Friday morning greeted around 300 sailors in Gluecksburg with clear blue skies, lots of heat and a nice easterly breeze that developed thruout the morning and topped out at around 18 knots in the afternoon. As the Flensburg Fjord is a very protected water there is almost no chop – so conditions were perfect for racing 6 Metres, 12 Metres and 5.5 Metres.
Skippers meeting, leaving the dock, getting every boat to the starting area: first gun at 1300 hours and the racing begins! The 6 Metres were split up into classics (Rule I, Rule II and Rule III designs) and modern boats with separate starts – courses were classic upwind downwind courses with offset marks at the windward mark and gates at the leeward mark.
LUCIE sailed careful and used this first day of the preparatory regatta to get into the groove, good starts, then still testing out, which side on the fjord is the faster one… Results were a bit mixed, with a 5th and an 8th LUCIE is ” in the mix” and at this point still the fastest Rule II boat – still with room for improvement.
Saturday will bring the second day of the Sterling Cup – and the weather forecast calls for equally great conditions.
Jens
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