Star Sailors League: One race before the heavens open

The weekend saw the teams arrive, collect their jerseys, weigh in, train on the water, and complete the necessary registrations ahead of racing.

The opening two days have a busy schedule of two races for each group, with the first teams on the water being the Austrian Eagles, Estonian Icebreakers and Slovenia Krpani 1860 in Group D.

The race team were keen to get the ball rolling early with heavy rain and possibly thunderstorms due in the late afternoon, but with only 2 knots of wind on Lake Neuchâtel, they were forced to delay the first start. Thankfully after 20 minutes things improved, and the powerful SSL47 yachts with their 22 metre tall rigs are able to get powered up in even the lightest of breezes.

Group D Race 1

The three teams lined up side-by-side, but were collectively seven seconds late to cross the line with the Austrian Eagles claiming the early advantage. Connecting the patches of breeze and minimising manoeuvres was going to be key, maintaining boatspeed at all times.

The Estonia Icebreakers kept things beautifully smooth, working their way to the front whilst also controlling the opposition on the right hand side of the upwind leg, only to lose it when they let the Austrian Eagles break cover, soaring into the lead with a tight tack on the Icebreakers into the windward mark with Slovenia Krpani 1860 a long way back.

The name of the game downwind was keep it smooth and keep your air clean, with Austria and Estonia playing a cat-and-mouse game to the leeward gate in the light airs, and the teams choosing different buoys to round. Crucially, Estonia had to complete an extra gybe to go to the left hand buoy which slowed them significantly.

On the final upwind leg at the first cross Austria had a slender lead, tacking directly on top of Estonia, forcing them back to the right, rounding the top mark ahead, but Austria chose to gybe early downwind. This left Estonia to go all the way to the layline, which they nailed perfectly, crossing the finish line just ahead of Austria who had to complete a costly extra gybe to cross the line second with Slovenia languishing to finish four minutes behind.

A soaking for Group E

After an hour’s delay when the wind switched off completely, the Race Committee decided to switch the groups on the water to try and get one race in for everybody, so the Belgian Sea Devils, Lithuanian Ambers, Norwegian Norsteam and Serbian Eagles were ferried out to the yachts.

Unfortunately for them, the heavens opened soon after they were aboard, soaking them to the skin, and with the rumble of thunder to the north around the Jura mountain range moving down the valley, the Race Officer was forced to raise AP over A and cancel racing for the day. But as Pietro Fantoni said from the committee boat, “Sailing is a water sport. If you don’t want to be wet, chess is your sport!”

Thankfully conditions are looking better on Tuesday, with a South Westerly wind of 10-12 knots forecast, albeit with a bit of rain, which should bring the schedule back on track.

Text and images courtesy of WorldOfSailors.com.