Not so well so far.....
Today we had three races and in each off them we had more boats ahead of us than behind us. Not good! Hmmmmm.....
The conditions were light, very light at times combined with a nice bit of chop and some swell. The three of us just haven't sailed in these conditions and it showed. Nevertheless we remain determined to improve our light air sailing and keep learning new tricks in every race. Our upwind performance went from end-of the-fleet to mid-fleet as Michael's steering got better and better and we loosened our shrouds to the point where I thought the rig might jump out of the boat!
The other issue is that we're just not coming off the line. There are a lot more good boats here and they are aggressive little suckers! We just need to get in there and growl back!
Dare I say that I hope we have the same conditions tomorrow? Not necessarily good for our results but it will definitely make us work harder!
The event itself has been very well organized. Audi is spending some serious money on the Melges 32 and 20, putting up VIP tents, showing off their super cool cars and having some hot hostesses sweet talking you into buying one.
But that said it seems the class doesn't show the same kind of camaraderie as we have in the USA. Everything seems very serious, so serious that they have brought in 6 (yes six!) umpires to police the racing on the water. The chief umpire held a one hour presentation yesterday about how we was going to crack down on any kind of cheating and that he wasn't afraid of sending people home.... Wow, I'm happy we don't have that going on in the USA. Hopefully the US Melges 20 fleet will keeps its friendly character as I believe it is one of the main reasons why it is prospering so well.
Tomorrow we have another three races scheduled and Bacio will come out fighting! No more Mister nice American guy....
Chris out
more pics can be found here
P.S. We're laying in 20th position out of 31 boats.....
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