Act 1, La Napoule, 19-21 September
01/10/08
The weekend of the NEW HIVER DES METRIQUES was a resounding success, with light airs, sunshine and true windward leeward short course racing. Friday saw the crews arrive with the morning spent race tuning and preparing the boats. The 3 teams of Paul Smith (New Sweden) Claes Ahlin (Gubbrora) and Avia Willment (Blade Runner)
completed 3 races in 5-8 knots of breeze, azur blue calm sea and sunshine.
Race 1
Blade Runner led at the top mark followed by New Sweden with Gubbrora close behind. Gubbrora sailed a great run, accurately reading the conditions to take the lead comfortably at the bottom mark, a position she did not relinquish for the rest of race. New Sweden although moving into 2nd place on the first downwind leg struggled for upwind pace and was relegated into third position.
Race 2
Gubbrora held Blade Runner out at the start forcing her to tack round and start late. As the boats sailed out to the right hand side of the course, Blade Runner made gains back into the fleet and an early lay-line call saw her pick off New Sweden before the top mark. Gubbrora sailed a clean race to win comfortably. Blade took second with New Sweden third.
Race 3
A start line incident saw New Sweden over, Blade took off to the left hand side followed by Gubbrora. Finding a better downwind mode they held off Gubbrora, but a poor bottom mark rounding brought the Swedes back into contention. Blade Runner found a better mode and held off Gubbrora by 2 lengths at the top mark. A bear-away set against a tack set gave Blade Runner another boat length. The Swedish AC sailors engaged Blade in a gybing duel to the finish, Blade held on for the win, even after a nasty twist in the kite 10 lengths from the line. New Sweden could only watch the battle ensue as their premature start had kept them out of the running in the final race.
Sunday dawned breathless, and after a 2 hour postponement racing was abandoned with Blade and Gubbrora taking the opportunity to hitch a lift with the committee boat to Cannes in preparation for Regates Royales.
All crews commented on how much fun the weekend had been, with good weather, a great location, and great course setting.
The next Regatta is on the 9-11 October, when another 3 boats are expected to join in. A big thank you must go out to Bruno Fauroux (Union Yachting Cannois), Jacques Fauroux (Fauroux Yacht Design & PRO) and Alex De Boom (Aire de Boom Marina Services) for helping to put this regatta series in place.
Overall result Act 1
Gubbrora 1,1,2
Blade Runner 2,2,1
New Sweden 3,3,3
Universal Marina
Crableck Lane, Sarisbury Green
Southampton SO31 7ZN
T: 01489 574272
E: info@thewillmentgroup.com
Web: www.universalmarina.co.uk