It was a tough day of sailing here on day one of the Princess Sofia Trophy. We were forced to wait for wind, but it filled in and both 49er fleets had three races. We posted a solid 11-3-8, putting us in 8th place in the 80-boat fleet.
The wind was about 5-10 knots, and there was a good amount of chop as we were so close to the shore. In a 40-boat fleet like we raced in today, there are plenty of tight situations. In our third and final race, we found ourselves in more than our fair share. We had a run-in with a French boat before the start and an Austrian boat on a downwind. The worst, however, was a collision with a Swedish boat at the weather mark. We rounded in about 8th place, and we were sailing deep to set our kite and avoid boats coming in high on the port tack layline. One of those boats, however, did not avoid us. They just clipped the aft most part of our starboard wing. The wing crunched in a bit, and we had to do some repair work when we got ashore. It should be fine for racing tomorrow. We will try to steer clear of as much carnage as possible over the next two days of qualifying racing. Gold fleet will be far more manageable.
The forecast for the remainder of the week is similar, so it’s a good thing we were able to stay on schedule today with challenging conditions.
The regatta website has been unreliable thus far, but hopefully it will go back up soon. When it does, regatta results and updates can be found here. Stay tuned throughout the week for more updates.
Thanks to all of our supporters and sponsors. Thanks to the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics especially our title sponsor AlphaGraphics and Gold Partners Atlantis and Rolex. Thanks also to Sperry Top-Sider for their sponsorship and support.
Erik
Storck Moore Sailing