International 14 Worlds

Part 1 – Practice week for the worlds

Day 1 - Sept 2 - arrived Sat am for the labor day regatta. Loads of kids in sabots and heaps of laser sailors, and 22 old guys in Finns having Olympic dreams, and 22 I14s all wanted the same bit of launch ramp.

Got three longish races off in a building breeze tested the foot straps a couple of times on tight reaches, and then went in tired – beat the lasers in but the Finn guys just crashed the 350 lb tubs straight into the launch ramp ( NB, why, in a solid glass hull, do they need see thru paper thin decks?). very sore. Howie & Euan and Shark & Paul mostly own us – Grant G and a few others are out there too.

Day 2 - Sunday, got three more races off, then at 3:30 when the RC signaled one more in 15+ we threw in the towel and eased on in – at the end of the day even Howie & Euan pitched it in, and only two finished. We had looked at a wear point on the jib down haul and decided it was OK – well it wasn’t and it failed and I had to tie it down between races. All the lasers were in before us so we sailed around for 30 minutes ‘till some room opened up at the ramp Put the boat on the trailer and went home for labor day with the family

Day 3 - Monday, labor day, ha, work day at the house – no relaxing for yours truly.

Day 4 – Tuesday, spent the day fitting the new twisty grip foil control and the new long low drag foils – very hot in the boat park. Manage to drill thru the skins of the new foils while fitting the control pin (oops) and then grind it down and re glass it back together (not too bad). The Canadians are fretting as the truck with their boats is hung up in customs. Lots of measuring going on – the electronic scale seems to measure heavy, and lots of lead coming out – yet other boats are putting lead in – so maybe it’s OK afterall.

Day 5- Wednesday, Woofie & Rob Greenlaugh (Volvo winner & past 14 W champ) spent their time rigging a new RMW M12.

We finally get on the water – the new main gives a lot of weather helm, and there is not enough lift with the new low drag foils – more work. We feel fast in the fun 15 kts – but Howe is not on the ocean then tho – so….. Plus even more fretting by the Canadians with a phone call to the broker every half hour – still no word. Some serious fretting as the teams is scheduled for the next day. Flossie gets his rig back together. Canadian truck shows up about 6 pm - lots of help for a record time unload.

Moved over to the sandy beach where we will all be for the rest of the event. – sandy – but not bad and no congestion at the ramp

Day 6, Thursday – the Pegasus guys set up a racecourse for short course races – lightish – 8 –9 kts. Maybe 10 - 12 boats show up & play. Howie & shark are good, but it is very short so there is some mixing. Rob Greenhlaugh makes the low footing mode work. 5 or 6 of those races, and I suggest perhaps that is enough, and we go speed tune for a bit and then go in. As their are only 4 teams entered the teams is delayed to Friday and will be a one day event – also gives the Canadians time to rig & measure in. My eldest son comes up from San Diego where he is stationed in the Navy and we have a fun dinner with the boys – Last I will see him for a while as he goes on a six month deployment next week on a west pac tour. Got him contacts with some Hawaiian 14ers so he can get a surf in when they stop there.

Day 7 – first day with a marine layer – the Brits are worried about rain – I assure all that it is normal and no rain is in the offing. Get a light air sail in about noon – watch some of the team racing, and go in with the Brits in the catbird seat. We put the boat away and try to get a quick exit to go home for the night. Three hours on the “freeway” and 90 miles later I’m at home and am told that one of my daughters is in the dance team performance at the high school football game and I must attend – so off I go.

Tomorrow – day 8 -is the practice race – I need to dremmel a few degrees more angle on the lifting foils and there we are – we have spent all we can on stuff and replaced all suspect cordage – let the carnage begin

Part 2 – The Worlds

Day 8, Sat 9 Sept. - Practice race day. 72 boats on the water. Starts out with a marine layer overcast that burns off by 9:30. Skippers meeting @ 10 and the race scheduled for 2:30, very civilized. A single race is scheduled for each day – ideally 2 hours long for the leader, and 90 minutes addl. for the backmarkers to make it around (and some need it). Light race, maybe 1 – 1½ wire – Archie & George smoke the fleet on the left then go hard right to lead around the top by miles – helped that he started a bit early, and he peels off to go in at the first bottom. We round the top in 8 and go round a couple more before retiring. The welcoming ceremony features 2 kegs of Sierra Nevada ale and a racing game for the team racing crews that involves sabots (8 foot prams), beer, paddles, and drunken sailors – hilarity ensues.

Day 9 – First race day. 1:00 start – light is today too, maybe 8 kts to start. RC goes straight to code flag I. We have a horrible start, get rolled, tack to clear and foul someone, do our circle, and cover the fleet from behind. Archie leads but is scored OCS – seems the RC lobbed about 10 boats OCS. We recover to about 20 on the water, and after the OCS’, score 15 on the score sheet. Back on shore - free beer and snacks.

Day 10 – Monday, 2:30 start. Big Monday. Clear day, no marine layer, breeze comes up early and the seaway sets up early. Pegasus protector saw 17 tops, RC saw 22. Waves started stacking up. We are slow, but never tip over for a 21st. It was an Aussie kind of day with Lindsay 1 & Grant 3. Paul & Sam are 2. Huge waves – my feet were blown off the boat more than once upwind in breaking seas. Huge holes to go down the mine downwind. I was trying to remember my children’s names “goodbye Molly, Ellen, & what’s-your-name…”. After discussions in the dinghy park we have determined that our speed problem is that we either need to keep the kicker tighter – or looser. Then, more free beer – starting to see a pattern here. The Velocitek GPS thingy recorded 19 kts top speed, and 18 kts for 10 seconds sustained.

Day 11 – Tuesday, 2:30 start. Moderated from Monday – maybe 15. Very fun day – still big waves. We are still slow upwind and as the day ends we end up 23rd. Starting to see a pattern here too. 2 tipovers didn’t help us either. All the leaders went swimming too – Shark, Howie, Tina – nearly everybody. Once we get in we determine that we need to sail with cap shrouds looser – or maybe tighter. Then more sponsored beer on the lawn, and snacks too.

Day 12 – Wednesday, 1:00 start. ½ to 1 wire to start – Lots of lefts & rights. Builds to 2 wire for the finish. We are ok and sail around the course with Paul & Shark for a lap and a half. End up seeing the same guys again – Roger Ramjet is always there. We are consistent with another low 20’s finish – just wish we were consistently lower in the scores. Apparently we need to rake more – or stand the rig up straighter. Hey look, more sponsored beer – yay.

Random Wed notes. 1)Today my son’s Navy ship leaves San Diego on a West Pac tour – first stop Hawaii, then DST unknown, ETR unknown. 2) Talked to a guy on the beach who had a new, name brand, trap harness with a “safety” quick release trap hook. Seems the mechanism accidentally caught on something and it “quick released” into the drink and the hook was lost. Race over.

Day 13 – Thursday, 2:30 start. Looks promising. But never really builds. We start ok and pinch off Archie & George who promptly go right then round the top first, and we round 30th. Roger Ramjet is now starting to tip over to wait for us so we can sail round together. We make a few boats on the left the second beat then when there is enough wind for 2 wiring the boat comes to us, and we pass a few more. A USN Frigate goes thru the fleet while leaving Seal Beach Station and 5 boats tack after getting five horns. We see the ship is accelerating and keep on to cross it’s stern and make up a few more boats and finish in 21st - huh -imagine that. Back on the shore we put the boat away and consume more free beer.

Day 14 – Friday. Day starts with a quick burnoff and the breeze comes up to 15 +/-, there are some soft spots and loads of kelp. Howie gets a 3rd to lock up the regatta and Tina gets a 1st. We get another low 20 result but are happier with our speed. Seems the upwind trick is speed, speed, speed. In 14 – 15 kts tru the boat should be going 10 -11 kts – and never let it go slow. Way funner too. It’s been a long week and it’s getting difficult to hold my free beer in my hands – I manage tho.

Day 15 – Sat. We had cracked our racks the last tack on Friday, so had some carbon work to do. Sat morning, on inspection, I saw I got a bad bond, and had to do a redo. Something about working in the dark after a few beers. But I put the heat gun to the redo repair and we were good to go. I was nervous about the fix tho, but they were good – the other side was exhibiting micro cracks in the same place – so we had to be careful. The day was supposed to be light, so – it comes right up. Starts out 15+ and by the second lap is 20s – big waves again. We are going up wind at 10 – 11 kts first lap but in the 20 kts we are lucky to get 8 – 9 kts. Above 15 kts the winder it gets – the slower the lap times. We start on the left and motor left looking for a chance to go right. Howie has taken the day off and is out with his helicopter flying around taking pictures. We tack right and find the RC has set a short course and we are almost on layline (thank you RC for the short cours e). It gets really windy and some reaches are tight and scary – also we underbake a run and sail deep to get to the bottom once (also scary). Upwind we find the prudent path is to go right and tack in the lee of the oil platform. We finish about (guess what?) 20 again and sail on in for the last time. I am beat, and am really happy during the rigdown that we only have to go on the road trailer and don’t have to pack a container. It’s all I can do to unrig for a bit, drink some beer, have a sit down, unrig for a bit, repeat.

That night was the awards banquet on the Queen Mary. It was fun with a live band, and slide show of Renee’s pics and Howies helicopter pics. It was somewhat subdued tho, I think everyone was tired– the Crew’s Union made a few drivers wear leotards, dance tights, and cheer leader outfits, some bread got thrown, some speeches got said, and that was about it. And there was no evidence of Jungle Fire (that I saw).

Next on the calendar for the I14 world travelers is the Geelong skiff event in January 07, the 75th anniversary of the English POW cup at Cowes next August, and the next worlds in July 08 in Warnemunde. Get a boat and be there.

09/20/06