Team "We're Just Here for the Party" are here.... Cowes Week baby!!!!!
Three lost souls from San Diego found someone generous enough to loan us a
boat and somehow managed to acquire reasonable accommodation for the week.
We are sailing a Sonar for the week and despite not ever actually having
seen a Sonar before, are determined to give it our all. Oh yeah- and check
out "the scene" while we are at it. Cowes Week is not like other "race
weeks"... Long Beach Race Week is 3 days, Key West is 5 days... Cowes week
is 8 full days, with no lay days and one *long* random leg race/day lasting
2-3 hours. All classes get a different course around the 140 or so marks in
the Solent so while there are hundreds and hundreds of boats in the racing
area, you never actually know where any of the others are going.

Cowes does not bill itself as the biggest regatta in the world but with over
1,000 boats and 8,500 sailors, it has to be close. That many sailors in
this small of a town and all night the streets are filled with revelers into
the wee hours. I would have thought all the locals would have boarded up
the houses and evacuated the island, but in actuality, they are hanging out
like normal in the pubs and restaurants... I guess they are used to it.

We arrive on Thursday and use the time to get over our jet lag. We found
our boat. Looks fast and well rigged, and based on all our extensive
research, does indeed appear to be a Sonar.

When our third arrives on Friday- we are almost complete. We take the boat
out on Friday for a trial and realize we don't know a damn thing about the
Sonar. Good thing we printed out all the tuning guides off the class
website. Everyone locally is also very helpful with tips. The class
secretary Sarah is great, Andrew from the chandlery is super super helpful
with local knowledge on the racing area. First person in the local Sonar
fleet to meet us see's the SA visor and sticker I have placed on the transom
of our boat and and asks me if I am "doing a piece" on Cowes. "Of course I
am!" and for a SA sticker I get a much needed Loos gauge and our rig is set
(we think)!

We need to find a 4th person, maybe even a 5th as we are light overall.
Looking for 750lbs approx, up to 900lbs and we are like 510!!! Local
sailing wizard Tim volunteers via e-mail and I hope he is 200lbs. He is 15
years old- so I am not hopeful. We meet and he indeed is only 140lbs...
bugger... that's not gonna work! He's just finished a 29er regatta but is
up for 8 more days- ahh youth!!!

He is sent off home with instructions to bring a twin. He manages to talk
his father (a local cruiser/club racer) to join us for Saturdays first race.

I keep hearing one thing about racing on the Solent... current, current,
current. Oh yeah- did I mention current? There are 12' tides here. The
current blasts through at 2-3 or more kts and there are counter currents and
eddy's everywhere. The race management is good but very different to
anything I've ever dealt with. The entire race is broadcast on the FM radio
just like a regular broadcast sporting event- they even give the courses
over the FM radio which is nice as the course boards on the Royal Yacht
Squadron start are cryptic to say the least. The easiest way to get the
course is to have RC text message it to your phone! Awesome, you just have
to make sure you put the phone someplace safe/waterproof after the start...
it is a very wet course! The wind has been fresh to say the least... our
11:25 start has had 10ish kts but it very quickly hit 20's and gusts of 25
with real short steep 2-3' waves- just big enough to go over the bow and
into the boat.

There are so many boats in the starting area (almost everyone starts in
front of RYS) that you can't even see the shore on the other side of the
Solent! You can't, however, miss the big boys... Maximus is here and even
more impressive is ABN-AMRO 1. The boat takes the chop that fills our boat
in seconds like nothing and looks like a freight train going upwind...
gliding along effortlessly, I am sure the grinders don't agree it is
effortless, but it is truly impressive nonetheless.

We manage a 4th on day one (only one second out of 3rd) so we are emboldened
and hopeful we won't embarrass ourselves. The start was in 10kts and sunny
but the finish was in 20-25 with sideways rain... I love this place!!!

Day 2

Start is again in 10ish kts with the middle of the course showing a lot of
promise. We lost our 5th person so are light. The first beat is against
the current so the 16 boats in our class are in a massive tacking duel and
everyone is trying to hug the shore... really really close.... there are
more calls for water than there are for starboard.... After a less-than-
stellar start, we can really move in this breeze and pick off a few boats to
get ourselves into 7th, despite an overly aggressive submerged rock that
decided to touch our keel. The 4 mile run is awesome and the wind is 12-
15. I think we got another boat or two.

The ensuing two beats/runs have even more wind but as it picks up, we can't
point with the heavier teams. On the last long beat we loose two more boats
and finish 7th.

One of the other peculiarities about this regatta is the penalty system. If
you foul someone and accept fault, you have a 1% penalty added to your
time. You acknowledge this by flying a yellow flag instead of going to the
room. If you hit a mark you also pick up 1% to your time. You cannot
exonerate yourself but doing turns (I have no idea why). We managed both of
these feats but had enough space between us and 8th to not loose a spot.
Unfortunately, what we did not know, was that there is a very short period
of time in which you have to put up your yellow flag... and the penalty for
that is more time added... so we take a 7th to a 13th... ouch.

After racing every boat has to check in with race central... again, I don't
know why, it's just one of those peculiarities of Cowes Week. One of the
boats forgets to check in and takes a 4th place finish to last... ouchier!
We slip into a 12th. This is a really challenging place to sail, and with
all the added rules you really can't let any detail go or you'll pay dearly
later.

We are off to a formal event (blue blazers are much more common here than on
the West Coast of the US) so I need to hunt down an iron...

More later...(Our boys grabbed a fifth in race three. -Ed)

jefe

8/1/06