Hello Race Fans!!!
Hobie 16 Worlds semi-finals day 1
Our day was not the greatest. We are now a fleet of 120 boats and so 60 sail every other race. We switch boats every race we sail, which means that we have to get it all set up in a short time.
We were in the first group, and we were out on the course on time by 10:00 this morning only to be sent in when a thunderstorm moved over the sailing area. They made us sail back to the beach as fast as we could, sail up onto the sand, and get away from the boat quickly. Lightening was coming down not far away. After a two-hour postponement racing got under way in difficult conditions. The current was moving up wind, as it has been all week, making for large steep waves. The wind was just strong enough for marginal double trapping. The teams that were the best at powering their boat up on the beats and surfing the waves down wind had the best days.
Our start was pretty bad because we hadn't checked every little tiny thing when we got the boat. As soon as Bob got on the trapeze, his line loosened and he was washed over the back. Luckily as I had had this experience with Annie, I knew to get off the wire and back on tto the boat as quickly as I could so that we didn't capsize. Yes, I saved the Day! Haha. but it was a small victory as we were now in last place. The fleet is So Good that even tiny mistakes like that that take up an extra 3 minutes will leave you in last place...alas.
The rest of the race was a matter of bouncing off waves, getting hit broadside by waves (anyone see "Master and Commander?") and trying to keep your feet on the boat, and having some scary mark roundings as we seemed to always be coming in on port tack. But it was a great learning experience. We finished 51st out of 60 boats. Pretty BAD.
The second race we got a little buried at the start, but quickly tacked and headed off to the right side of the course with the biggest waves but hopefully some wind. It was not to be the case. There were some huge holes without wind out there and we would practically stop. But we tried to ride the waves downwind while keeping the jib flying, and we ended up 24th. There are only two more days before they cut the top 56 teams and send them to the gold fleet. If we make that, it will mean back to back races with switching boats every race. It will be grueling, but at this point we face an uphill battle to make the cut. We will do our best.
Since we only had 3 races today, some teams have sailed two races and others have sailed only one. More tomorrow.
Full results are on the web site:
http://www.hobieworlds.com/h16-2004/default.asp Liza
