with quantifying the net effect of the foul. It often seems the advantage is with the guy who commits the foul. He she gets the potential benifit of “banging it in there” and if it all goes tits up often can do a quick circle and be right behind (or ahead) of their victim who was playing it safe. For example, hitting a starboard tacker, knocking him into irons near the weather mark, he now cannot lay, loses 10-15 boats in the total process, doing a circle and (immediately or eventually) passing him. I’ve seen this scenario occur several times here (and I’m hardly watching any races) and nobody is calling the boat which commited the foul to relinquish an advantage over the victim boat. It’s exhausting just watching this happen and it’s really not very fun to partake in…there are dozens of other similar scenarios taking place.
Perhaps 24 boats on the line is a bit too much.
I’ll make the best of the rest of the sailing, assuming it doesn’t get any worse. But this is really not the most enjoyable racing. It’s more like trench warfare. And I think everyone knows it.
