Better late than never – but unfortunately Internet availability at the Weymouth regatta centre was via wireless which Nigel’s laptop refused to accommodate! So here we are in the depth’s of rural Somerset on a Windows 95 (remember that?) machine with external modem! You have to work with what you have.
So the week’s summary:
Sunday -Practice Race: Good upwind speed, not so good on the run. Missed the course shortened signal so finished the race by mistake (oops!).
Monday - Race 1: Race start delayed by around 4 hours until the sea breeze finally kicked in (good crew bonding time!). 9 starts set but only 1 race achieved. One ace start by team Bermuda but late general recall scuppered that. Light winds saw Nigel down below and checking the cricket scores for ammunition against the Aussies.
Tuesday - Race 2: More light winds, but not light enough to banish Nigel below today. Race 3: International incident at the top mark resulting in exchange of traditional hand signals between team Bermuda and one of the Italian boats. Race 4: Arrgh! Another race at 4.30pm? What about the Dark ‘n Stormy party due to start at 6:00pm? “Watch out for starboard tackers coming back at us” says Captain Mike, just as an(other) Italian boat pretty much T-bones a starboard tack upwind Irish boat (putting them out of the Regatta for the rest of the week).
Tuesday night – Dark ‘n Stormy party: HUGE thanks to the Royal Dorset Yacht Club for the use of their upstairs bar for the biggest, longest and best D’nS party ever (despite the late start). Black Seal tattoos were displayed in places you would never have dreamed of – pictures to follow! And various members of Team Bermuda took interesting routes home.
Wednesday – Race 5: Damage limitation exercise courtesy of Cornwall Pasty Company, but lumpy seas still produced some green faces and the skipper’s brain faded after a reasonable start. Race 6: more pasties and the D’nS party was a mere dim memory, with consequential improvement in performance.
Thursday – Race 7: Weymouth decides to provide the Princess Royal with some good entertainment by reverting to type with 24-28 knts, wind over tide, BIG seas and fog. Some interesting sailing angles were observed with a number of hulls showing their finer points (some over long enough for several crew to climb over the rail and stand on the keel, dinghy style!!) and windex’s (windi?) getting a good soaking! Race 8: With the speedo clocking 9.8 knts surfing in the pre-start and 9.6 knts on the run it was an exhilarating, if somewhat wet, race. Team Bermuda’s choice of the correct leeward mark assisted in overtaking a big chunk of boats on the final beat. The highlight of the day for the Princess Royal was no doubt her brief discussion on the finer points of not broaching with team Bermuda’s very own Captain Mike who had been practising his curtsey all week!
Friday – Race 9: Rumours of possible abandonment started to circulate early, around about the time we got out the car only to be sliced to ribbons by the Northerly winds. However, the RC was obviously made of sterner stuff and had warmer thermals, so Thursday’s abuse was set to continue as they sent us out into 28 gusting 36. The only saving graces being clear blue skies instead of fog and flatter water. A bad start by team Bermuda resulted in a disappointing last day result, despite pulling back a half dozen or so boats on the final beat.
Overall it was a very good regatta with 4 or 5 races up around mid-fleet (after good starts); the remaining races were the usual hard Worlds races where if you’re behind it is hard to get back up through the fleet. Only the last day was a bad start and a really hard race. Crew work was excellent with no protests to hoisting the spinnaker and gybing whist surfing in 30 knts of breeze. The GBR guys were surprised how close the fleet was, when they broached they lost over 10 places, proving how close the racing was. Well worth going and we are looking forward to Australia in 4 months time.
See you all on Wednesday.
Mike Lewis
