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The “African Queen” Wins Spring Cup II
DEN 406 helmed by Jorgen Schonherr and crewed by Jan Eli Gravad and Peter Blakskaer took the overall Cup as they rounded off the 4 race series with another good performance yesterday.
There was a strong favourable tide/current flowing out of Lisbon, probably enhanced by the huge amount of water that ebbs out of Lisbon coming down from the mountains of Spain. Apparently there are gates “up river” that control the water flow and even the local sailors have been surprised by the strength of the current on the race area..
After a general recall a Black Flag was raised and this time the fleet got away. The left hand side of the beat seemed to pay, with certainly the current and probably more wind. With three of the first 4 boats (Lawrie Smith, Jens Christensen and Edward Sawyer) called over, it was left to GER 10 Marcus Brennecke to take the victory and with this moved up to 2nd place overall. Although GBR 761 Gavia Wilkinson-Cox had another great race to finish second behind Brennecke, she had to settle for 4th overall as GER 1078 Tim Ladehof could discard his worst score of 22 and just count his first three races to hold his position of 3rd overall.
There was a “Practice” race today, which, in my opinion, is a complete waste of time. Nobody gives a hoot about the starts, rules or what the course is… It just seems a waste of a great sailing day and when a top competition such as this, has two races squashed into some days, a practice race makes even less sense. Plus only two thirds of the fleet started, most that did sailed in early and a 45 degree wind-shift on the first beat made it 30 mins on port and 4 mins on starboard… I congratulate those that stayed ashore…. 🙂
In closing I am not criticising the Club Naval at all. They are doing a brilliant job and this will be a great European Championship’s, particularly with the forecast we have for wind and sun. But maybe the IDA could re-consider the importance of these “practice” races….. ??
Higher, Faster, Longer…………. Stavros (USA 310).