It was another tricky day on the water and conditions in this Mediterranean paradise continued to be cold and overcast. Our sail out to the racecourse seemed to include wind from around the compass with a mix just left of the sea breeze direction filling in just after our scheduled start time.

The course for the first race was considerably longer then the previous day's courses with the weather mark just out of sight. Racing up the first leg the boats on the left looked to be in more pressure and had a better angel to the mark. Many of our competitors tacked out to chase the left but Hamish spotted some pressure further right and went for it. When we came ashore many of our friends commented that we "came out of nowhere" to round the weather mark second. The right shift that propelled us to the weather mark held and we reached back and fourth to the finish in second place behind Lars Kiewning from Germany.

Just before the second start of the day the wind built enough to churn up some white caps. Hamish and I dialed up our rig and started just below the pack at the boat. We had good speed off the line but were positioned between Robert Scheidt and Xavier Rohart (2nd and 3rd place in the World Champs) so we decided to tack out rather then fight with the best in the world. With one short tack onto port another right shift we were on the layline in no time and tacked just to leeward of Alex Hagen, World Champion from Germany. Rohart came and tacked on our bow and it ended up being three World Champions battling for air on the layline.

We rounded in the top ten and jibe-set to reach towards the leeward marks. Everybody held position on the next two legs as the course was so skewed to the right. At the second weather mark the race committee moved the course to square it up to the wind. The subsequent run brought the fleet together as the wind diminished down the run. The leeward mark caused quite a traffic jam and a nice game of bumper boats ensued with entirely to few protest flags.

We escaped with only three boats running into us and went for the only clear air we could find on the left side. The wind shifted right and we finished 8th to bring our point total to 26 over two days which puts us in first by seven points over Xavier Rohart.

Tomorrow we have another two races scheduled and the conditions look to be similar. We expect to have more wind by Wednesday. You can follow online with up to the minute results here. And click here for Brad's Day One report

Cheers!

Brad

04/03/07

Princess Sofia – Day 3

Even the Best Make Mistakes…

Star crew extroidinare Brad Nichol is crewing for Hamish Pepper in the Princess Sofia trophy. Today was not quite so great for the regatta leader, or should we say former leaders...

Today's sail out to the racecourse felt like an early June day on Lake Sunapee with cool clear air and wind coming for every direction. You always wonder what the day is going to bring when you sail alongside someone 100 ft away in the same direction on opposite tacks! We drifted around the starting area for 45 min before the wind came up abruptly.

After Hamish and I completed a short warm up (4 min on port, 2 min on starboard) we turned back towards the start line and spotted our class flag (signaling less than 5 min to go) and after sailing a minute down wind realized the P flag was up too (less than 4 min to go). Just then the P flag came down (1 min to go) and we were still two minutes from the line. The fleet started and sailed by us as we raced back to the starting line. Other boats were caught out also, Xavier Rohart did not even have his main sail up when the race started and four other boats started late.

Hamish and I sailed our hardest as the wind built though the race, whipping up some decent waves allowing us to surf down wind. We were able to pass boats and ended up crossing the finish line 10th.

The second race saw the wind building even more and we made some adjustments to our rig and made it to the start line in plenty of time. Unfortunately, we hit the pin boat at the start and had to do a penalty turn. By the second weather mark we had moved into the top ten but when we tried to cut off a few boats at the weather mark we did not make it around and had to jibe out. By the time we found another gap on the layline we had let a dozen boats pass and were back in the cheap seat again.

We worked our way to the second leeward mark and decided to go left. Just after we rounded, the wind went 20 degrees right and continued to shift right. We did all we could just to hold our position, and to end a bad race with an exclamation point, a Russian boat hit us just before the finish line when we were on starboard.

With a 10, 17 on the day we moved down to third place. Mateusz Kusznierewic (POL) moved from 7th to first with a 2, 2 on the day and Robert Scheidt (BRA) showed incredible down wind speed winning both races and moving into second. We have two more races tomorrow and two on Thursday before Friday's medal race.

Cheers!

Brad

Princess Sofia – Day 6

Press Shift and Delete

Brad Nichol's report from the Princess Sofia trophy Star regatta. he is crewing for hamish Pepper.

I went on the record saying it was not that cold here in Palma… Well, I changed my mind. The mix of cold cloudy skies, HAIL, and cold water made for a very unpleasant day. Top it off with difficult shifty conditions and poor race committee work and we finished the day a bit sour and with some work to do tomorrow.

In the first, and only race of the day we had one general recall and a start that should have been a general. With one minute and thirty seconds to go the fleet was lined-up right at the line and a micro puff blew down the line and all the boats lurched forward a length. At thirty to go I told Hamish I saw my line sight and we were well over the line. The boats around us trimmed on at 20 to go and we went with them. We were a good three or four boat lengths over when the gun went off and there was only 1 boat called over -- the Spanish who sailed up the course before the start. This has been the case all week with the Finn class and really makes for bad racing.

The race went on and was dominated by big shifts. Hamish and I made it to the weather mark in 35th and jibe-set downwind because everyone ahead of us was reaching to the leeward mark. Four boats behind us split from the fleet on a flier (aka hail mary) and ended up rounding the second mark in the top ten after a big left shift.

On the second beat we hung it out to the right where we saw a big, dark cloud and caught a nice righty. Even though we over stood the layline, we still rounded in the top 15. Again, we could lay the finish line from the weather mark and reached towards the finish in a big pack. Right at the line the wind died and Hamish and I were able to keep the boat moving and squeak by the committee boat to finish tenth.

Our tenth place finish moves us back to 5th overall. Robert Scheidt won his fifth race in a row to lock up the victory as long as he takes his victory lap and finishes last or better in tomorrow's medal race. Second through eighth place is very tight going into the medal race with points counting double and we could easily end up anywhere from second to eighth in the regatta.

Cheers!

Brad

04/06/07

Stars

Happy Ending

Brad Nichol's finl report from the Princess Sofia trophy Star regatta.

We ended the regatta on a high note with a solid third in the medal race moving us up to third overall in the regatta. Friday night the awards ceremony was held in castle in the old city and Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos of Spain handed out the trophies. It was a spectacular affair attended by numerous state officials, military figures in full dress and of course, plenty of VIPs. It was quite a special experience.

The medal race included the top ten boats in the standings after nine races and the finish points count double. Robert Scheidt had a big enough lead going into the race that he only had to finish the race last to win the regatta. He stayed out of everyone’s was and finished last to win.

The real action was for second to sixth place where any one of the five boats could have finished anywhere in the group. After a long delay for the wind to fill in the race committee started a sequence in about 12 knots. With two minutes to the start a big left shift came in and all the boats bunched at the pin. The race committee wisely decided to postpone the start and try again.

On the second start, the line was square to the wind and we had just had a big left shift. Hamish and I decided to start at the boat end and try to control the fleet on starboard tack. We had good speed off the line and any boats that wanted to tack had to duck us. We let three boats go and stayed with the pack that we could pass in the regatta standings.

We had enough speed to pull ahead of all but two boat on our side and let others tack out behind us. Only Marc Pickel and Deigo Negri remained to leeward when another left shift came in and carried us to the weather mark in that order.

Downwind things happened fast and before we knew it we were on the layline for the single leeward mark, no gate. This is significant because a gate allows you to split for the boats around you while you have to follow the leader around a single mark.

After the leeward mark we threw in two tacks to try to engage Pickel but the other competition was too close behind and we had to sail fast. We held position around the course to finish third behind Pickel and Negri which put us in third for the regatta.

Hamish and I are taking three days to practice and test out some new sails before we start the Spring Championships of the Eastern Hemisphere on Thursday. I have posted some pictures of Palma on our web site. It is truly a beautiful city.

Cheers!

Brad Nichol
http://www.HortonNichol2008.com/

04/10/07