Challenging Conditions for the Pleasure of Sailing

Today's competitions offered a lot of pleasure to both the sailors and the few spectators that followed them. While the sailors enjoyed the truly 'manly' sailing, the spectators enjoyed the interesting situations along with the few mistakes made by the competitors. In terms of the results, today's races were a lot more predictable than yesterday's since the results reflected primarily the boat handling skills of the crews, and the challenging conditions were a true test of how fit the crews were at the beginning of the season. Today's boat handling activities could be divided into several parts. After the start, it was essential to maintain the angle and the speed of the boat, which depended on how much the mainsail was loaded. As the conditions were such that the first reefing maneuver was contemplated, except from the rigging tension and the mast curve, the most important thing was to synchronize the foresails and the mainsail well, so as to avoid as often as possible the situations in which the mainsail is completely empty. Heavier boats had an easier task since they could withstand the wind, while the lighter boats or the ones with more sails had to struggle to ensure the proper balance.  Just how important it is to balance the helm and reduce the swaying was quite clear at times when more sudden course changes occurred. Some boats could have sailed a lot faster and easier, had they opted for the reefing maneuver, especially during the second race. Passing round the buoys and spinnaker maneuvers represented a classic example of how well-trained crews create an unsurpassable advantage over other competitors.

At the beginning of the day, the left side was somewhat more favored, whereas the course edges enjoyed a somewhat smaller current, so that it was quite unfavorable to be a windward sailing boat. As the day was winding down, the Pakleni Otoci Islands were a somewhat more favorable tactical option.

The Šibenik crew onboard the Angela X did well as opposed to the Opatija crew onboard the Frano Barbieri which could not handle the 'fighting' conditions. We also witnessed a few good luff-up maneuvers made by the smallest boat, the Be First. On the other hand, the Mareus crew had a good day today and dominated over the other two Beneteau 40.7s by excellently controlling the boat.

Darko Hajdinjak made several bad judgments when passing the windward buoys, which, along with the results, surely made him and his crew quite nervous. The biggest boats offered the least in terms of excitement. Under quite favorable conditions, the Teuta sailed really well. However, during the third race its jib disengaged from the lath to which it was fixed. The old crew navigating the Branko could not compete under these conditions, while the Polet was a pleasant surprise getting better and better as the day was winding down. The Gringo was as good as expected and its crew did excellent work. Its duel with its twin boat, the Jonathan RR from Pula, offered the greatest pleasure.

The Quabremar and the X-Cite sailed with oscillations. The Slovaks sailed a bit better and deservedly won the first part of the regatta with the corrected time thanks to the fact that they sailed well all throughout the race, whereas the crew of the Rameš made it to the finals with a half a point advantage.

The difference in the quality of the crews was crucial today, which is why tomorrow's final competitions on the same boats and under similar conditions will be especially interesting.