Europeans Day 3 - 5 Races Complete

Three days into Europeans we have sailed 5 races. Yesterday morning we woke up when a storm rolled in at about 1 am. The storm continued, bringing clouds and rain and very cold temperatures with it. We launched at noon for a 1 pm start in about 15 knots from the North. The wind increased and it rained while we tuned up. Then it died off. After the usual 45 minute wait while the men's fleets had several general recalls, we got a race started in about 6 knots. It was abandoned on the first downwind after a 60 degree shift came through. We then sat around for a few hours freezing while the wind went from a light and shifty northerly to an even lighter and shiftier southerly. We eventually got in two races. The wind continued to shift left however the race committee didn't seem to be able to move the windward mark as fast as the wind could shift so both races were drag races. We struggled to get off the starting line and there were very few opportunities to catch up with no need to tack more than twice to make the windward mark. We had some excitement in the first race when our centreboard block exploded, sending tiny ball bearings flying all over the boat. We hit the dock as the sun set and raced to get warm and eat some food.

Today the start time was bumped up to 11 am. The forecast for the day was for a light northerly, but when has a forecast been accurate during a championship? We launched in about 8 knots from the south. We tuned up with the Bulgarian girls and got a race started at about 12. We played the shifts upwind and had a very good reach leg. The wind suddenly increased before the second race and kept increasing up to about 20 knots. We pinned down a half pin and checked the settings and then pinned down a half pin and checked the settings... we went down 2.5 pins in 0.5 increments over a period of 20 minutes! We had a good race and were with our "pack" at the back. We passed one Turkish boat when they capsized on the first downwind, a Greek boat when they capsized on the second downwind and another Turkish boat on the second upwind. We were quite pleased and were 100 m from the finish on the bottom reach when the boat suddenly capsized to windward! We are still not sure what happened - Jen said it was like the rudder got ripped out of her hand, so perhaps we snagged a plastic bag or jellyfish or something! When we righted the boat the spinnaker was acting as a sea anchor. We frantically tried to retrieve it but the Turkish boat we had passed upwind sailed across the finish line before we could get going again.

We re-rigged the kite while sailing up to the line for the next race. We had an ok start and a good first upwind. The waves were very large by now, so the downwind was lots of fun surfing. By the second upwind fatigue was starting to set in and we were struggling to maintain height. The Turkish boat behind us managed to hoist their spinnaker a bit faster on the reach. We were neck and neck downwind; but they managed to just squeeze ahead of us on the bottom reach.

Overall it was a good day. We managed to finish all the races in the breeze and to not capsize in the last race, which is a definite improvement on Weymouth and Worlds.

Here are some links for the event: Results     Event News     Event Website     Event Photos

There is live tracking on the website; as well as regular updates on Facebook and twitter.

We have an 11 am start again tomorrow. We are ignoring the forecasts as they are all wrong anyways. Hopefully it will warm up!

Europeans Day 1: Waiting for Wind

Jen here,

Well it seems that we're playing that old cat and mouse game with the wind again: we wait...and it taunts us.  The only difference this time is that it's unbelievably hot here!  It's nearly 3:00pm and we've been postponed since 11:00am.  Our garden shed has proven its worth though today. The air conditioning has given us a place of refuge from the heat. We've been hiding inside with the Germans and Israelis all day!
Yesterday we took the day off before our seven day event.  I went into Istanbul with our Israeli and German friends to see the sights and have a good day away from the boat park.  This all proved to be a bit trickier than we had originally planned, though, due to some sensitive politics.  Remember that political conflict back in June between Turkey and Israel?  Its likely far from our Canadian minds, but things are still a bit tense between Israel and Turkey.  Our Israeli friends, Gil and Dana are required to bring a bodyguard with them when they go out, in order to prevent any problems that might arise due to their backgrounds.  With bodyguard in tow, we set off to Sulthanamet, only again, things became slightly more complicated.  Before we knew it, we were being escorted by four additional Turkish police!  Here we were, a gaggle of six girls with five bodyguards.

Left to Right: Dana, Leon (bodyguard), Gil, Tina, Jen

Basilica Cistern

The trip into town was a great break from training, measuring, fixing, and all the general preparation for the event.  I think the highlight for me was seeing the Basilica Cistern, a Roman water system that was built in 532AD.  As I walked down the stairs to the underground building, I received the most welcome reprieve from the late afternoon Turkish heat.  Then I turned a corner to see damp, ancient Roman pillars supporting a massive underground structure which is meant for supplying water to the ancient Constantinople.  When I think of how young our country is and compare it to something like the Basilica, it makes me realize how very small we are and how much history there is in this part of the world. I've attached some photos from our day in the city as well as two photos that will interest the more sailing savvy of our supporters.  The 470 class association is considering moving to tape drive sails, and there is a set of North Sails here on display for demonstration.  Their not yet legal, but we may see them in the relatively near future.  Check out the picks of these new sails.  What do you think??

Cheers,
Jen

New Demo Sails

Aug 29 - Measurement

We had two good training sessions on the water Friday. We sailed for 2 hours in the morning, came in for lunch and then hit the water again for another 3 hours. We are focusing on boathandling - tacking and gybing and communication in the boat and getting used to the sailing area. The prevailing wind here is a northerly which is thermal - driven by the Black Sea. The wind comes over the city of Istanbul and then down onto the water so it is very gusty and shifty. There are some interesting trends on the water - two areas where the gusts tend to fill in from; one on the left of the race area and one on the right. In the middle there is sort of a hole. It will be interesting conditions to race in.
 
Yesterday we spent the morning changing the sail numbers on our new mailsail. It is new but was originally ordered for an Australian team, so we first had to strip off the AUS letters and numbers and remove the glue and then put on our CAN 610 numbers. We lay the sail out in what appears to be a dis-used bar in the upper clubhouse. Removing the glue proved to be incredibly time consuming but we managed it nonetheless. Then we had to make a rhombus - fancy word for diamond. This is to distinguish the women's 470 class from the men. We had forgotten to buy material for a rhombus, but managed to use some of the AUS sail numbers we had peeled off. Why do I tell you all this? I find the 470 fleet highly amusing. Impossible tasks become possible, and hours dissapear while working on the most mundane things. While we were working on our mainsail the rest of the fleet did similiar things. A Greek women's team was just in the hallway putting their sail numbers on their spinnaker with a permanent marker and the Bulgarian women were downstairs using whiteout to change their sail numbers. Finally we finished and there was no wind. We registered for the regatta and then walked down to West Marine. Yes, West Marine. There is a small store in the nearby marina. The man working here is extremely nice. He didn't have a chart of the sailing area so he is going to lend me the one off his boat! We forgot our West Marine member card so he let us leave without paying. He also invited us to go racing with him on his keelboat. Then we did some boatwork and managed to sneak into the pool for a swim and then went for dinner with Tina and Sanni. We played scrabble at the dinner table: crews vs. helms using English and German words. This was difficult, as the Turkish scrabble board has many strange letters!
Today we put on our new sails and went for a short sail in 4-6 knots. It is the first new mainsail I've ever used and it is lovely. We managed not to tear the new kite (if its going to rip, its always on the first hoist) and did some roll tacks and gybes. We came in to prepare the boat for measurement. We were a bit nervous as we are using a new boom, mast, rudder head, a different rudder and different sails from Worlds. And of course we got picked for full measurement, again! Alas, even with all of our preparation it did not go very smoothly! We had dried out the boat completely but the measurer managed to find some water inside, and the mast was underweight by 130 grams! (the mast must be a minimum of 10kg). After checking the class rules and making some adjustments we finally managed to get it up to weight (10.004kg). Thankfully our mast and boom stoppers were correctly placed!
 
It was a long afternoon in the 35 degree heat and we are tired now. Tomorrow is a day off before the event starts on Tuesday. We are heading into Sultanahmed with the German and Isreali sailors but also have to do a bit of boatwork in the morning (of course).

Pictures fromTurkey

I will keep adding to this album so check back!

Turkey

Aug 26 - In Turkey

We flew from Kiel to Istanbul on Monday. The transport to the airport and the flight were excellent - German efficiency at its best. Upon arrival in Istanbul we were to be picked up by someone from the Yacht Club. Unfortunately after an hour of waiting we did not find this person, so we took a shuttle bus to the ferry, where we had difficulties figuring out the token purchasing system. Once across the Bosporus we were ripped off by our taxi driver. So we arrived a bit tired and cross at the Yacht Club. It turns out the individual we have been dealing with through email about arranging our accommodation at the Yacht Club no longer works here. Awkward! So there were some things lost in communication and we had a place to stay - just not a very nice one. Our room resembles a garden shed with bunk beds shoved in. There is air-conditioning and bedding and pillows and one electrical outlet, for all of this we are glad. The nearest toilet is 800 meters away in behind the boat storage area - a bit of a trek if you have to go at 3 am.

Tuesday we headed into Sultanahmed and walked around. We walked through the spice bazaar and Grand Bazaar and haggled over scarves. We tried to find a restaurant with Fish for Jen for lunch. She thought she was ordering a "small fish meal" with the small describing the size of the meal. Turns out it was describing the fish - lots and lots of small fish deep fried! So we had an interesting lunch what with the owner trying to show Jen how to eat the fish properly and Jen trying not to throw up as she ate the fish. Then we went to the Turkish Bath where we were scrubbed and massaged which was excellent.
 
Wednesday we hung around the club until our boat arrived at around 2. We unloaded it and started putting it together and I had a rather dis-organized dinner at the club. With German and Israeli and Canadian sailors and the waiters not speaking any English (or German or Hebrew).
 
Today we finished rigging the boat and headed on the water. We had a good session in some light to medium breeze. The air and water are both very warm here; which makes the wind very unstable as it doesn't want to attach to the water. Very different from sailing in England or Germany. We came back in and checked the tuning numbers as this was the first sail with the new mast. Everything has to stretch and settle into place, so we expected the numbers to be different. (
Before sailing: tension - 35.5, rake - 101 cm, prebend - 55 mm  After sailing: tension - 34, rake - 102 cm, prebend - 45 mm)
We re-tuned the mast and did a bit of boat work and socialized with other sailors in the boat park. One of the younger turkish teams who Jen befriended last year were trying to tie an extra bit of line onto their spinnaker halyard, so I helped them splice it properly while Jen advised on gasket replacement.
 
We met our German friends Sanni and Tina for dinner at the same place Jen and I ate last night. The waiter seems to like us as he brought us some lovely fresh fruit for dessert free of charge.
 
I have taken some photos and tried to upload them to the picassa web albums but Turkey seems to block most google products so they may not have appeared. If you are on facebook I have also uploaded them to our facebook page "Jenanderinsail.ca". I will try and get a link to the facebook photo album up soon.
 

Aug 22 - Headed to Turkey!

We have been in Kiel Germany for the past week taking it easy. We had planned to train here but our bodies have been telling us to rest and the weather has been terrible. We have slept in a good deal, done some minor boat work and tuned in our new masts, as well as make friends with many German sailors. We bought new masts while in Weymouth because it is 1/3 the price to purchase masts in England than in Canada. The idea is we have two new masts from the same batch that are both rigged identically. This way if we break a mast we have a spare ready to go. The masts that came with the boat will travel to Miami in the British container and will replace some aging masts on our North American boat. The crazy 470 logistics continue!

Today we loaded our boat back on Jasper's van to be driven to Istanbul, Turkey for our last event over here. It is the 470 European Championships and we are looking forward to some warmth! We fly to Istanbul tomorrow morning so we will have two days without the boat to get used to the heat and get acquainted with our surroundings.

Thanks so much to Susann Beucke and her lovely family for hosting us while in Kiel!

Aug 14 - Sail For Gold Complete

After 5 days of racing the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta in Weymouth is complete. We had two races each day and stayed mostly on schedule which is pretty amazing considering some of the other courses struggled with this. Thursday the breeze was very similar to Wednesday but from the NE, which meant it was coming over the cliff beside our race course. This made for some interesting puffy and shifty conditions! We continued to struggle with our starts and pointing but had good downwind speed and made some good tactical decisions. In the first race of the day we ended up on the left side of the course when a big right shift came down, but we managed to consolidate back towards the middle on some smaller shifts. We caught up and managed to pass the Polish boat and sailed a smart downwind to finished ahead.
 
Friday the breeze was even lighter and more fluky with huge shifts coming down the course. The first race we were set up all nicely on the starting line and at 15 seconds the Spanish women (who were leading the regatta) stole our hole and we were sewered off the line. The breeze was in a right phase at the start so the fleet headed off on starboard tack. We sailed and sailed and instead of shifting back left after 5 minutes like the wind had been doing for the hour before the start, it just stayed right. So we were caught out on the left side but we weren't alone; the world champions and half the fleet were out there too! The second race of the day and the last day of the regatta took a while to get off, as the breeze was all over the place. After several postponements and general recalls we actually managed to get a good start! We were with the fleet and had clean air.  We played the shifts upwind and rounded ahead of a dozen boats or so. A large black cloud had moved overhead and we were treated to a small squall that lasted for the next two legs of the course. The breeze then completely shut off after the squall, and the reach was a painfully slow run. We remained calm and sailed for pressure and finished ahead of three boats. The finish was a mess as the entire fleet had compressed on the reach/run and there was a lot of shouting ahead of us! We were very pleased with the day's sailing and it was a good end to the event. 
 
Today we packed up the boat for transport. It is being driven to Istanbul by one of the German teams, by way of Kiel. The fun regatta (President's Cup) we were going to do in Istanbul has had the dates changed, so we are no longer able to participate. Instead of heading straight to Istanbul we are going back to Kiel to train for a week before heading to Turkey for 470 Europeans.