Day 3 Report from Garda

I got so caught up in the events of Day 3 that I never did finish my write up of Day 2, and now that the event is over, it seems like too little too late to do it now. However, yesterday (Day 3) was the best day for the Seattle teams. Here are my notes from the tracker. It is kind of fun to relive an amazing day with Seattle boats in the top 5 several times and Lift Ticket winning race 7.

Race 7

Everyone wanted the boat and at 30 seconds, Lift Ticket was in piles of traffic on the layline to the RC boat 40 meters back and going 3.7 knots. At ten seconds to the start, it looked like the Brazilians and the Spanish and, I don't know, seven other boats are barging, and Lift Ticket is still in the second row, down to 2.7 knots. Meanwhile Dime was holding the Aussies up and making a giant hole for themselves, and Furio was in the middle of the line with gobs of space and War Canoe was free to do whatever they wanted a bit past midline.

Dime and the Aussies were going too slow and got rolled by sharks at the start, they both tacked and started taking sterns. The Brazilians and the Spanish and a handful of the bargers got pushed to the outside of the RC boat and had to spin around and look for room to start. Lift Ticket started in the second row and tacked right above Dime as they ducked. Both Lift Ticket and Dime had crappy lanes in the second row of the pack trying to stretch out to the right.

Amazingly, Lift Ticket made it work and at 5 minutes into the race had worked to a good lane in the pack going right. The shift was going left, and even with the nice lane, a leaderboard would have showed them in the 20s or maybe worse at that point. At 6 minutes there was a hint of a shift to the right and the Aussies were the most right and the Spanish next, then Dime, and then Lift Ticket -- with a handful of other boats mixed in. At 9 minutes it went right a bunch more, but somehow not as much for Lift Ticket. And so by the tracks, it almost looks like the boats to the right were having to sail extra distance as they get dragged to the right by the shift, and that Lift Ticket was somehow going to cut the corner. It didn’t really work out that way and the Aussies and Italians, and maybe 10 other boats had Lift Ticket when everyone started to pick their spots on the layline. As per the custom on Garda it seems, there were 20 something boats that overstood a lot, and some boats that did not seem to be in the running were lifting up to the mark and were going to get there before the usual leaders.

At the weather mark, the Aussies rounded 10th, then War Canoe, and Lift Ticket rounded in 18th with Dime right behind. There was a big split as the run started when the Italians, the Aussies, War Canoe, and eventually the Spanish gybed early as the race leaders and Lift Ticket, Dime, and eventually Furio carryied on on starboard. Ultimately, there were only be about 15 boats on Lift Ticket's side, and everyone else followed the regatta leaders the other way. Then it looked like a 20 degree shift to the left (looking upwind) that sent the Lift Ticket pack straight at the gate, and it did not look like the boats on the other side got any shift. Then, two minutes later the shift went 20 degrees back and Lift Ticket's group gybed onto port with a sweet angle to the gate. As the two groups came together there was some serious nail biting back and forth, and Lift Ticket was the second boat to take the right turn. A minute later Lift Ticket tacked onto port and another big port tack drag race line up took place. It must have been quite puffy, because the tracks show boats each getting their own shifts, but in the end, the left paid and Lift Ticket was the most left on the second beat, and rounded in the lead by a bunch and never looked back. Check out the video on the event page as they blast down to the win.

Finishing order: Lift Ticket, a British boat, the Brazilians, a Hungarian boat, a German boat, War Canoe (9), Dime (18), Furio (20)

Race 8

It was way crowded at the boat end again. Lift Ticket was in control of the layline to the RC boat at 20 meters and 20 seconds, and had the Italians above them and the Spanish two boats below them and the Aussies next and the Swedes after that. Some tough company for sure. Lift Ticket survived the congestion and was able to tack into a nice lane at 30 seconds into the race. Dime had a really nice lane in the middle of the line and was poked enough at 30 seconds to tack and cross but continued on instead. War Canoe was in the second row and Furio was holding on to a thin one maybe seven boats up from the left most. Just after two minutes into the race, the people that had tacked early at the boat end, including Lift Ticket, had a big left shift and were almost sailing straight up the ladder lines. In a truth is stranger than fiction kind of way, the boats in the middle of the course, who should have been on the inside of the shift, did not have as much of this leftie.

At 2:00, Dime tacked and looked great, War Canoe was digging out, and Furio was streaking left.

At 11:00, the fleet was quite spread out and most everyone was on port tack. Seattle boats were spread out evenly with Lift Ticket on the right edge, War Canoe nicely recovered in the middle, Dime poked out in the middle and Furio bringing in a port tack lift from the left edge. If you told me a Seattle boat was going to be leading at the weather mark, and made me guess who -- I couldn't do it. Lift Ticket, Dime, and Furio each had a really good shot.

At 15:00 the Spanish were leading the right side boats back on starboard, and Dime was advanced enough to tack a few boatlengths in front of them. It would be logical at this point to think that if Dime was looking good in the middle because of the left shift, then Furio would be looking even better. But by now we were sall starting to realize how diabolical Garda can be and just then the shift started going to the right. Like a movie we had seen before, this made the right side boats overstood, but hurt the left side boats more and as Dime rounded the weather mark first, Furio was ducking the Brits, the Brazilians, the Aussies, the Swedes and a few others. So close to 3rd, but ultimately rounding 10th. Somehow Lift Ticket had suffered in the overstanding and rounded in the 20s, just barely behind War Canoe.

The leaders gybed onto port and the Swedes and Furio and Lift Ticket carried on on starboard. The Swedes and Lift Ticket bailed out, and Furio lead the pack on what looked like a pretty good angle towards the mark. Meanwhile, Dime had gybed and looked to be legging out from the Spanish. Furio gybed and were unhappy enough about the angle that they gybed back. We lost the tracker for the rest of the run and first part of the next beat, and when we rejoined the Spanish had gotten past Dime, and Lift Ticket and War Canoe had gotten past Furio. I bet that was some interesting action.

Then at the top of the second beat, the tracker lines go crazy. Possibly there was a massive shift to the right and most everyone just started sailing straight at the mark. The order at the mark was the Spanish, the Aussies, and Dime. The rest of our boat were back in the 20s.

The finishing order: Spanish, Aussies, Brazilians, Dime, KODA (Italian boat we have seen much of), War Canoe (21), Lift Ticket (22), Furio (27).

Race 9

The most even line we had seen yet. Furio and the Spanish were at the pin, War Canoe up from the pin slightly, Dime and the Aussies were in the very middle of the line, Lift Ticket was a third down from the RC boat. The Aussies tacked right at the gun and could easily cross all of the boats to their right. A few seconds later, the Spanish tacked and crossed the fleet. At two minutes in, over half of the boats were on port, and Furio and War Canoe were still going left followed by the Brazilians. The Spanish and the Aussies were already two rungs up on the tracker ladder lines -- 100 meter jump in 2 minutes!

Thirty seconds later Furio and War Canoe tacked and then the Brazilians a bit later. The full fleet port tack drag race was underway. At ten minutes the right side trails started to bend towards the right as normal, and the left side trails bent to the right only slightly. At 13 mins the Aussies and the Spanish tacked onto starboard and at 15 minutes crossed ahead of Furio and War Canoe, who where leading the left side pack. At the weather mark it was the Aussies, the Spanish, Furio, then War Canoe (if not overlapped, very close). Unlike the other races when a split developed on the run, everyone gybed at the offset mark and started to stretch out.

The Aussies took the right turn at the gate, and the Spanish turned left. On the tracker, the left turn looked favored, and War Canoe, then Furio also took that mark while the Brazilians turned right. The right turn boats wasted no time tacking onto port, and may have had fewer kites to sail under. The shift to the right happened again, but the Aussies and the Brazilians seemed to gain even though the boats further to the right got more of a right shift to tack on.

At the second weather mark the Aussies had a comfortable lead, and the Spanish were also well advanced on War Canoe, who had Furio, the Brazilians, and Catapult looming right behind. The Brazilians were able to pass Furio, making the finishing order: Aussies, Spanish, War Canoe, Brazilians, Furio, Dime (9), Lift Ticket (18)

Super fun day, even when only watching the tracker on a screen!

Here is a link to the event page