Big Winds....Big Waves

Good news, I found a little computer shop just around the corner from the hotel, and he had the power supply I needed for my laptop. Super nice man, and I think 26 pounds for the power supply and cord is quite a fair

Unfortunately that was the extent of the good news today. I went to the club with a forecast of 10-12 increasing to 16-18 in the afternoon with gusts no more than 20. Sounds good, boat rigged, hit the water, and already it was well above the forecast, with the breeze around 20 when we went out. Of course by the start of the race, it had increased to 25 steady with gusts to 30, a guy at the Yacht Club said it was blowing 23 steady, but I still say 25 ;-). Ok, quite windy, and the waves were really big and steep with a relatively short wavelength. I drew the red fleet for the first day, which meant the second start, and I got off the line, about mid line in very good shape. The RC had set a massively long line, so there was no problem finding space and being on the line. I started out left, took one hitch right to clear air, and then worked back left. It seemed to pay off as I approached the weather mark in the top half. So far so good, exacly an 18 minute beat, just like last year. Then as I reached the weather mark, released vand and went to the offset (we had the inside loop), I hit a huge wave, biggest one all day, launched off the back of the wave, completely airborne, and when I hit the trough, extremely hard, I did something to my lower back on the left side. It hurt really badly, and I immediately knew that I had no chance to finish out the race, let alone the day. I went further upwind past the mark and sat there to let the fleet by so I would not interfere with anyone, seeing as I was retiring, then started to head downwind. I had to go downwind all the way to the club, and it was incredibly hard especially with a bad back. With the huge waves, the cockpit seemed to always be filled with water. If my back was not hurting, it would have been an amazingly fun ride downwind, but trying to avoid a deat roll with a bad back, is hard and painful. Only two death rolls later, I made it to the entrance to Chichester Harbour and flew in on a screaming reach to the club. The helpers at the club were great, pulling my boat up the beach for me.

I was not the only boat coming in at that time. There were several Radials and a few Standard rigs that were also coming in with me, and by the time I had packed the boat, even more boats were coming in, as the conditions were worsening. Here is what I figured out today, I am just too light for a standard rig now in heavy air. I am afraid that 170-175 is just too light. The last time I sailed in winds like this was the Laser No Coast Championships in 2008 on Lake Lanier. It was flat water there though, and I was about 30 lbs heavier then. There were many Radial sailors I saw that were bigger than I am, so perhaps I should have picked the Radial for this regatta. I don't really want to gain more weight now, so I think that I need to drop about 10 lbs more to be a full time Radial sailor. I am also at a disadvantage because I am shorter than most, being light and short is just not a good combination for a Laser.

I went to the race office to tell them I had retired for the day, and there was a gentleman from the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), who seemed very concerned about my back. He informed me that there was a Physio available to help if he could. I went to see the Physio, and after checking me out, seemed confident the problem was muscular and not skeletal, which was really good news. I have the back iced right now, and hopefully with racing possibly being canceled tomorrow, I may very well be ready for Wednesday, I am hopeful.

We know the conditions were really hairy because there were New Zealanders and Australians coming in early as well, and those guys just love the heavy stuff. When I came in, I met a guy from New Zealand who was quite a bit heavier than me sailing a Radial, and even he decided to come in early.

Tomorrow looks like it will be heavier than today, and the word is that they probably will not race tomorrow. That's really not good, because with a lay day on Thursday, that means only two more races for the qualifying round, which means I have no chance of making the gold fleet. Time to just relax and enjoy the rest of the regatta. I will keep the blog going, so please check back.