The following is on the Boat log on the www.bluenights.fi site. It is from our Coach Eero. (Eero is one of the crazies that went around the World the wrong way in the BT Challenge!)
Cheers
Tac
PS we do have the best looking owner/skipper :)
Tuesday 3 July 2007, Cowes – Isle of Wight (UK)
Swan 45 Gold Cup / World Championships 2007
Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes – Isle of Wight (UK)
The British weather has not been favouring the international fleet of Swan yachts entering the Swan 45 World Championships and the Swan European Regatta for other types of Nautor Swans. The teams have arrived well in advance to have some training on the tricky waters of the Solent, participating in a tune-up regatta during last weekend. Also Blue Nights has been sailing since last Saturday, scoring promising 5th and 6th place in Saturday’s two races among the fleet of 12 Swan 45’s. On Sunday Blue Nights’ training main sail broke on the first beat of the first race and the boat retired from the day’s racing. Monday was measurements and registration day for the Gold Cup and Team Blue Nights was the second boat to have “all clear” from the race office. Crew weighing went smoothly as well with 10 kilograms to spare!
Today Blue Nights went out to check out the new headsails and to practice gybes and mark roundings. Weather was favourable for a couple of hours with an increasing south-westerly blowing up to 24 knots. Arthur Hallberg and John Wilkinson were missing from the crew as Arthur had a day-off trying to recover from a sore throat and symptoms of a cold as John was taking care of some business matters before the regatta takes his full attention for the rest of the week. Hannu Bask and myself jumped on board to get some photos of the crew in action as well as giving helping hand here and there. From tomorrow onwards we are looking at things from outside, Hannu through his tele-objective and me with my video camera and wet notes to give the team the daily feedback and de-briefs
The Swan 45 fleet consists of 22 yachts and the crew lists carry some big names from the international sailing circuits. The participating teams come from eight different countries with the host nation topping the list with six entries. To maximise their teams performance the owners have contracted some full-time pros for their crews: Mike Broughton, Tim Powell, Wally Cross, Larry Leonard, Jules Salter, Simon Fisher, Andy Beadsworth, Steve Hayles, Eddie Warden-Owen, Chris Law and Chris Larson will all be giving their best shot trying to win the worlds title of Swan 45 class.
The racing program for Swan 45’s has twelve windward / leeward races in it plus a long distance race on Friday. The “sausage courses” will be located in the north-easterly side of the Solent where the fleet will be crossing the North Channel and will have to be aware of the ships crossing the racing area. The shallow water on the plateau will minimise the tidal effects as far as it is possible, but the navigators and tacticians have to be on top of their strategies to fight for top positions. Crucial times are around 2-2½ hours before the high water when the tide starts already turning in some areas while an opposite flow still takes place in other areas. Laying the marks will be tricky at times and the latest technology and the experienced strategists on board will be playing an important role. If winds remain as strong as they have been since last Friday, the foredeck crews will be working hard to get the manoeuvres happen smoothly.
Blue Nights has welcomed a couple of new members into the team since Capri Sailing week and the experienced Canadian duo, Bill Abbott and Tac Boston will be taking the positions of a tactician (Bill) and a sail trimmer (Tac) in the season’s main event. Bill is a former Soling world champion and has represented Canada in the Olympic Games as well. Clive Cosby of Lymington (UK), the former Global Challenge skipper on board Team Stelmar, has joined the team as a boat captain and trimmer. Clive has been working hard to get the boat race ready since her arrival in UK a couple of weeks ago. Clive and navigator John Wilkinson will give the necessary local knowledge to the Blue Nights crew.
The warning signal for the first race will be given at 10h20 local time tomorrow and the aim is to complete three upwind–downwind races during the day.
Event website with racing results: http://www.rys.org.uk/da/42631
Eero Lehtinen, Cowes (UK)
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