Monaco, 13 Februari, 2010
Just another day at the office. This morning started out early: the radio went on at 7.00, breakfast at 7.30 and dock start at 9 o'clock, we took some extra time to calibrate the clocks. Yesterday evening we had a very successful debriefing, extra structure was required so everyone had its own specific tasks to do. 9.15 we were up and running with no.2. after a small downwind run with the Oiltanking heavy spinnaker we decided to go for the light jib and spinnaker for the rest of the day..
Race 1.
The start was sharp, a little bit too sharp to be exact: We were honestly not aware of the OCS, especially because there two French boats a bit further out than us. The first upwind leg was reasonable, we came up fourth but had a lot of problems keeping the boat up to speed downwind. The wind dropped to 5 knots and there was a short, high chop on the water. Dunkerque decided to put their asymmetric spinnaker and made massive gains throughout the day. The first race was not complete to our satisfaction: time to put op the pace.
Race 2.
The second race was pretty much by the book, the boat handling was a lot smoother but had a couple of rough edges, the boa speed, especially downwind, was still difficult. The huge lulls (patches of light wind) in the race course were difficult to spot, and when you got caught in one of these you were pretty much screwed.. We lost two places during the first downwind run but we almost caught them in the last run to the finish, eventual result was a 4th.
Race 3.
Thomas decided to protect the right of the course and we were off the line with speed. The rest of the boats started further on the pin-end. Sailing around the large pothole in the center off the course we rounded the upwind mark in 2nd place. We got a huge fight on our hands with Dunkerque just behind and the boat from Marseille just in front. We lost out a little bit on one of the other boats but we managed to keep in third for the rest of the race, just in front of Dunkerque!
Race 4.
The last race was very difficult, focus was a little bit off and we came off the line in bad shape. Over took one of the boats quite quickly but weren't able to catch the first boats, who made massive gains during the first upwind leg. Eventually two boats (the Russians and Courrier Dunkerque) were over the line early and scored an OCS. Thus resulting in a third place for the Mumma Duck
The difference between the full-pro teams is evident, but we are working hard to keep up: and the results are, after one day of racing, already visible. Tomorrow we have another day with probably two races, and we will try to give the pro-teams the scare of their life!
Also take a look at the photoalbum, click here!
Signing off,
MD
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