We were held onshore for quite a few hours waiting for some breeze to establish. The wait onshore was a blessing for the Roma team as it gave us a few precious hours to wrap up all the little lingering jobs and repairs to our self inflicted wounds. Funny how things always seem to work out. Now we have everything fixed and ready. I just hope that our lost day of real practice sailing yesterday doesn’t come back to haunt us. Paolo Cian has worked hard to inform the crew of all the little changes which should add up to an advantage for team Roma. The changes combined with a few new sails should do the trick. We are equal on points for the Medcup trophy going into this event so we need to work hard to push into the lead.
After a few hours onshore a little something started to establish and the Roma was the first boat to jump off the dock. The slow building wind allowed us to rattle through our spinnaker inventory for another quick check on each kite. Code 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5 all up, down, and packed again. We also got a nice long beat in with our new medium jib.
By the time we got back to the race course area storm clouds were brewing. Out came the mystery bag of foul weather gear and the search for each person’s size gear started frantically. After we got all the gear sorted we just had enough time for main down in advance of some bigger breeze.
In the end the first storm was more huff than puff. It rolled away and the wind behind it looked good enough for some racing so the committee started a sequence for the 52’s only to abandon it just before the start. We made good use of the starting line for some time on distance drills and then set off on a bit of a beat. Unfortunately another storm started to set up and some lightening added to the excitement that eventually killed any further attempt at racing.
We motored in with the fleet in heavy rain and set about emptying the boat for a freeboard measurement check. When we were just about finished emptying the boat the measurer decided to postpone the check until tomorrow morning. Everything back in. After it was all back in the boat we took our soggy selfs into the tent. After a quick beer in the tent the rain eased a bit we made it back to the hotel via one of the Medcups beautiful Audi Q7 VIP shuttles.
Tomorrow should be the start of real racing, as the GP42 practice race was lost in the bad weather. The forecast is for a very light day with a late seabreeze. Looks like another long day tomorrow.
Patrick Shaughnessy
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