NZL Yachting Trust Optimists- Day 1 of the 2014 Optimist Worlds
by John Jennings on 23 Oct 2014
Away Blue Flight- NZL Yachting Trust Optimist Team - 2014 Worlds, Argentina John Jennings
NZL Yachting Trust Optimist Team: John Jennings reports from the first day of the 2014 Optimist World Championships in Argentina.
Well, its not every day you kick-off your first world championship, whether as a sailor or a parent. In this year’s team it’s a novel experience for all of us bar the McKenzies (seasoned campaigners) and of course coach Crystal; who has a certain pedigree where the Opti World Champs is concerned.
The early morning Viber report from Jonathon was 'Happy to report all sailor awake and well!!!', so game on.
Started the day by climbing to the roof of our apartment and taking a few pics for the family album but did think to myself 'feels like a nice breeze, but also a bit of a scorcher'.
By the time we arrived at CNSI most all boats were rigged and ready (all countries). The NZL My Kitchen Rules team were hard at it putting together the teams on water supplies, having decided that yesterdays fare (as provided) was not quite to the sailors palate.
Fleet assignments were out (in numerical sail order) so Lewis and K were in Red (3rd start), Jacko alone in Blue (2nd start) and Scott and Sam in Yellow (and first start for those who haven’t figured out the pattern). Each fleet was dispatched separately and no gate crashers as the boat ramps were chained off – a simple and more effective procedure than flags up a pole one might argue.
Justine, Alan and Rob hired a RIB for the day so they followed the sailors out. In keeping with recent tradition Susan and I are banned from the water (K’s last words as she headed for her boat were 'you are not coming out are you' – a statement, not a question); frankly no hardship to avoid bobbing about in a RIB on a scorching day. The ladies and myself then wandered the relatively short but steaming distance to Villa Ocampo, a UNESCO protected (not every day you visit on e of these either) house that belonged to the Ocampo family.
I was thinking it would just be a moderately interesting time filler but it ended up being absolutely fascinating. House was built in 1891 and as a summer retreat from BA for a well to do family. Won’t bore you with the details but the eldest daughter, Victoria Ocampo went on to become as famous in Argentina as Eva Peron. House has been well preserved with some amazing artefacts and a stunning library of famous original publications. We ended up being given a fascinating half hour history lesson by the enthusiastic and entertaining English speaking senior guide which also provided some great background on Argentina’s colonial and contemporary history so we all came away much better informed. A real treat.
As previously mentioned the Wi-Fi at CNSI has basically collapsed which is obviously somewhat frustrating. We tracked down a CNSI laptop that was displaying the Tracker graphics and were able to watch first beat of Yellow second race which had Sara in state of despair (Scott’s tracker wasn’t providing a signal) and then elation as he appeared near the front, as was Princess (Sam B). As it transpired not too much could be read in to what we saw.
Later we returned and watched a sped up replay of Red’s second race, at which point some of Yellow fleet were already coming in the fairway. When we arrived Lewis and K were handily placed coming into the gate but K clearly got into some sort of tangle although then recovered for a respectable finish not far behind Lewis.
When we caught up with all the sailors it was clearly not all a bed of roses with only Lewis not experiencing any deep results.
Princess: 'Not enough wind. I got off the start line clean but couldn't put together rest of race. Good to be with top sailors in the world though'.
Scott: 'Not enough wind. First race bad start, second race a bad shift. I’m not happy'.
Jackson: 'Yeah I had a great day (just a hint of sarcasm) I had good first start but made bad decisions and lost 40 odd places at top mark'
LewLew: Obviously the star turn of the day with two very respectable keepers but too shy to provide a soundbite for EGS.
Kerensa: 'I’m not interested in a photo I’ve been sick'.
Unfortunately Kerensa was unwell out on the water and sick between races, although the casual observation of her two race results might be that throwing up ended up doing her no harm. The upshot of all that is that Kerensa was taken to the medical centre and given a few pills plus some strict guidelines on a diet to stodge her back up. Great assistance from Ria (sp?) a local who has strong affiliation with the Finnish (and other Scandinavian) team. So now mum and dad then had to retire with K back to the SOIVA until such time as Team NZ returned and we could hand over to Camp Mother, Justine. The SOIVA staff fussed over her and she was looking a bit more perky by the time we left.
So in summary, not a stellar start to proceedings overall but it’s a long regatta and the fat lady hasn’t even been invited to attend yet.
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