Hi All,
My personal update in addition to Matthias report, as many know I finished NZL-92 some weeks ago and tested against Jaguar on launch to see if she was going to be suitable for this year’s IACC 120 Cup. I had made second rig using square head main & groovy foiled tapered mast, this would be the first time I have tried this as previously I’ve been using pin head main & 12 mm round mast using loops on the luff.
Unfortunately I had 5 week business trip which ended the day before the Cup which meant that landed home in Germany after 10 hour flight, packed up Jaguar and ETNZ 92
and then drove 900 kms to Ravenna to arrive 3 am on Saturday morning for fleet racing, following 40 winks in the car the sun rose and it was race day ! Forecast was for light wind and I was raring for two days solid sailing.
A new skipper from Rome, Emanuele Tatti was there & had not chance to complete his BMW before Ravenna & I offered Jaguar to him for the weekend to experience his first AC 120 racing, the smile on his dial (face) was enough justify the option of forgoing the use of Jaguar (Pin head main) if the new square head rig for ETNZ 92 did not work, at this point I kicked myself for bringing ETNZ 92’s pin head rig along, but I was confident the untried new rig would have slight advantage in light air.
A pleasant surprise was the weighing of boats this year and was interesting to see the results and everyone was within the scope of the rules, Matthias had made up a beautiful tank for measuring boats LWL, however it was unable to find suitable levelling of the tank and no fresh water was available as Lake Mirabilandia (Ravenna) is a salt water lake, so LWL was measurement was scraped.
Then it was into the water for practising & tuning settings in 2-3 knots, after stepping the mast back 5 mm I found helm balance and quickly started sailing abreast of the other boats to see if I was on the pace, upwind was looking good but no noticeable speed difference but downwind was disaster as I watched others slowly draw away with 4-5 boats lengths over 200 meters hmm … my main leech was folding on occasions figured I had over-looked something in sail settings and starting tweaking here with no change, at this stage I began to regret lending Jaguar with pin head main but, what the hell I was going to make the best of this once a year event anyway.
My biggest weakness was lack competition sailing back home sailing alone that was quickly evident with first fleet racing, I was losing sight of ETNZ 92 on crowded start line and consequently incurring penalties in first 3 races, then I was getting into the swing of things with clean starts and pacing the leading pack off the start line then my lack of tactical experience came through as I was occasionally mistakes and losing ground beating as the wind was slowly dying down to 1-2 knots.
Race 4 the wind came up again to around 4-5 knots and with it came the dreaded weed that ignited few tempers and then Matthias (SUI 100) lost his brand new keel & bulb just after the start and SUI 100 was laying on its side like slain gladiator, fortunately he had spare keel fin & bulb on hand to continue racing….but you can guess why I brought my boat in straight after the race to check if had locked in my keel. :rolleyes:
Race 5, managed a strong second placing but it was more to due to keeping out of trouble going around the cans as others were contacting each incurring penalties at the buoys… when I managed to get a clean starts I could stay with the leading packing beating upwind and reaching but then coming to downwind leg just lost so much distance it was frustrating.
Come the traditional Italian lunch break with good wine and salami with BBQ sausages I had chance to look around and chat with other skippers and noticed that Matthias had same rig as ETNZ 92 with new mast & sails, after exchanging opinions I quickly observed Matthias was using loops on his groovy mast and not tube in the luff groove as I was, when asked why he explained how the tube in the groove does not allow the main luff to bend off the mast squarely causing convex curve of the main along the luff when running …. Well there I was my problem !! with poor running performance, I thought about cutting off the main sail luff tubes that sit in the mast groove and retying loops but had no motivation to start surgery on the rig without the use of a suitable sized table.
After lunch I then tried sailing downwind with the windows 3/4 open and that helped keep the main from folding but ended up running mid pack for rest of the day.
Sunday arrived and arrived at the course to find absolutely no wind and managed to tackle 30 min sail tuning lesson from Gabriele Tancini BMW 71, this guy is a master with golden touch on sail settings, I learnt so much little tweaking tips it was amazing. Then with occasional puffs that motivated 3 starts in the morning, but it was long slow slog between the buoys and my concentration was gone with the wind, after lunch switched over to sailing Jaguar and was pleased could open the windows downwind and managed to run with the leading pack until the wind died, I must admit I don’t enjoy sailing with so little air as like watching paint dry creeping around the course at times and my concentration was not the best with lack of sleep over last 3 days travelling to get to the event.
Eventually it was clear the wind had gone for the day and match racing was cancelled and top places from fleet racing determined the Cup winner which was Luca with Sholsholoza RSA-09, who was also recently crowned Italian IOM champion, congratulations Luca ! I wish to take this opportunity to thank the organisers for great event management and wish the gods will look favourable upon us all next year with more wind and NO weed please sirs !
Lessons learnt : Practice, practice, practice, practice and more practice weeks before each event
Attached Photo’s were by Emanuele Tatti, thanks Meme 
Cheers Alan
actually when I left late Sunday afternoon he was 3rd on the scoreboard in front of you, so you must have improved very late in the day, but you both did very well for first time at AC 120 regatta, it’s a pity you given up the challenge of possibly improving next year.