Medemblik, Holland
May 23, 2008

After two more days of racing in the fresh water lottery that is the Delta Lloyd Regatta 2008, we are now in tenth place overall and if we can maintain this position or improve it tomorrow we’ll be starting in the Medal Race on Sunday.

Photo: ©2008 Thom Touw

Winds were light at three to eight knots when we started this race. However the Race Committee made the course way too long. That was obvious when it took us 29 minutes to complete the first windward leg, which had a 30-minute time limit. At this point it was pretty obvious that no one would make the 90-minute time limit for the race but the committee elected not to shorten the course. We led at the start and we were still leading when the time limit ran out!

The committee compounded its first error by starting the second race in zero to one knot of breeze. We started well and we were in fifth place when the breeze died completely on the first run. At least we were doing pretty well in Qingdao-style conditions!

Finally the wind came in at six to seven knots and the committee switched tactics, running a super short race. The race only took 30 minutes. We had a rough start and with no time to recover, we finished 14th.

By now it was 6:30 pm but the committee went for another long race. We struggled on the first downwind leg after missing a big shift in the fluky conditions and were never able to get back to the lead group. This time we were 12th.

No one was happy with all the time we spent on the water and the race committee came in for a lot of criticism. It’s very frustrating to compete at a professional level in the hands of an amateur race committee. This is one of the problems our sport faces as it strives for more professional competition.

Today, after completing three races, we got ashore before dark. We got a taste of everything. The first race was light and fluky with four to eight knots and a couple of 40 degree shifts plus big velocity changes. We got jammed on the wrong side of one shift and finished 14th. In the second race the breeze built and began to settle and we finished tenth. The last race of the day was full-on with the breeze at 20 knots and the committee sent us off on a long crazy, choppy hour and a half endurance contest that left everyone pretty tired. We were ninth.