Update
BACK TO REALITY – Terry Hutchinson
That is what the last month has been and, don’t get me wrong, reality is not bad. But it is a day-in day-out grind searching for boat lengths and perfection, which comes in different ways. The past month featured two events, the Farr 40 West Coast Championship in Long Beach and the Settimana Delle Bocche in Porto Cervo. Both were good and difficult. So a reality check…
Can’t really say much more about the Farr 40 class and its ability to keep going. Fifteen good boats lined up and onboard Alex Roeper’s Plenty it was a grind. We won three of the 10 races and yet had a 14 (OCS with a 20 per cent penalty) and a nine on the scorecard. The regatta was in many ways determined by a team’s ability to come back from the big one. Enfant Terrible (eventual winner), Groovederci (second) and Estate Master (third) all had at least one OCS or clanger of a start. The difference being Plentyhad two and that was too much! The racing is too tight and the Long Beach racecourse is famously one-sided so turning a 10 into a six is a big thing. We finished fourth, 6pt off the leaders, and yet it is pretty easy to see where we gave it away. Success in this class comes from winning the races that you lead and the ones you don’t grinding it out for every point. The past two events in which we finished second and fourth were both determined by mental mistakes (penalty turn and OCS) – pretty easy to identify, which is the good news.
Now we need to eliminate the uncharacteristic mistakes and move it forward. The Plenty is going on a hiatus for the next two months, which will inevitably make our world championship defence tougher. Knowing how these events are won, it is a bit about momentum going in, confidence, then grinding for every inch.
Next up was the second event in the TP52 circuit. This was just awesome! The fleet has evolved and we were racing with eight new boats and one uprated 2014 model. The new-generation boat is a big step on. More powerful hull forms, refinement in appendages and upgrades in spars, allowing for deflectors and carbon rigging, have the fleet performing quite a bit better. All in all a greatstep forward for an already refined design, it was impressive to see the improvements. On the racecourse it was a good bounce-back regatta for Quantum Racing. Doug Devos was also back on the helm after an 18-month
8 SEAHORSE
hiatus. The Porto Cervo racecourse is a subtle track in the best of conditions. The uniqueness of this event is that it includes three – tricky, lots of rocks – coastal races. The opportunity to go rock hopping on the 52s is scary, as it seems everybody throws caution to the wind in chasing half-length gains. We are no exception. The goal for the coastals was survive the rocks, protect the assets and get to the last day with a chance.
The team was not happy with the boat’s performance in Valencia; we’d done a few things differently in design world with sails and sizing to improve performance and the verdict was still out. Porto Cervo was a different story. Our performance was solid. I would pick Quantum and Bronenosecas the best performers upwind and Quantumas the standard downwind.
Yet this is among the Botín designs. The uniqueness of the box rule is it still gives the designers interpretation to do what they think is right. Tony Langley’s Gladiator is a Judel-Vrolijk design and, like Rán last year, is slippery in marginal planing. On top of what is very level racing one challenge is to identify the strength of the competition so when in the boat-on-boat stuff you sail to your strengths. Developing that playbook for the fleet is just one other component. That side of it is a lot of fun – the differences are not so noticeable and yet in the moment very easy to see.
The other component is just racing well. The lessons learnt from the Farr 40 were well applied in Porto Cervo. I would give us high marks on sailing conservatively well and staying in the hunt. Well enough that we went into what was the last race with a 2pt lead over Azzurra. Ultimately we faltered a bit in the last race on the second beat, tactically sailed too loose and that bit us pretty hard as Azzurra won the race and we sailed our worst race to finish sixth. Stuff like that drives you to the bottle.
But in the glass half-full world we made some great strides in gear development, and geometrical differences in some of our set-up are starting to deliver the gains we anticipated. Still lots of work to do; and it is hard racing only two events this season. For sure, I want to do it all.
Soon we get to the business end of the Bella Menteschedule which entails four weeks of England and Europe; 200th anniversary of the RYS, Cowes Week, Fastnet Race and Maxi Worlds with the Copa del Rey on the Quantum Racing dabbled in between. Looking forward to the challenges… and a chance at a little redemption! Standing by in a sweaty, hot Harwood, MD 38ft above sea level!
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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