From Steve Piche's FB Post
Top Ten List for Day 1 of F18 Worlds:
Good morning Germany! While you in the US rest your weary heads, the sun has popped back up here in Kiel, Germany and we are about to embark on Day 2 of the F18 Worlds. However, before we get into Day 2, let’s recap the action from Day 1 (oh and thanks to Lorelei for giving me my cowboy hat before leaving the house today!)…
1. Team USA Bullet! After the racing only one race yesterday due to light wind, I came ashore and pulled my boat up next to Michael Easton and Tripp Burd who are storing their boat next to mine. I asked Michael how they had done. He casually said “pretty well”. I asked him what “pretty well” meant. He said he got a bullet! Whew, I started cheering and letting everyone know that he had gotten a bullet! Good job Michael and Tripp. Great way to start the regatta! (However, it is only one race and we have many more to go!)
2. Regatta Site: What a beautiful place for a regatta! We are located on a large bay in the East Sea (Baltic Sea) in northern Germany. This place lives, breathes and eats sailing! Kiel Week, which is the largest regatta in the world, is held here every June. We are based out of the Olympic center which was developed for the 1972 Olympics. We are actually sailing outside of the bay in a more open area – it is about a three mile sail to the course each day. Just a really nice location for the regatta.
3. Team USA Part II: We had some other good scores from Team USA! Taylor Reiss took a fifth and Todd Riccardi took an 11th. Charles Tomeo and Laura Muma were on the race course with me and scored 22nd and 28th respectively. Juke and I survived with a mid-pack finishing in very light conditions which is usually one of our weaker points of sail so we were actually fairly happy. The wind is supposed to be up more today so we are excited to go racing in some breeze. (Sorry I don’t have the rest of the Team USA scores – no internet at our beach house so I have to go down to the regatta site to see the scores.)
4. Opening Ceremony: On Monday evening, we had a parade of nations before the opening ceremony. We all gathered together under our 24 different flags and then paraded to the hall where the opening ceremonies were conducted. It was fun for everyone including Juke’s son Lux who got to carry the USA sign for part of the parade!
5. Black Flag! As is usual for the start of any large regatta, many people jumped the starting line early on the first race and the race committee called a general recall to restart the race. However, what was unusual is that the starting line is so long, almost a half mile long, that at the far end of the line you cannot see the flags. After starting down by the favored pin end for the first start, we heard a horn and saw everyone sailing back. We started to sail back towards the committee boat and as we got closer we realized that they had a black flag up – automatic disqualification if you are over the line one minute to the start. I immediately got myself below the line and no sooner was I below the line then they took the black flag down indicating one minute to start. We tried to get ourselves in position for the start but really did not get full back up to the line in time for the start. From now on, we just have to assume that the black flag is up and get below the line good and early and be ready to go. There really is no way to see the flags on the committee boat unless you have better than 20/20 vision. We will have to work off horns.
6. Germany comes with Free Air Conditioning and Lighting! Besides the lack of wind yesterday, the weather has been quite beautiful here. It has been in the mid-60’s and partly sunny most of the time we have been here. Also, the sun sets at 10 pm and comes up at 5 pm. For this reason, I think the people in Kiel must not have an electric bill because they get free air conditioning and free lighting!
7. Fitting 100 boats through a tiny gate: So the fleet is divided up into two groups for sailing each day. During the qualifying series, which consists of the first 6 races, the fleets are divided based upon ranking and previous results. After the first 6 races, the fleet will be divided up into two groups, top half and bottom half, for the remainder of the regatta. Given the split fleet, we have 100 boats on a half mile long starting line which is fine but it is a disaster trying to fit 100 boats though a 50 yard wide gate. In the mid fleet where we found ourselves yesterday there was virtual no wind at the lower gate. We rounded the gate and just slowly poked forward in the lee of the massive number of boats coming down wind with spins flying. It took us several minutes to get going. With so many boats, the gate rounding becomes critical to how well you do in the race especially if you are in the middle of the pack.
8. Our Beach House: Juke and I are sharing the top two floors of a beach house just two blocks from the regatta site. It is really a pretty location and perfect for Juke’s family. We have a wonderful beach right in front of the house which is only slightly used due to the free air conditioning!
9. DPI: You may have seen that I got a DPI penalty on my score card. If you don’t take your tracker out or forget to return it at the end of the day, you get a one point penalty. I accidently grabbed tracker 183 instead of tracker 182 yesterday and was given a one point penalty. I will be more careful today!
10. Today: As I have been writing this top 10 list, the wind has been building outside. It is a beautiful blue sky day with wind building out of the west. A great day to go sailing! Four races are scheduled for today!
