This has been another exciting week here in New Zealand as we count down to the first race in eight days time. The major happening this week was the start of the Practice Regatta, organized for the committee to do test runs, and any competitors who want to mix it up in advance of the real races. The format was three days of fleet racing, and then four days of match racing.
Our chief (Dennis) decided that we would not mix it up for fear of damage since we are a one boat team, and not wanting to show our speed until the real event. Most of the crew on the other hand was begging to race so we could sharpen our skills before the real races start. It's tough to get race hardened when you are training alone. We are also very curious to learn if our designer has given us a horse or a thoroughbred! The teams that raced included AmericaTrue (John Cutler), Spain, France, Hawaii, and Australia.
Those opting not to do the fleet races besides us were New York, Italy, Japan, AmericaOne, and the Swiss.
What we saw in the first two days was AmericaTrue being the fastest boat and winning both races. The following order of speed seemed to be Spain, France, Hawaii, and then Australia with their 1995 boat.
But after a day or two of watching the others race as we practiced a few miles away, Dennis finally agreed to let us start below the fleet and do a short test run against the pack. This was a really intense moment for us, our first glimpse at how fast or slow our boat was against this pack. We started 100 feet below the pin end of the line and paced the fleet for five minutes before pulling away. The final verdict is that we were not slow compared to this pack, but the strong teams were not there.
On Friday the regatta switched to Match Racing and I jumped in our chase boat to do some observation of the teams as they scrimmaged one on one. What I saw was the two Italian teams looking like they have been training in IACC boats for three years (because they have!), America True looked quite sharp (having been training here in two boats for five months), the French (Bertrand Pace) good at the match racing, but their boat not going real fast, and Paul Cayard on AmericaOne going fast enough to beat the French.
On Saturday I decided to spend the full day watching and video taping the competition (some call this spying!) and it was great. With one week to go before the racing starts, it was really valuable to study the competition, and view our boat and team from off the boat. What did I see? – The Italians had a definite speed edge on AmericaTrue and beat them two races straight (maybe showing us that there are two leagues here), Australia almost beating Hawaii, and the French beating Hawaii and Spain. I finished the day looking and shooting video of our boat from all angles, which was really fascinating.
I have mapped out a plan for our final week of getting all the major jobs done on the boat, switching our training schedule to the times we will follow in the regatta (6 a.m. at the base, depart at 8 a.m., tow out 12 miles, practice at 9 a.m., and start racing at 10:30 a.m.), and one or two more match race sessions on two Etchells (30 foot 3 person boats).
I feel good about our chances. We have the depth knowledge and experience with Dennis Conner, Bill Trenkle, and their veteran team to lead the program and help make the right decisions. Our sailing team is strong and I like our after guard of Peter Isler, Kenny Read, and myself. I am comfortable with our one all-purpose boat for these very unpredictable conditions. Italy, New York, and AmericaOne look strong, and I think we will be amongst this group. Japan is the unknown and AmericaTrue could be a spoiler. In one week we will all learn more as everyone must start to show their cards.