ISCYRA  Regatta Report

Mon Aug 7th, 2006 through Sat Aug 12th, 2006

Winners Mendelblatt/Strube,  photo by Daniel Forster/Rolex

Winners Mendelblatt/Strube, photo by Daniel Forster/Rolex

2006 European Championship

 

Event website

Final results for five races at Neustadt/Holstein, Germany are below.

Report on the 6th day by Brad Nichol:

For another day we had no wind in Germany. It was the last day of the European Champs. and today we didn't even leave the dock.. So, the regatta finished with the standings the same as they have been for the last three days. In the end we finished third overall, two points out of second. We finished on a high note, winning the last race, but are slightly disappointed we were not able to get more than 5 races completed. It took us a few days to get use to sailing the Star again, but in the end we were right there, very competitive and ready to do battle. Tomorrow we will pack all of this equipment into a container to be shipped to San Francisco for the World Championship in October. After that we will fly to China for some training and the Pre-Olympics in our new boat.

Luigi Viale and Diego Negri, European Champions
photo by Daniel Forster/Rolex
Report on the 5th day by Brad Nichol:

Today was a disappointing day, not because we did poorly but because we did not get to sail. We spent the morning bobbing around the Baltic and then they towed us in and had us stand by for a 4:30pm harbor start. The wind never came and they finally called the racing for the day.

Tomorrow the start time was moved up by and hour in hopes of getting some sailing in. We can sail two races if there is wind but the forecast is not promising. Currently we sit in third place with 27 points. Mark Mendelblatt and Mark Strube (USA) are in first with 10 points and can finish no worse then second if we only get one race tomorrow. Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada (BRA) are in second with 25 points and need to win tomorrow to pass Mark & Mark. In fourth is Hamish Pepper (NZL) tied with us with 27 points followed by Diego Negri (ITA, 29) and Xavier Rohardt (FRA, 31).

Report on the 4th day by Brad Nichol:

Today was scheduled to be our lay day but due to a poor forecast for sailing the next two days they tried to get one in today. The wind was light and there were many big heating clouds sucking the wind off the course. The first attempt at a start (under black flag again) was 30 degrees favored to the pin end of the line. We had a great start and were able to tack onto port and cross the fleet. Unfortunately, because of the big wind shift the race was called off and we had to try again.

On the second start conditions were similar and we had another good start. We were able to work our way up the middle of the course and looked pretty good half way up the first leg but the wind died and the race was abandoned at the first mark.

Report on the 3rd day by Brad Nichol:

Day #3 of the European Champs is over and we had a great day. The boat went in the water this morning about 90% of the way to being repaired after a long night of work. Both of us are normally perfectionists with our equipment, but we were out of time. We also knew it would be another shifty day on the race course, so our boat speed would not be as important as being on the course early to figure out how the wind was behaving.

The breeze was a little lighter than yesterday, but we were still fully powered up and hiking hard. We were in the middle of the starting line for the first start. Two huge shifts came in on that leg and we were about 9th at the first mark. By the next mark we were up to 7th and held that for the next full lap. Finally up the last beat of the race the opportunity we had been patiently waiting for came in. We leveraged a little to the left of the leading pack, a good left puff came in and we punched through to finish 3rd. This another really shifty and always changing race, so we were happy with our result. Anytime the conditions are changing as much as they are at this regatta you are happy with any top 10 finish.

Time for the next race: We had another good start and went right up the middle of the course. In the beginning the left side was way ahead, then the right, then the left and finally a small right shift came in. We were right in the middle playing them all. At the first mark we made a conservative decision to round 3rd and not push too hard for the lead. We caught a few good puffs on the run and rounded the bottom mark first, but only by a boat length. We had a nice extension on the next beat and on the last down wind. When we rounded the bottom mark we were 20 lengths ahead of 2nd place.

This was a pretty nice lead, but we knew the race was far from over. The fleet split into a pack on the left side and a pack on the right side. We protected the left side for a while, but with our eye always on the right hand pack. About half way up the beat we decided to split from our pack on the left and to go get in front of the pack on the right. Just as we got to the pack on the right a huge 30 degree right shift came through. Our gamble paid off, the boats on the left side dropped out of contention and we were somehow still ahead of everyone on the right side.

The only thing you can be sure of here in Germany is that it's always changing. Luckily we were on top of it this time. We crossed the line ahead of the rest of the fleet finishing off a great day with a bullet.

Tomorrow was scheduled to be our lay day but with uncertain conditions scheduled for Friday and Saturday we are going to sail one race tomorrow afternoon at 1pm to be sure we are able to complete the series.

Report on the 2nd day by Brad Nichol:

Lots of news from the second day of the European championship. Where to begin..? It's 10:45 pm, we just finished repairing the holes in the bottom of the boat, we had two ok results and need to get to bed. SO, I'll keep this as short as possible.

Generally, when you go to a regatta you line up a training partner to tune with before the racing each day. Normally you arrange a time to meet at the race committee boat in the morning so you can sail next to each other and both get a little faster for the next race. Needless to say we met our training partner this morning..

You guessed it, with our training partner / house mates / friends.. To keep a very long story short we had a major collision before the start. The mast almost came down on their boat, they were not able to race. Our boat was also damaged pretty badly, but we were able to race both races. The bottom of our boat was ripped open all the way from the bow to the keel - from where it was sitting on top of their boat - and our jib was ripped so bad we had to cut some of it away with a knife.

Now on to the boring stuff :) The races today were crazy to say the least. We had great breeze, up to 18 knots. But we are sailing right under a shoreline so the wind is very shifty. For example, the boat that was leading the first race started at the left end of the line on port tack and laid the first mark. This is on a 2 mile leg with 80 + boats. In the end we finished ninth in that race and then had a 14th in the second race.

Today's results don't feel that great since we just spent 6 hours fixing the boat, but at the end of the day we are now tied for 7th in the regatta. SO, we are moving in the right direction and getting comfortable in the boat again.

Off to bed, then to sand the boat in the morning and to hopefully have a few more good races....

Report on the 1st day by Brad Nichol:

Eighty boats showed up for the 75th annual Star Class European Championships. So far the weather has been perfect with sunny skies, wind out of the north and water temps a refreshing 65 degrees. There was one race scheduled for the first day starting at noon and the race committee was able to keep all the boats in line on the first attempt at a start under the "Z" penalty flag (20% score penalty).

Andy and I wanted to have a conservative race and get the first one under our belts in the top ten so we started down the line under a good pack of boats. With 80 boats on the line the water was very rough but we were able to get a good start in the front row and played the left side of the course and rounded the first mark in 20th. We decided our set up was not quite right for the rough water so we made some adjustments to our mast to power the boat up and blast through the waves.

Down wind we held a low line and were able to catch up to the large pack just ahead of us and passed a few boats as we rounded the leeward mark. Up the second beat we worked the left side and were looking very good half way up the leg but could not get across to the boats on the right. Our set up changes worked well and we felt a bit faster upwind. At the second windward mark the wind got a little lighter and as we rounded the mark a few gusts of wind made big changes at the end of the lead pack of boats. A few boats escaped the chaos and were off with solid leads.

Up the last beat we tried the left side one more time because we were convinced that there was more pressure on the left side. In the end we realized that the geographic effects from the headland on the right were causing a right shift rather than bending the wind around the point to the left. We dropped a few boats and finished 19th, not what we were shooting for, but not bad in such a large and talented fleet.


Star
Place Boat Skipper Crew Sail #: Fleet 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1 USA 8157   Mendelblatt Mark   Strube Mark   USA 8157   TaB   1.0 1.0 1.0 17.0 7.0 10
2 BRA 8127   SCHEIDT ROBERT   PRADA BRUNO   BRA 8127   GuB   2.0 8.0 6.0 27.0 9.0 25
3 USA 8156   Horton Andrew   Nichol Brad   USA 8156   NB   19.0 9.0 14.0 3.0 1.0 27
4 NZL 8187   PEPPER Hamish   WILLIAMS Carl   NZL 8187   Isol   12.0 23.0 8.0 1.0 6.0 27.0001
5 ITA 8266   Negri Diego   Viale Lugi   ITA 8266   VE   10.0 7.0 11.0 10.0 2.0 29
6 FRA 8107   Rohart Xavier   Rambeau Pascal   FRA 8107   NI   7.0 15.0 12.0 7.0 5.0 31
7 AUT 8226   Spitzauer Hans   Nehammer Christian   AUT 8226   Bal   30.0 4.0 10.0 15.0 4.0 33
8 GER 7991   Miller Matthias   Voigt Manuel   GER 7991   BF   8.0 6.0 5.0 26.0 20.0 39
9 POL 8252   Kusniercwicz Mateusz   Zycki Dominik   POL 8252   Isol   5.0 22.0 3.0 14.0 23.0 44
10 GER 7971   Stanjek Robert   Kleen Frithjof   GER 7971   BF   11.0 3.0 29.0 28.0 3.0 45
11 GER 8213   Pickel Marc   Borowski Ingo   GER 8213   KF   9.0 33.0 4.0 12.0 21.0 46
12 ITA 8180   Bruni Francesco   NOBILI Gilberto   ITA 8180   Pal   26.0 11.0 19.0 2.0 18.0 50
13 ITA 8076   Simeone Luca   Cocianinno Ferdinando   ITA 8076   Rom   23.0 5.0 24.0 11.0 12.0 51
14 USA 8268   DANE John   Sperry Austin   USA 8268   MoB   15.0 19.0 16.0 8.0 13.0 52
15 DEN 8147   Andersen Benny   Mogens Just   DEN 8147   DF   28.0 12.0 2.0 25.0 16.0 55
16 SWE 8256   Loof Frederik   Ekstrom Anders   SWE 8256   SCF   3.0 10.0 28.0 83.0 [DNF] 14.0 55.0001
17 USA 8273   Szabo George   Monroe Eric   USA 8273   SDB   4.0 16.0 22.0 20.0 15.0 55.0002
18 SUI 8138   Marazzi Flavio   Huter Etienne   SUI 8138   TB   33.0 26.0 13.0 6.0 11.0 56
19 POR 8145   Domingos Afonso   Santos Bernardo   POR 8145   CP   21.0 17.0 15.0 18.0 8.0 58
20 GER 8149   Hagen Alexander   Munck Sebastian   GER 8149   Glu   13.0 35.0 18.0 4.0 40.0 70
21 ITA 8224   Modena Luca   Marchesini Michele   ITA 8224   NG   14.0 83.0 [BFD] 23.0 23.0 10.0 70.0001
22 GER 7973   Koch Michael   Witt Carsten   GER 7973   KF   6.0 38.0 17.0 83.0 [BFD] 17.0 78
23 IRL 8028   O'Connell Maurice   Peel Edmund   IRL 8028   Isol   16.0 14.0 32.0 83.0 [DNS] 19.0 81
24 CRO 7955   Lovrovic Marin   Lovrovic Mark   CRO 7955   Isol   18.0 29.0 34.0 13.0 25.0 85
25 USA 8250   Macdonald Andrew   Fatih Brain   USA 8250   NH   20.0 18.0 20.0 39.0 28.0 86
26 SUI 8232   Dannesboe Hendrik   Kaptourovitch Igor   SUI 8232   BSL   36.0 25.0 35.0 5.0 22.0 87
27 GER 7860   Kiewning Lars   Seeberger Uli   GER 7860   BSL   47.0 2.0 36.0 24.0 33.0 95
28 ITA 8014   Barovier Alberto   Coppola Umberto   ITA 8014   SG   29.0 20.0 26.0 21.0 29.0 96
29 GER 7992   Schmidt Reinhard   Meissner Dirk   GER 7992   Moh   31.0 42.0 9.0 19.0 41.0 100
30 NOR 8183   Melleby Eivind   Kjus Lasse   NOR 8183   Isol   32.0 44.0 27.0 16.0 27.0 102
31 GBR 8191   Razmilovic Ante   Wolfs Mike   GBR 8191   Sol   27.0 32.0 25.0 38.0 26.0 110
32 GER 8020   Ilgenstein Michael   Boguhn Lutz   GER 8020   HF   17.0 24.0 43.0 37.0 37.0 115
33 SWE 7812   Andersson Bo Staffan   Broad Michael   SWE 7812   Sand   34.0 31.0 30.0 22.0 36.0 117
34 GER 8141   Merkelbach Hubert   Bertel Gerrit   GER 8141   UB   46.0 13.0 31.0 32.0 57.0 122
35 GER 8190   Schiffer Thomas   Hentschel Nils   GER 8190   IJS   38.0 37.0 7.0 48.0 46.0 128
36 SUI 7990   Stegmeier Daniel   Stegmeier Beut   SUI 7990   TB   24.0 52.0 47.0 41.0 24.0 136
37 CAN 8143   Cramer Brian   Tyler Bjorn   CAN 8143   LOC   35.0 83.0 [BFD] 38.0 31.0 32.0 136
38 GER 7989   Wilhelm Peer   Hollweg Nils   GER 7989   TB   45.0 27.0 37.0 30.0 45.0 139
39 SWE 7978   J Krook Ingvar   Gamner Eric   SWE 7978   AR   40.0 39.0 50.0 33.0 31.0 143
40 AUT 7846   Weinreich Gerhard   Kagl Alexander   AUT 7846   H   49.0 21.0 42.0 34.0 48.0 145
41 GER 991   Bebendererde Johannes   Petrov Sebastian   GER 991   Lub   22.0 45.0 41.0 69.0 39.0 147
42 NED 8070   Frijdal Chris   Edens Rob   NED 8070   LO   37.0 54.0 59.0 9.0 50.0 150
43 RUS 7805   Vokhmintsev Dimitri   Lyasnikov Vladimir   RUS 7805   StP   48.0 40.0 21.0 42.0 59.0 151
44 GER 7837   Merk Sibylle   Merk Michael   GER 7837   Neu   41.0 28.0 55.0 35.0 60.0 159
45 UKR 8205   GUREYEV Vasyl   KOROTKOV Volodymyr   UKR 8205   UKR   39.0 53.0 49.0 47.0 34.0 169
46 ARG 8212   Kouyoumdjian Juan   Rosas Nicolas   ARG 8212   Lar   25.0 30.0 40.0 83.0 [BFD] 83.0 [DNS] 178
47 NED 7633   Kok JW   Krogt Van Der   NED 7633   LO   50.0 36.0 45.0 52.0 49.0 180
48 GER 8016   Rauch Hubert   Schappeler Ingo   GER 8016   And   53.0 46.0 53.0 29.0 75.0 181
49 SLO 7888   Antoncic Bostjan   Strakh Gennadi   SLO 7888   Slov   42.0 72.0 64.0 45.0 30.0 181
50 GER 8130   Voigt Henning   Struve Dirk   GER 8130   KF   43.0 57.0 33.0 53.0 61.0 186
51 DEN 8066   Jensen Johnny   PEDERSEN MARTIN   DEN 8066   DF   44.0 67.0 48.0 56.0 42.0 190
52 SWE 7304   Eric Dahlen   Bergquist Olle   SWE 7304   BK   59.0 49.0 46.0 54.0 44.0 193
53 GER 8160   Linde Dr Florian Von   Conrads Chris   GER 8160   ZuW   51.0 61.0 51.0 43.0 52.0 197
54 GER 1122   Heinzmann Uwe   Nolte-Franzen Andi   GER 1122   KF   52.0 56.0 83.0 [DNF] 36.0 55.0 199
55 GER 8055   Diercks Jochen   Braasch Herbert   GER 8055   Lub   56.0 47.0 66.0 40.0 56.0 199
56 GER 8198   Fernholz Uwe   Diestelmayer Stefan   GER 8198   Ess   55.0 51.0 52.0 46.0 63.0 204
57 GER 8093   HASCHE Marko   Behn Philip   GER 8093   HF   57.0 55.0 39.0 63.0 54.0 205
58 FIN 8004   Leevene Oy Joni   Salminen Asko   FIN 8004   Fin   58.0 41.0 54.0 65.0 53.0 206
59 GER 7944   Kappes Klaus   Ertel Felix   GER 7944   UB   67.0 60.0 58.0 57.0 38.0 213
60 GER 8167   Tusch Frank   Kleine Frida   GER 8167   ED   63.0 70.0 44.0 68.0 43.0 218
61 SWE 8126   Hogland Anders   Nilsson Par   SWE 8126   Sand   61.0 65.0 56.0 67.0 47.0 229
62 ESP 8098   Altadill Guillermo   Roca Manuel   ESP 8098   Lar   54.0 34.0 83.0 [DSQ] 60.0 83.0 [DNS] 231
63 HUN 8115   Katai Petrer   Nazer Csaba   HUN 8115   Bud   69.0 66.0 61.0 70.0 35.0 231
64 GER 7712   Kahl Wulf   Kahl Wulf-Peter   GER 7712   Lub   74.0 68.0 68.0 44.0 51.0 231
65 GER 7960   Thurner Frank   Landinger Hubert   GER 7960   ZuW   71.0 59.0 57.0 50.0 68.0 234
66 GER 7946   Weiler Hermann   Moratski Sergey   GER 7946   Neu   66.0 63.0 65.0 49.0 65.0 242
67 COL 7859   Schlubach Reginald   Carl Daniel   COL 7859   HF   68.0 50.0 69.0 64.0 62.0 244
68 GER 7272   Petersen Reiner   Berger Oliver   GER 7272   BF   62.0 75.0 62.0 55.0 69.0 248
69 GER 7842   Bauer Florian   Schaefer Bernhard   GER 7842   AM   64.0 64.0 63.0 58.0 73.0 249
70 AUT 8249   Tomasini Roberto   Bahr Gunnar   AUT 8249   AU   73.0 58.0 70.0 59.0 71.0 258
71 POL 7858   Wierzbicki Arkadiusz   Zawistowski Piotr   POL 7858   Isol   65.0 71.0 71.0 61.0 64.0 261
72 GER 8018   Niemczewski Robert   Umlauft Michael   GER 8018   BF   76.0 43.0 67.0 83.0 [DNS] 83.0 [DNS] 269
73 GER 7262   Toedt Peter   Kaeshammer Stefan   GER 7262   HF   77.0 83.0 [DNS] 83.0 [DNS] 51.0 58.0 269
74 GER 7483   Hansen Nils   Johannsen Sven   GER 7483   HF   78.0 62.0 72.0 62.0 74.0 270
75 FIN 6773   Holm Kim FW   Sundman Jesper   FIN 6773   Fin   70.0 74.0 60.0 72.0 70.0 272
76 FIN 7913   Oller Christian   Oller Johan   FIN 7913   Fin   79.0 73.0 73.0 66.0 66.0 278
77 GER 7750   Burmester Jens   Peusch Frank   GER 7750   ED   75.0 69.0 83.0 [DNS] 71.0 72.0 287
78 ESP 7514   Juarez Augustin   Gonzales Manuel   ESP 7514   Lar   83.0 [DNC] 48.0 83.0 [DNF] 83.0 [DNS] 83.0 [DNS] 297
79 NED 7806   Harwegen Den Breems Arie Van   CORRIGAN John   NED 7806   Med   72.0 83.0 [DNF] 83.0 [DNS] 83.0 [DNF] 67.0 305
80 GER 8102   Frowein Heiner   Dentler Sebastian   GER 8102   UB   60.0 83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNS] 83.0 [DNS] 83.0 [DNS] 309
81 GER 8150   Richter Olaf   Dietmar Hobbie   GER 8150     83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 332
81 GER 7920   Dellwig Andreas   Butz Hans Martin   GER 7920     83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 83.0 [DNC] 332

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