Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia day 3 update from Andrew Campbell

by Andrew Campbell on 7 Apr 2011 Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofia day 3 update from Andrew Campbell.

After a short postponement on shore today we were rushed out to the racecourse to try and get one race off in a fading northeasterly. The offshore breezes here are very unstable and as the island heats up the seabreeze is quick to dominate the weather pattern. Sure enough after an hour and a half of sailing, two beats and 75% of the way back down the last run the breeze quit and the fleet was becalmed 150 yards from the finish. An hour and a half of racing for nought. The RC abandoned the race and the seabreeze promptly filled across the bay in towards warm Palma.

Our fleet had four general recalls before finally going on start number five. Steady conditions and 6-10 knots faded to 5-7 knots as we finished one good race this afternoon. We tried to start another, but the committee was either fed up with the fickle breeze or were hungry for lunch, so we went in under AP over A.

For those keeping score: that’s one hour of sailing in 25-30+ knots, then two races in 18-25; two races yesterday, plus 75% of another that was abandoned during the seabreeze transition; and one race today, plus 95% of another that was abandoned during the seabreeze transition. We’re beginning to see a pattern here. Frankly the fleet knew they had a good thing going showing up for training sessions at 11am, having lunch and then sailing at 1:30pm in the seabreeze. Instead, our first start is scheduled for 11am, which basically means its colder when I’m diving on the boat bottom in the morning, and the sun hasn’t made it over the wall to dry out my gear yet! Boohoo, woe is us. We’re managing just fine, but it seems like there has been a lot more racing gone on here than just the five scores on the board. Event Campbell Sailing website