Audi Etchells Worlds- Ground Hog day - no wind

by Skip Lissiman on 11 Mar 2009
It is starting to feel a bit like Ground Hog day in Melbourne.

Every day we wake up to no wind!

The only difference is the amount of smog or cloud cover letting any or some sun through to get some heat to the ground to try and bring in a thermal breeze.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was scheduled for a 2pm start with one race scheduled.

The day was warmer than it has been but not warm enough to get the breeze up to 10 knots, so we waited ashore for a few hours and eventually got under way about 3:30 in a seven knot SSW breeze.

All Etchells seem to go the same speed in this light breeze – or close to it – so makes it very hard to pass.

If you miss a wind shift or are on the wrong side of a shift you are guaranteed to be deep in the pack of 86 boats.

Off the starting line we worked the right side – as we thought there was good building breeze out to sea. John Bertrand did his usual start in the middle of the line and let his slightly better boat speed work its magic and lead around the top mark quite comfortably and was never headed for the rest of the race.

We finished the race 31st after going around the top mark the first time 35th – right side didn’t work quite as well as the left – especially late..

Race 3 results
http://www.rbyc.org.au/site/yachting/event/18897/race_1_1_3.html

Last night we went back to the international jury to try and reopen the hearing from Race 1 as we had 'significant new evidence'.

Unfortunately the Jury didn’t think the other witnesses that saw the incident were significant enough and we didn’t get our evening in the room – despite waiting around till 10pm to find out.

Today (Wednesday) looks very light (winds) again (Ground Hog Day all over again).

With two races scheduled, it will most likely be another delay ashore waiting for the wind to fill in to enough strength to start the race (usually around six-seven knots as a minimum) and another late finish – regardless if we get two races in.

Safe sailing - Skip Lissiman

The team of BANDWAGON would like to thank our sponsors SLAM sports wear, Club Marine boat insurance, Ronstan for their support.