ISCYRA  Regatta Report

Sat Aug 21st, 2004 through Sun Aug 29th, 2004

Gold Medalists Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira, © Getty Images

Gold Medalists Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira, © Getty Images

2004 Olympics

 

Final Results - 11 races.

Reports of races #1 and #2 on August 21, races #3 and #4 on Aug. 22, race #5 on Aug. 23, race #6 on Aug. 24, races 7 & 8 on Aug. 25 and Races 9 & 10 on Aug. 26 by Paul Cayard:

Aug. 26:Athens served up a pretty typical day today. Seabreeze with the left being heavily favored. We stayed away from the fighting for the left side of the line and ultimately we payed for that. In each start we could not hold our lane and were forced to tack out to the right. I was a bit shy on the line, always mindful of not getting an OCS, but that conservatism cost us. There were some opportunities to come back from the right, Peter Bromby (BER) did it, but we could not find the lanes or the wheels to make it work.

Aug. 25: Torben Greal of Brazil all but won the gold today with his 2,7. He has just outsailed everyone so far, no one is even close to his consistency.

The conditions today were initially 8 knots from 235 softening to 4 knots from 200. The last lap of the second race was very ight..less than four knots of wind. In the first race, we had a good start and went left with Grael and Percy. Our speed was very good. Unfortunately the right was the place to be most of the day. We got it wrong all race up to the last leeward mark. There the committee moved the windward mark to a heading of 220. As soon as we rounded the leward mark, we tacked onto port to clear our air. I looked at the compass and it said 225. Then I saw the mark almost right in front of us. Strangely, the others were fighting to go left and stayed on starboard tack. We stretched toward the mark, finally got a small header, tacked and had a nice lead. Greal sailed a great race to scramble out of the left and still finish second.

In the second race, we had a good start, sailed fast, crossed the competition when we could, and were in 6th at the last leeward mark. MacDonald (CAN) and Holm (DEN) were about last and second to last. This was shaping up well. Up the last windward leg, we lost four boats, all on the right side of us. Down the last run, we went in the middle and lost boats on both sides to finish 15th. We lost two points by 2 seconds. That is bad. I remember last year here, one of the keys to our success was that we won all the close finishes.

Anyway, we are still third, three races to go and for sure, as we were shown again today, anything can happen on this race course.

Aug.24, Race 6: (In race 6 CAN was awarded redress for an incident with BER just before the warning signal which caused damage (jib track that was ripped from its deck) to CAN. Alleged RRS 10,14,62.1(b). CAN is scored average points in race 6 for the races 1-5.)

Today we had Meltemi wind, (wind off the land), about 22 knots at the start and as light as 14 knots at times during the race. The wind was shifting through about 25 degrees. We had a good start and good speed but never got in phase with the shifts. We trouped around in 12th most of the day and got a nice shift, more by luck than skill, on the last run to pass four boats.

It is very testing out there. To be out of phase...going the wrong way...and not be able to get back into phase is very frustrating and costs you a lot of distance as the shifts are big. It requires a lot of patience...more patience than I have at times...to just hang in there and try to make something of your position. This is the ultimate testing ground of patience.

Ross MacDonnald got hit by Peter Bromby before the start and it tore out Ross's jib tracks and did some other damage. He sailed the course with just a mainsail and was awarded redress after the race. They averaged his points so far(26 for 5 races) and that gave him 5.2 points for today's race, so that will keep him in second place.

The race was won by Freddy Loof, the current World Champion and probably the favorite going into the regatta. Freddy has had a very tough time this week and is still in 12th overall after winning today's race. The French sailed the best of everyone moving from 12th at the first mark to 2nd at the finish.

The big event was the Swiss fouling the Brits at the top of the 2nd windward leg and going from 3rd to 10th after doing their 720. They were very unlucky. As the Swiss approached the windward mark on the starboard layline, they got hit with a 20 degree header. They tried to shoot the mark, lost speed and ended up on port tack in front of Percy, who shouted "protest" loud enough for Marazzi's mom to hear back in Bern. That took the edge off a potentially spectacular races for the Swiss.

Aug 23 - Race 5: It was a very difficult day windwise. 30 degree shifts and unstable wind strength...8-12 knots. To give an idea of the day, the Spanish led at the first mark and finished last. And they weren't spinning 720's. It was just that tricky out there.

We had a good start but fell behind on the first windward leg and run by not looking outside the boat enough. For the last four legs, we got our heads out and got in phase and steadily marched back up through the fleet to finish 3rd. No doubt, we had our fair share of luck as well. You have to be lucky here to do well.

Ross MacDonnald sailed well and won the race. Torben Greal, the regatta leader, looked set to take his first bad race as he rounded the last leward mark 12th. He played the right side of the 3rd beat and rounded the top mark 2nd and finished second to maintain his string of top five finishes.

Aug. 22 - Races 3 & 4: In the first race we did two 720's at the windward mark (Penalty turns-4 complete circles), and fell into a hole on the last beat and got left for dead. In the second race we were over the line early at the pin end, we realized that it was us and went back. We managed to claw our way back to 10th in that one. Meanwhile Torben Grael of Brazil won both races and is launched into the lead.

August 21 - Races 1 & 2:
The day started off slowly. We were postponed ashore so that the Ynglings and Finns, who race on our course, could finish off their series. We left the harbor at 13:30 and did not start the first race until 14:45. The wind was light all day today 6-9 knots. It was a condition where you needed to power the boat up as much as possible which we did.

We had very good speed today and we sailed well to go with it. The first race we led at every mark. At times we stretched a bit and at times the fleet closed on us. Never really threatened to loose the lead. The Danish were in second most of the race but on the last windward leg the wind shifted 25 degrees to the left and they got passed by the Spanish and British.

In the second race, we had a bad start...gun shy... So we tacked shortly after. The left had been the way to go and everyone was fighting for that. We one the first race by going left. But we did not have a lane to go left so we just sailed out until we did find a nice clear spot and tacked onto starboard and we were in decent shape. In fact, the right was good on this windward leg, the only time all day. Freddy Loof (SWE) led at the first mark after struggling in the first race with a 15th. We got up to the mark in about 5th but approaching on port there was no hole for us to tack onto starboard. We bore away and almost ran downwind on port ducking 7 boats!!. We rounded 13th.

Freddy got flagged for a rule 42 violation (rocking or pumping) on the first run, and had to do a 720 degree penalty turn. So the Greeks took over the lead at that point. Meanwhile we had clawed back to 10th. Up the second beat we went left and gained and continued to pick off a boat per leg to finish 6th. The Swiss won the second race.


Star
Place Boat Skipper Crew Sail #: Fleet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Total
1 BRA   Torben Grael   Marcelo Ferreira   BRA     5.0 4.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 5.0 2.0 7.0 11.0 4.0 18.0 [DNC] 42
2 CAN   Ross Macdonald   Mike Wolfs   CAN     7.0 11.0 4.0 3.0 1.0 5.2 [RDG/5.2, 5.2] 8.0 14.0 8.0 2.0 2.0 51.2
3 FRA   Xavier Rohart   Pascal Rambeau   FRA     3.0 9.0 6.0 15.0 7.0 2.0 4.0 12.0 3.0 1.0 7.0 54
4 SUI   Flavio Marazzi   Enrico De Maria   SUI     10.0 1.0 3.0 7.0 9.0 9.0 12.0 11.0 4.0 7.0 9.0 70
5 USA   Paul Cayard   Phil Trinter   USA     1.0 6.0 15.0 10.0 3.0 6.0 1.0 15.0 6.0 8.0 16.0 71
6 GBR   Iain Percy   Steve Mitchell   GBR     8.0 3.0 12.0 9.0 6.0 3.0 16.0 5.0 7.0 17.0 4.0 73
7 ITA   Francesco Bruni   Guido Vigna   ITA     13.0 5.0 9.0 4.0 16.0 12.0 3.0 8.0 2.0 5.0 14.0 75
8 BER   Peter Bromby   Lee White   BER     17.0 16.0 8.0 11.0 12.0 10.0 6.0 4.0 1.0 3.0 11.0 82
9 DEN   Nicklas Holm   Claus Olesen   DEN     4.0 12.0 2.0 2.0 11.0 7.0 5.0 17.0 16.0 14.0 10.0 83
10 ESP   Roberto Bermudez   Pablo Arrarte   ESP     2.0 13.0 5.0 6.0 17.0 8.0 13.0 6.0 12.0 15.0 5.0 85
11 GRE   Leonidas PELEKAAKIS   Georgios KONTOGOURIS   GRE     16.0 2.0 10.0 17.0 5.0 14.0 10.0 1.0 9.0 16.0 3.0 86
12 SWE   Fredrik Loof   Anders Ekstrom   SWE     15.0 8.0 18.0 [OCS] 14.0 10.0 1.0 14.0 2.0 15.0 9.0 8.0 96
13 AUT   Hans Spitzauer   Andreas Hanakamp   AUT     12.0 14.0 7.0 16.0 14.0 16.0 9.0 3.0 5.0 11.0 6.0 97
14 NED   Mark Neeleman   Peter Van Niekerk   NED     14.0 10.0 14.0 12.0 8.0 4.0 15.0 10.0 17.0 10.0 1.0 98
15 AUS   Colin Beashel   David Giles   AUS     9.0 7.0 18.0 [OCS] 5.0 4.0 13.0 11.0 16.0 14.0 6.0 13.0 98.0001
16 GER   Alexander Hagen   Jochen Wolfram   GER     6.0 17.0 13.0 8.0 15.0 11.0 7.0 13.0 13.0 12.0 12.0 110
17 IRL   Mark Mansfield   Killian Collins   IRL     11.0 15.0 11.0 13.0 13.0 15.0 17.0 9.0 10.0 13.0 15.0 125

ISCYRA Central Office
2812 Canon Street
San Diego, California 92106 USA
Phone: +1 619 222 0252
Fax: +1 619 222 0528
SKYPE: star.class.office
office@starchampionships.org

Star Class
Home
- ContactWebmaster

Results - Calendar - Classified Ads - History
Districts & Fleets - Rules - About - Online Store

Sign up for eStarlights...
Enter your email address in the box
below and click submit to receive
monthly updates from the Star Class.


(Starlights Newsletter Archives 2003-2010)