Monday, June 24, 2013

Kiel day 3

Very tough day today. We did a few things well, but you won't see them in our results. The highlight of the day was a good first start and first beat to put us in 3rd for the first two legs. Pushing on.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Kiel, day 2

We had a day of ups and downs. They postponed the 1st race for a squall, as we waited it out we got farther upwind than we wanted to be from the starting area. We capsized in the bear away and broke a tiller extension. We carry an extra, but by the time we had replaced it and set the kite to get back to the line, we had missed the start. We started a minute late, and followed the fleet around the race course. NOT a good way to start the day. After that, we had three great starts! The conditions were extremely difficult, everything from 2 - 18 kts. Our windward mark was under a lee shore, and the shifts and puffs and lulls were all over the place, so it was hard to pick a fast route, and easy to get passed by boats.

We are sitting in 10th and tied with Singapore. Hoping to improve on our good starts tomorrow by capitalizing on them with speed and point upwind, putting ourselves in the best pressure, and minimizing the mistakes. Hope we can post a top 5 finish since we know we are capable of it!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Kiel Day 1

4 races today, started at 12:00, did two races, then went back out at 5:00pm for two more on the Golf course. Gusty, flat water, and big lulls characterized the day. Races 3 and 4 were much lighter. For tomorrow, we are going to work on connecting the puffs to stay in pressure, moving weight more accurately, and trimming accurately for speed. Our starts were not bad today, but we will be pushing the line more tomorrow. I think we were on TV today, but I can't find it online yet.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Day one of Racing today at Kiel Week

Kiel Week is a Eurosaf Regatta in Germany. It is an international event that we are using as a warm-up for the Europeans. We start racing at noon today. There are 15 boats in our fleet (49er FX). Many of whom we havn't sailed against yet, including all the Aussies, the team from Singapore, and Ireland.

Saskia Tidey is on the Irish team, she sailed on the opposing women's Aussie 18 in the JJ Giltinan (Aussie 18 Worlds), so it will be fun to race against her again! The Singapore team practiced with us in light air - they are fast, but they are light, so look for them to be good in light air, but slow in the breeze. I expect most of the Aussie teams to be good.

The forecast for the event is medium, with more wind later in the week. Here's the link to the regatta website where you can find results, and there is a Live Center which will have video and maybe some tracking of our races.

http://www.kieler-woche.de/english/

Here's the forecast:

Saturday, Jun 22Sunday, Jun 23
Local time02h05h08h11h14h17h20h23h02h05h08h11h14h17h20h23h
Wind direction
Wind speed (kts)19
17
16
14
14
8
9
11
12
13
16
14
14
13
11
11
Wind gusts (kts)
31
27
22
20
19
14
17
19
20
22
21
20
20
19
17
16
Cloud cover
Precipitation (mm/3h)
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
Air pressure (hPa)1010101110111012101210101010100910091008100810081009100910101011
Air temperature (°C)
15
14
15
16
17
18
17
16
15
14
15
15
16
17
15
14
Local dateMonday, Jun 24Tuesday, Jun 25
Local time02h05h08h11h14h17h20h23h02h05h08h11h14h17h20h23h
Wind direction
Wind speed (kts)13
13
13
12
12
12
13
12
12
12
12
14
15
14
13
13
Wind gusts (kts)
19
19
16
15
15
16
17
17
16
16
14
16
17
16
15
16
Cloud cover
Precipitation (mm/3h)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Air pressure (hPa)1011101110121014101410141015101710171017101910191020102110221023
Air temperature (°C)
13
12
13
14
15
16
15
13
13
13
14
15
16
16
15
13

Local dateWednesday, Jun 26Thursday, Jun 27
Local time02h05h08h11h14h17h20h23h02h05h08h11h14h17h20h23h
Wind direction
Wind speed (kts)12
12
13
13
13
14
13
15
12
12
11
10
9
8
8
10
Wind gusts (kts)
16
14
15
14
15
16
15
19
16
16
13
12
11
9
8
10
Cloud cover
Precipitation (mm/3h)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Air pressure (hPa)1023102410241025102510251026102610271026102710271027102610261026
Air temperature (°C)
12
11
12
13
14
14
14
12
11
11
13
14
16
17
16
14