Home - Sailing World Blogs - Heineken Regatta Day 2

Heineken Regatta Day 2

Posted 8 months, 16 days ago

Heineken Regatta Day 2
Day 2 of the Heineken Regatta is by far the most challenging and tiring of the entire event. For those of us in Spinnaker 1/Big Boat 1, it was a three-race day, starting with two four-leg windward/leeward courses, and ending up with a 17-mile petite distance race in the afternoon. The day starts early, with the first start going off at 9:00 a.m. Add to that the fact that we've got to get the 7:30 drawbridge, and it's a long day on the water. Our first start was pure perfection, with Privateer hitting the pin end with pace just as the gun went off. Much to our chagrin, the race committee hoisted a postponement flag just as we started. For a tactician expecting three starts for the day, the added start meant added stress to an already stressful day, but it was great practice. The second (first) start wasn't quite as good, but we still managed to get off the line alright, and in clean air, which is important when you're sailing against much larger boats. The wind was still up, a steady 23 gusting to 30, so it was another exciting day of high teens downwind. Our chief competition is the TP52 Panthera, which is being sailed very well by a full-on professional crew, unlike the crew of Privateer, which is made up chiefly of Corinthian sailors. To say the least, the TP52 crew sail the boat well, but we're holding our own and feeling good about our results. Our intention today was to stay in the same water as the TP52, basically match racing, which we did almost too well. It was a morning of close crosses, especially downwind. Both boats were sailing downwind at speeds of 16 to 20 knots, which means the combined closing speeds were approaching 40 knots. We had two close crosses, where we approached Panthera on port jibe, and nailed the jibes, ending up right next to Panthera, both of us whizzing downwind. Our owner/driver, Ron O'Hanley, handled the situations we put him in with aplomb, and although Panthera beat us in all three races, we made it clear that we weren't going to let them sail the regatta without a challenge. It works out well for both boats, as we're both sailing as hard as we can, which means we end up correcting out well against all the larger boats (and they're all much larger), as a result, Panthera is in first overall, with four first-place finishes, and we're in second, with four second-place finishes. I'm not too proud to admit that I completely pooched the start of the distance race, crossing the starting line a good 25 seconds after the gun went off. After a 1.2 mile weather leg, we headed downwind toward the French side of the island, and rounded the mark in close company with the 68-foot ULDB Donnybrook, and just couldn't get out of their wind shadow. They had some major issues with their spinnaker set, and were slow coming out of the mark. We were below them, pinned, and unable to get past them despite our superior speed. As we bemoaned our situation, they finally got their spinnaker filled, and almost immediately broached. Unfortunately, as that happened, a the 115-foot megayacht Sojana, racing in Spinnaker 2, was heading upwind on port tack. They had to do a crash tack to avoid the out-of-control Donnybrook, in one of the closest calls I've ever seen on a racecourse. Once we finally got out from under Donnybrook, we started working our way through the rest of our class. Our chief competition, after Panthera, is the Swan 601 Aquarius, which was ahead of us after our poor start and our complications with Donnybrook. Since we owe them time, our next challenge was to pass them, which we managed to do about halfway down the first downwind leg. Then, it became a question of whether or not we could get far enough ahead of Aquarius to save our time. We worked hard, and managed to save our time on them and the rest of our class, except for Panthera. So now we stand in second overall, with one race to go. We'll sail a 22-mile race, starting from Marigot Bay on the French side of the island, and hope for the best. Now, once again, it's time for a cold Heineken or two. Full Story »

Comments are currently disabled