Photo Credit: Gilles Favez
Isn’t it funny how fast we forget the miserable weather we had to stand for five days once we get two most gorgeous days in a row? Yesterday’s start of the 6 Meter Europeans presented us with blue skies and warmth and it continued today the same way.
This morning’s skipper’s meeting was pulled ahead by half an hour to get the fleet out early. Straight to the southern part of Lake Uri with some nice morning breeze, but just as the whole fleet got there the wind died, not the slightest movement of air and it didn’t take long for it to become almost unbearable in the sun. So, we had an early lunch, finding shade under the hoisted mainsail and waited. Soon enough we saw the kite surfers come out on the northern part of the lake – how long would it take for the thermal breeze to reach us? Not too long, within 10 minutes the wind speed went from zero to 15 knots, and most boats went and changed genoas to accommodate. Soon thereafter the first race of the day was underway.
LUCIE started very well and had good pace on the first leg but got boxed out at the first rounding. SUI44 ASTREE broke her boom in this rounding. At the end LUCIE emerged in 8th position and had three more legs until the finish to gain on the other competitors.
Just when the first race finished, the wind took a little break (perfect timing actually) and the committee boat took the fleet a bit further to the north and we had wind again!
It was almost 3 pm when we finally got to the second start of the day and there was intense fighting on the line for best position, which resulted in a few individual recalls. What is a bit challenging here in Switzerland is the fact that VHF radios are not allowed for communication amongst the fleet on the water, so the race committee is not calling out the sail numbers of the boats that were over early. Instead it is the boat’s own responsibility to know if they were over early or not! So three boats in the classic fleet took the bet and went on rather than re-starting, and they all received an OCS! LUCIE played the right side of the course along with the rest of the fleet. The wind held up well, but it was almost 4 pm, so the race committee shortened the course for the classics at the third mark where LUCIE crossed again as the 6th boat.
Watch the first and second race of the day on the event’s tracker feed (links below):
First race of the day: http://player.georacing.com/?event=100332&race=93083&application_id=NaNrace 3 – classic&location=Brunnen
Second race of the day: http://player.georacing.com/?event=100332&race=93097&application_id=NaNrace 4 – classic&location=Brunnen
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