Cadiz, Spain
It was a windy one! Too windy for Silver Group to race at the back end of the week. We also lost an anchor when the stainless steel shackle fractured in a gust of 38 knots that hit the fleet, luckily, just as we were about to start race two so there was no great race management issue - we simply displayed AP/H and returned to the marina to find and fit another anchor.
Day 1 was pretty normal with 3 races in 8-18 knots and big holes of only 6/7 knots on the outer loop.
Day 2 was blown off with wind gusting to well over 40 knots. So with only 3 races in Round 1 the Reserve Day was brought into action with 1 race for all fleets.
Day 4 was a great day's racing with winds of 18-20 knots all day for the 3 races. I was confident with the forecast so, veering from normal practice, I brought out the men, Gold and Silver fleets, to race before the women, and so not having to use two windward marks on both the inner and outer loops.
Day 5 was the day that was too heavy for the Silver Fleets and the day the anchor shackle broke. Because it was forecast to be very heavy, I raced the men's and women's Gold Fleets together in what were very testing conditions and right at the top end of the ability to race. The average wind over the 3 races was 22 knots but the gusts were very fierce all day. I brought out the Silver fleets when Gold had completed 3 races only to see at least 8 of them, men and women, out of control and drifting towards America. AP/A was displayed for them without any racing completed.
Day 6 was blown off as was Medal Race day.
Cadiz was sold to me as a venue that has done many world championships with very competant teams. All I can say is that I doubt if many of those worlds were managed to a high standard.
The shoreside assist was weak and uncooperative and they did not get the setup and equipment right at all, resulting in amendments to the SIs to accommodate their unwillingness to do a proper job; the on-the-water race management was generally sound but only once you could mobilise them onto the sea. For the first time in my life we were late for the start (on day 4) because I just couldn't get the team out on too the water. The were very Mediterranean!
They too had a tendancy to be unprepared, a good example of this being the need to setup a halyard for the orange flag at sea immediately before the first race of the regatta.
The mark layers were good though, although they did completely miss the drifting Mark 2A at one point. The guys on the main committee boat were great company but the nickname they gave me tells some of the story - The Sherrif. I needed to be ontop of them and constantly remind them of the next thing to do. But we left each others' company on good terms at the end of the week and I had learned a little more Spanish.
So Cadiz represented problems that I have never encountered before and was more to do with managing their laziness and lack of cooperation rather than teaching basics, as is often the case elsewhere.
Pre-Event
Robert Lamb represents SolentXtra as the appointed RS:X Class Race Director for the World Championships in Cadiz, Spain. The massive entry of 120 men and 80 women from 47 countries will compete not only for the World Championship title but also for a total of $50,000 prize money offered by Neil Pryde, manufacturer of the RS:X board. After ISAF take 10% under Regulation 25 there is $22,500 for both men and women with $6,500 for both World Champions. All top ten men and women share the spoils.
Current World Champions Dorian van Rijsselberge (NED) and Lee Korzits (ISR) will be anxious to defend their titles so soon after the ISAF Worlds in Perth just before Christmas. But it will not be easy with all the world's top athletes present and desperate to show them the way home to the finish line.
Rob will be interested to see the effects of such competitive fleets with big prize money on the race management and in particular on the start line. Class policy is to use the I flag for the first attempted start of each race and since the introduction of this it has been rare for him to resort to the black flag. He plans to race the men and women in two groups separately on a trapezoid course. Men and women will alternate during the week to come out to the race area first but with sunset at about 7.30pm each day (limiting the start of the last race to 6.30pm) it will be tight completing 12 starts within the time available. There is the provision to run all 4 groups on the same trapezoid at the same time (by having 2 windward marks on both the inner and outer loops) but Rob will be keen to achieve clean racing and avoid this.
Racing will start in anger on Thursday March 22nd and can be followed on the championship's microsite until Medal Race day on Wednesday March 28th. Icarus will be there taking on-the-water video footage of their usual fantastic standard joined by Vincenzo Baglioni as the official photographer. All races can be seen live on the tracking system. Class Executive Secretary Rory Ramsden and his deputy Ania Graczyk-Stankiewicz will be busy ensuring that those at home experience the event almost as though they are in Cadiz.
It is very possible that this will be the last RS:X Worlds in the current format of a maximum of 16 races separated into Round 1 (qualification), Round 2 (Gold and Silver Groups) and the Medal Race. The Class is keen to engineer similarity to other sports with a four day format culminating in grandstand type racing close to the shore for the benefit of spectators and the media alike. 'First past the post', as is seen in athletics and indeed most other sports, may well end future championships raising both the profile and the public understanding of RS:X racing. Watch this space……
