Jam Rock

Lyn Hines is back with a report on the TP 52's at the Breitling MedCup. Enjoy.

Portimao offered up the best conditions, 14 pumping up to 25 knots, today for the first three races of Trofeo de Portugal. This is the fourth series out of five, the other events being in Alicante, 2 in Mallorca and the final series will be in Heyres France in the latter part of September.

The fleet headed out to flat seas and 14 knot winds for the first start. The British boat "Stay Calm" jumped out early with clear wind heading to the favored right side along the beach. The race course is situated in a upside-down L shaped bay where it is not a question of going to the beach but rather when.
Caixa-Galicia, John Kostecki tactician, and Artemis (Russell Coutts tactician) followed Stay Calm to the finish line but the day was quickly sorting out the weaknesses in boat handling as the thermal wind kicked in maintaining twenty knots.

After two general recalls, Mean Machine, (tactician Ray Davies) started on the right side of the line for the second race which enabled them to get to the beach first.It was an exciting first few minutes after the windward mark with Mean Machine defending their position and the Spanish boat Bribon with James Spithill steering reaching hard to get over them. Davies and Spithill must know each other enough because this how they finished as well. The second race started to take its toll on the weaker teams as spinnakers blew up, top battens caught backstays and some general out of control scenarios took place especially around the spinnaker sets. Mean Machine again took a bullet for the third race after Siemens, leading the first legs, spinnaker blew up.

The only American boat, owner-driver Doug de Vos, Windquest was in the hunt finishing in 8th position after the three races. Paul Cayard is calling tactics and Geordie Shaver is working the bow/mast.

"This is the place to be this week if you are into sailing. 19 Transpac 52s, 20-25 knots of breeze, going 22 knots over the water. Yeah it was a little touch in go when we decided on doing "Zambooka" (jibe set on steroids). We wanted to take advantage of a 15 knot shift but with that thin rudder, you have to get it right. We did really well in Mallorca by finishing 5th overall which is pretty good in this fleet."
Matt Gregory - navigator Windquest

"We felt good by winning two races today. The afterguard put us in the right spot on the race course; the boat was easy to steer upwind and the trimmers gave us some awesome speed downwind. The new 2007 boats like Bribon, Artemis, and Stay calm are quicker so we thought we did well. " Pete de Ridder on their two wins today.

After three races:

Mean Machine 9 pts
Artemis 10 pts
Caxia Galicia 17 pts

2007-08-22

Share this article:  Perma Link