Fizz Cup 2014

We saw some truely great racing in the North Sea this evening. Sixteen skippers signed up and thirteen showed. We were looking forward some busy times in the Fizz Cup team. I was on the RD boat, so here's a view from the rather chaotic prestart circus. That's excactly how it should be some 30 seconds before start: Chaotic.

The usual chaotic prestart 

During five fantastic races we had close to zero protests; None were filed, and I think there were only two or three incidents where someone found it neccessary to do a 720. There was some talk about someone hitting the RD boat, but I didn't see or hear it and I was the only one onboard.

Gogogo

The shot above shows the fleet en route - just crossing the startline in race one. It was a tight squeeze having 13 boats on a line as short as this. The line is supposed to be 1.5 times the total length of the fleet. This line was not; Amazingly, the expected barge-fest didn't happen. I suppose this has to do with the sailors knowing the risks of such a start. Another thing that made me wonder: Note the angle between the boats and the line. It looks like a portside start was favoured. Noone dared to take that chance.

Winner of the Fizz Cup 2014

After five super races we found a champion. She didn't have better peek boatspeed, but from my observations she was considerably better at keeping the boat at top speed. That's more of a boathandling thing. She'd be just a tiny bit faster at most maneuvers and especially after most maneuvers. Oh, and no capsizes even though there were mean gusts spread out over the course. Especially on the left side. That was more than enough. She won with a considerable margin. In fact she didn't even need to sail the last race. Congrats to Silber Sands. Very nice sailing. From my notes, I am pretty sure Armano is second and Ultramantra is third. Woots. What a great day out there... Thanx to Bea for organizing.

More on this very soon...