Starting, Italian Style!

Kiss the Madonna and Baby Jesus for good luck!

So we finally managed getting off the line in the last race. And guess what, we were second at the windward mark. OMG, we DO still know how to sail! Jamie's main comment in regards to starting was: Beat the two boats around you. And he is sooooo right. Keep squeezing up to the windward boat until you at least can see the veins popping out out of the tacticians forehead or until you hear something like: " He, he, he gazzo dio, porca miseria!!!!! Then smile at them as you bear away at 10 seconds and leave them in the dust. Yeah.....
In the first race we actually got rolled, again. And that after repeatably telling ourselves that we were going to pull the trigger early....anyways, we managed to find a lane and were in ok shape at the first mark. Coming into the leeward gate it was full on with boats piling up and lots of Italian language. We positioned ourselves infront of another boat told them that they did NOT have an overlap coming into the mark zone, had to give the boat ahead of us some room so swerved a bit wide and guess what? The boat behind us just barged inbetween the mark and us. We end up having contact with them. We yelled protest and within two seconds we get a red flag and repeated whistles by my favorite Italian Umpire (who's name I will not disclose, but will tell you that I believe he is half blind). As I look back (after hearing the whistle, sure that the Italian boat was getting a penalty) I see that the flag is pointed at us. Not believing what my eyes are telling me, I shrug my shoulders in disbelief. The umpire completely looses and he's head literally almost explodes as he yells: USA 13, you will keep doing circles until I say so!!!! Madonna, take it easy pal......
Obviously we were in last after doing our circles and getting getting released from "circling-hell", caught a couple of boats and got ready for the last race.

Lots of good lessons learned. I'm super happy to have sailed this event with Michael and Jamie. At the end of the week we had found great upwind and downwind speed, adjusted to Italian starting and solidified our team under pressure.

31 Audi Melges 20 boats, ready to race!

Team Bacio is looking forward to sharing some Italian Starting Techniques at our next event at Charleston Race Week in a couple of weeks.... He, he, he, he :-)
More, less critical, reporting can be found on the Audi Melges 20 website here.
Congratulations are in order for the top Italian teams that sailed a really good regatta.

Chris out

Our new team car and driver....

Not getting off the line......

Team Bacio is currently in Naples, Italy sailing the first event of the 2011 Audi Melges 20 Sailing Series. I'm once again on board together with Michael Kiss and Jamie Kimbell. After a long winter series in Miami we are now measuring ourselves against the top Italian Teams.
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.....

Improving our Game...

Bacio wins Audi Melges 20 Winter Series!!!

Happy Faces on Bacio: Chris, Mitchell and Michael

Well we just finished the Audi Melges 20 Winter Series in Miami. With a 2nd place at the Bacardi Miami Race Week we secured the title and we are still the team to beat. The series consisted of three regattas, concluding with the Bacardi Miami Race Week which boasted a total of 26 Melges 20s! How is that for one design racing! Every event saw a different winner. We won the first event, Red Sky (Paul Reilly) won the second event and the last event was won by Mary-Ann Ward on M&M Racing.

An ecstatic Mary-Ann Ward!

This is a testament to the great nature of the Melges 20 class. Everybody has improved their game since we last won the Nationals in August and we are having to work harder and harder to stay ahead or at least stay even with the other teams.
When Michael Kiss got me on board his Audi Melges 20 Bacio back in Charleston last year, we immediately got along. We are both quite technically inclined and enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth.
I consider the AM 20 one of the best sailing training platforms out there. Apart from offering great racing on the water, the owners are a pretty tight knit group that enjoy the social aspects of the class as much as the racing.
For me as a pro-sailor my main objective is to help my owner improve his own personal sailing game. I believe it is way more satisfying for the owner to keep taking more and more responsibility on the boat than having a Pro-Sailor baby him around the course. With this in mind Michael and I set up a pretty intense schedule that would allow us to do exactly that. For every regatta we set attainable goals which aren't based on results but primarily on certain parts of racing. I keep pushing responsibility back in the boat (I do bow) and we talk about our mistakes openly after each race.
At times this can be frustrating but long-term I'm convinced its the way to go.

Enjoying having the fleet behind us

Bacio is now off to Europe where we will see how we face off against the top Italian crews. The Italians will certainly push us and make us work harder at improving our game once again.
Last but not least we would like to thank our teamgear suppliers Point Loma Outfitting and SLAM for their continued support.


Chris out

In the mean time...

A lot has happened since my last entry:

• Finished the Moth Worlds in Belmont, Australia
• Flew straight from Sydney to Key West for Key West Race Week on the Melges 32 Heartbreaker with Bob Hughes

 

• Up to  Miami to coach Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha (470 Womens) at Miami OCR
• Back to San Diego for one week of picking up my life, surfing, paying bills
• Returned to Miami for the 2nd Melges 20 Winter Series Regatta
• Crossed the State over to St. Pete for the St. Pete NOOD on "Matros"

 

• Back to Miami to coach 49ers

 

• Blew out my back on the coach boat
• Raced the Melges 32 "Delta" with Terry Hutchinson at the Miami  Championship (more great pictures can be found here!)

 

• Finally took a deep breath

Currently I'm still in Miami, getting ready for the Bacardi Race Week where once again I'll be sailing on board Michael Kiss' Melges 20 "Bacio. After our 5th place at the last Winter series regatta we are keen on getting back on top of the pack. The whole fleet has stepped it up and racing has gotten a lot tougher. Good, because it wouldn't be fun if it were easy!
In the mean time Dani Gamache and I wrote a cool article about upwind sailing for the Melges 20 website.

Chris out

DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF, DNF

Bombing down wind...

In total the US Airforce Team reported seven DNFs yesterday, which gives you a flavor of how the conditions were. Again it was overcast and not necessarily super windy when we launched, but by the time we started the first race everybody knew they were in for a beating. This was some of the most gusty conditions I've sailed in for a while.
My results: 11th, 25th and a 23rd aren't great and I knew something was wrong by the start of the second race. In race one I flunked the start, found 5th gear and solid boat handling to capitalize on some shifts to eventually pass the line in 11th. Looked like it was going to be a great day!
But as the racing went on I seemed to loose my upwind Mojo more and more and I just couldn't figure out what was wrong. I was hardly capsizing, but the boat was feeling "sluggish". By the time I made it back to shore I barely could get the boat foiling. We needed 4 guys to carry my boat out of the water! Somehow she had taken on a lot of water, the exact quantities are up for speculation, but it seemed to be half of the lake from my perspective. Good to know why I wasn't going fast, but I havent been able to pinpoint where the water entered the hull yet. I didn't exactly do a thorough examination yesterday after draining it for 30 minutes, as the smell of the BBQ and and the taste of beer were far more inviting.
So today we'll bring out the stethoscope and find ourselves the leaks. There haven't been a lot of days that I'm happy not having to go sailing, but my body is really enjoying a day off.
Looking at the score board, Nathan continues to dominate, but got a minuscule chip in his armor yesterday when he eventually showed his second "none-bullet" by finishing 4th in the last race. Out of twelve races he has won 10 so far.... yeah, hmmmmmm
Bora had a very decent day with a 4, 3, 7 and now sits in 5th overall. I'm currently third American sitting in 18th, but that is largely due to the fact that Dalton had to score two DNFs. One because of breaking a mast and a second one after loosing his rudder horizontal. Also Brad Funk had some issues in the first two races and then had to abandon when his rudder gantry ripped apart. George Peet sailed consistently in the teens and now has climbed to 15th, nice effort on his part.
In the wing department we had some disaster hit, Charlie ended up breaking two wings in these crazy conditions. It seemed like both wings should reparable and I'm sure Rob Patterson was working over time last night to get them up and running again. Charlie has shown great promise with the wing, duking it out in the front pack yesterday. It just seems we should have added some more carbon!

The day ended with the Moth AGM which showed a bit of tension as the future of the wings was discussed. There are a couple of sailors (and mast makers) that want to down right ban any development of wings, which I find absolutely absurd in a development class. We haven't even yet really started and they already want to ban it? I can just see the headlines on the sailing websites: Moth Class bans Wings! Right next to the other headline: The next AC to be sailed with wings!

On a positive note: The USA gets to host the 2013 Worlds (we had to beat a bid from Hayling Island in the UK)!

US Airforce Team out

Me telling Nathan that his expiry date is about to kick in...and him thinking: dream on!

Crunch Time...

Today was the last day of qualification, before the fleet gets split up into Gold and Silver fleet. Conditions were again mostly breeze on but with a bit more overcast, which kept the windspeeds down when the clouds were in. As soon as the sun would pop out the breeze would increase a couple of knots. Being in the blue fleet I got to race twice on the outer loop, which had some flatter water and big gusts off of the shoreline. My main goal of the day was to improve my boathandling. And I did! No capsizes or pitchpoles resulted in three top ten finishes, albeit I might have been OCS in the last start. I pulled the trigger a second too early, realized my mistake, tried to slow down and almost capsized in the process. It was a good races nevertheless, battling back into the top ten and eventually finishing ahead of Simon Payne. Sailing around in the back end of the fleet on the first beat (after that lousy start), I noticed how my confidence level dramatically improved. I knew that I was going faster than everyone around me and that my boat handling was going to be better. That all led to a lot smoother sailing, than when I was duking  it out with the top guys at the front. Now I just need to do the same when I'm ahead of those guys.
Bora had a good day with two 2nds and a forth. He's going faster now after having replaced his rudder vertical which was splitting down the middle! Nathan Outteridge had another 3 bullet day, so he will start off the final racing with a 1st on his scoreboard. Pretty impressive on his part!
At the BBQ after racing everybody was more or less complaining about beat up bodies and sore hands. We all need a day off, but Gold Fleet racing commences tomorrow! Hopefully on Wednesday we get to relax a bit and lick our wounds.
Have a look a Thierry Martinez' website for some cool pics and of course the official Moth Worlds website has some cool videos as well!.

I leave you with a short on the water interview which was taken between race 2 and 3 today.
Chris out

you win some .... you lose some...

 Lets start off with some humor to lighten up the day a bit!


 The name of my boat is a play on "Lorenzo Van Matterhorn" which was a scene in the Series: How I met your mother. Check out the youtube clip...We have been watches the complete series on Bora's MacBook and it definitely is funny!

 Back to reality.....
Tough day on the race course for me today. The conditions were challenging with breeze in the low 20 knot range and some nasty chop at the bottom of the course. Again we sailed three races and the top guys had big smiles on their faces even before the race started! They knew it  was going to be a boat handling day that would separate the boys from the men. Unfortunately I'll have to count myself to the "boys" group , still. But I'm determined to change that! I'd be looking real good up the first beat, showing great speed of the line. But then the dreaded moment would arrive: I would have to tack! and in the process lose all those hard fought meters, hiking my butt off, keeping the boat at the perfect angle, keeping an eye out for those big puffs rolling down. All of it would be obliterated within two seconds. It kinda reminds me of that movie : Anger Management with Adam Sandler. It's not really THAT bad, but I might start singing "I'm pretty, so pretty, la la la la" soon if I don't sort out some more consistent tacks.
Needlessly to say my results weren't anything worth writing home to about. After a day like today I usually force myself to find all the positive aspects of my racing, so here we go:
Good placement on the starting line, great upwind speed, good laylines, Never-give-up attitude, nothing broke, finished all races, beat the current world champion in a race, sailing upwind at 16 knots, beautiful weather, nice temperatures, great team mates that are happy to help you.
Now, how is that for some self coaching!!! OK, I'm pumped up again for some more racing tomorrow, bring it on!
For me, you must understand, it can be quite frustrating having to deal with sub-par boat handling. In the 49er with Tim, we had put a serious priority on boat handling. We had set ourselves the goal that no one could "out-boat handle" us. We were a light-weight team, so every move had to sit perfectly. Good boat handling is the basis for your confidence and confidence is needed for good decision making. Good boat handling leads to good speed, good speed leads to good tactics and good tactics result in good finishes. Pretty simple, huh?
Any ways, I leave you with two short videos. The first one introduces the team members of our Moth Air Force Team and the second one is a compilation of some interviews.

Beat up team member of the US Airforce Team out

and some interviews: