Bekking sender ny rapport fra Grand Soleil 46

Bouwe Bekking skriver til minbaad.dk, hvor han sejler på en Grand Soleil 46 med Jens Dolmer:

What is wrong with the weather. Back home sunshine and here in St Thomas it has been raining. But still the temperatures are good!!  Had a good practice day yesterday and today the first racing. 

Unfortunately not many boats of our size, so they put us together with the super fast TP52’s and ST65, who are especially running in breeze out sail their rating easily. 

Gennaker-start i 25 knob

The morning’s race, it was their conditions, 20-25 knots and with a gennaker start they were off. 

Our luck was that we could sail a more direct course, why they struggled to carry their downwind sail and had to hoist jibs to come to the mark. 

Unfortunately Highland Fling dropped their rig just after the bottom mark rounding, a real shame, not only for the owner, but as well as local hero Peter Holmberg was onboard, so missing probably out a bot for local the media. 

But back to racing, the long reach was followed by a proper beat, a run and again a beat into the finish, where we could gain again a bit of time. Finishing 3rd was a good result. 

Glamour start

The 2nd race we had a glamour start , which followed by a long beat and then a run and a beat into the finish. 

More the type of course we like. We scored a1st and are equal on points. Tomorrow hopefully more up/down courses, as that is the best chance we can have to beat the faster boats.

Like always Rolex is a guarantee for a fantastic event, the regatta organization here is again outstanding on and off the water.

Ny rapport modtaget lørdag aften fra Bouwe Bekking

Today there was more breeze and as well the courses had a bit more reaching in them, so we knew it was going to be hard. 

The morning race we went ok, but then got tangled up with two 65 footers, who didn’t set a gennaker on a tight reach. 

They didn’t let us go over the top, so we had soak down and try to break through to leeward. We managed one, but the other one blocked us completely.  

I don’t say that it cost us the race, as two TP 52 beat us with several minutes, but we lost 3rd place with only 30 seconds. 

The 2nd race was in 15-20 knots and after about 11 miles, we were looking ok at the topmark on corrected time. 

TP52 smoked us

But then the three TP’s smoked us downwind and on the 3 miles reach,probably doing close to double our speed. 

As well the breeze starting dropping towards the end  of our race and thta didn’t help us a lot and I was actually surprised that we managed to score a 4th. 

We had a good day, but the apples won from the pears, that is how handicap sailing sometimes is.  

Battle for podium finish

Right now with one day to go, we just have to battle for a podium finish, as the leader is 6 points ahead of us and two boats behind us are close on our heels. 

As said before if it is lighter than 15 knots and it is a proper up and down course we have a chance, so just crossing our fingers for tomorrow.

Cheers,

Bouwe