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Dawg Blog The 2006 Americas Regatta Reports: | Pre-Race | Day 1 | Day 2 | Ok, so it is the day before (Thursday) the start of the Americas Regatta here in St. Pete, Florida. I arrived Monday at 6:30pm and my friend Larry, who sailed with me in the 2000 trials (3rd place Sonar class), picked me up and we went to dinner.
I haven't been in SP since 2001, the last time I did this disabled sailing thing. Back then I got pissed off because of all the politics and rating BS. Yes rating, individual ratings based not on your disability but how well you can handle you self on a boat. So you can have two people with identical injuries but if one person chooses to be in shape and take care of them self so they can do things and the other person chooses to be a blob of flesh…well they will probably have different ratings. I mention this because in the SCUD 18 class there is a person who is being rated as a 1 (the lowest rating or most severely injured). This class requires that one of the crew be a Very Severely Disabled (VSD) Person. This person also because of their limited arm and hand functionality will be the driver. So this on person everyone else is wondering about has very good arm and hand functionality. How they got rated as a 1 is the 10 million dollar question?? Politics.
That is why I decided to give the 2.4mR a go. It doesn’t matter what you ratting is and it is a single-handed boat. The only thing that many of the other competitors have over me in terms of functionality is they can use their one good leg or their prosthetics to hold the rudder straight with the foot controls. Unfortunately I and a few other sailors here that are paraplegics have only our hands to do it all. This can be a real disadvantage at mark roundings when launching the whisker pole or trimming at the leeward mark. Keeping the boat heading in the right direction is important. So here it is Friday, a day of working on the boat a day and a half sailing and a half day to haul and clean it up before launching Friday morning. The competition here will be stiff. Most of the same sailors that were at the Pre-Trials are here. We also have Stellan Berlin from Sweden, who is a 5 time 2.4mR world champion and is coaching the Canadians. Stellan will also be racing because this is an open event, able and disabled sailors competing head to head. I think we have 3 able bodied sailors signed up. I believe there are 6 Scud 18, 6 Sonars and 12 to 15 2.4mRs registered but I have not seen a competitors list yet. It looks to be a tight regatta and it's only the 4th time in the boat for me, talk about trial by fire. More to come 11/30/06
3 races later, a few cocktails, dinner some idle banter and I feel ok. The day started out light but the wind filled in and went right. I would post the scores but the RC screwed up and things will look a bit different when the mistakes are fixed. Race 1 started out in about 5 to 7 knts. The course of the day was W-L-W-L-W. Small shifts were present but it paid to be a bit right. For those unfamiliar with the St Pete area look online and our starting line was about a half mile South East of the Pier and inside of the channel. Wind was out of the Southwest to start but went west after the first race and picked up to about 12-15 knts. Nothing like a good start to help things out, I can thank Gary Swenson, my old skipper for good starting technique. I was able to hang with the top guys in terms of boat speed but they still have a slight edge in boat handling. More time in the boat will fix that and that is what happened today. 5th place finish for the first race hanging tight with the leaders and a high five from coach Marko can do wonders. Oh well that was short lived, the second race the wind was building and at the weather mark I got hosed. I mean big time hosed. Poor planning and a port approach at the mark wasn’t the worst part. Having another boat with me to leeward and all the sudden needing to crash tack left me nowhere to go. I rounded last and gained downwind. At the leeward mark I was going to slip inside but for some reason the guy in the boat in front of me decided he wanted to go head to wind and stop. Well I kissed his stern and had to do my penalty turns. Now I just want this race to end. Than god it finally did. I now have my throw out if we get five races in, if not I have to eat it. The third race was like the first, great start sail fast, hang with the top guys and another good finish. I think I am in fifth for now but the weekend still has more time left to play. I need to start great but lead the top guys so they hang with me. Only time will tell as these guys have a year or two more in the boat than I have. Speed is good, finding your place in a boat is a time consuming thing. One bit of excitement is a Sonar almost ran over a 2.4mR. The odd thing is the 2 boats represnet the same country, Canada. There was some damage to the 2.4 but luckily there was no human injuties. More to come. 12/01/06
Race Day 2 and 3 (cancelled due to no wind)
Light air and a 3 hour postponement made for a long day. The only thing I have to report is I am not happy. For some reason I am not able to get the boat going well in the lighter air and making a few bad calls did not help. Granted this is the first time I have race it in light air. Maybe it is me, racing a fractional rig in light air is something I have not done much of. Anyway I finished almost last in each race today and feel like crap. Maybe I can pull a wabbit out of my hat tomorrow. Nick "The Quick" Scandone pulled off a 1,2 for the day moving him up the ladder. He was quite bummed the first day and it appears we have swapped roles. He is happy now and I am not. The Canadians are doing well under the coaching of Stellen. Two causualities today were:
In the Scud 18 class the Canadians are kicking some major butt. The Sonar class is having some tight racing. I have been able to see the boats as we are all on the same course. I haven't been able to follow the other classes much because my own racing is requiring full focus. So if I am able to get a story from any of the competitors after the race we'll give it up. Sunday was a no show for the wind. All sailing was cancelled. SPYC did a great job and the club is a great place to visit and race at. Many thanks to all. For full results click here Next stop Miami OCR. If all goes well.12/02/06 |
