Official Audi Melges 20 Blog

The first day of racing was stalemate with the start at 10:00 in the morning, under thick rain, 1.5 miles out into Lake Michigan, in Macatawa Bay. The weather was at the class maximum limits and the wave action was over two meters.

Fourteen competitors are here, most local to the U.S. with three exceptions — Value Team, Sei Tu 20 and a canadian team.

But today, Saturday, Value Team, at the mark just before turn 1, but after just a few seconds, you have the first break giving way to the walls of the restrictor gennaker, which means losing the gennaker yards away from the boat. But above all, the pops face so super conservative anticipating lowered to several lengths.

Julius wanted, the lightest of our three crew, sacrificed herself to remain on the bow for a good 4 heats (two races) with the tack in the hands of the stern. In between races, with luck we attempted to fix everything. The weight does not help trim the bow of the boat and often have to slow down to avoid the “nose diving”.

On the second beat of race one, and to complicate the day further, it tears the candlestick left stern thruster really hard. Nothing stayed behind the bands during any of the races of the day. Value Team still finished fifth despite a stunning first upwind leg where we were running eighth.

The real surprise of the day and ‘the arrival of the trial one. More than 7 buckets of water collected in 10 minutes between arrival and departure happened inside the hull of Value Team, water apparently came from the hole created by the candlestick uprooted. The problem will recur in all the remaining two races of the day.

The guy at the helm of Value Team, the talented Scarselli did not lose concentration and always maintained despite the continual failures, succeed to complete racing with a 10th and a 4th in the other two tests .

Unfortunately, Value Team is seated mid-fleet after two days.

The sailing talent in America is excellent. The super crew aboard Bliksem, who is in the lead, fought all day with Hollerbach in second.

Sunday, racing is supposed to start around 10:00 with the race committee pushing for as many races as possible. No additional starts will be held after 2 p.m.

Full Results: http://melges20.com/2009-nationals-results.php

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