HI Hills,
although it is not clear on the website they did score (and award trophies) to class 5 and promo seperately. So yes that means Paul came 25th in the worlds in Promo class.
For myself after injuries in the 2nd race and then a further injury in the 3rd race (a significant bang to the head requiring an MRI to check my brains had not leaked out!) I decided that now was the time for me to retire from international racing and sit back let the bruises heal and enjoy watching the racing. Hence I was placed right near the back of the field in the overall results, although not quite last! Looking at the official website results though there are a few of the tail enders missing, not sure why? Wayne Thomas completed all races so not sure why he is not listed plus a couple of others from the back of the pack. I will check my results from the local Rada Tilly newspaper when I get home and fill you in. Wayne Forbes was a last minute withdrawl after difficulties with obtaining flights.
Well to the racing - it was hard and very very fast. The class 5's were hugely faster than the promos. However these were very different from any class 5's seen in Australia. Sort of two or three generations on from what the NZ ers had in Aus in the Pacrims. Tim Speirs from UK was amazing to watch. He was so superior to anyone else on the beach. In one race he almost lapped the next class 5 yacht and more than double lapped the leading promos. It is very sad to note that class 5 is dieing out now elsewhere in the world. The machines have become to expensive and high class. It is really only the bigger guys now that are still racing them. It was beautiful watching Tim absoloutely fly down the beach.
The sailing conditions were often very tough. Extremely strong winds (we were supplied with a 5.5m2 sail and a smaller 4.5m2? sail). One day the forcast was for force 7-8. I am not sure what the tops wind speeds we raced in were however it was frequently at the outer limit to what FISLY allows with lots of heavy gusts over this. In one race the sailing master allowed the 3's out on the beach for a practice lap to see if they were able to safely control the yachts before making a decision whether to race or not ...not suprisinlgy the pilots said yes.... it was a very hair raising race to watch.
MOst of the racing was up wind, down wind racing over the length of the beach we were using (about 3kms of beach was barricaded off for our use). As you can imagine at high wind speeds with heavy occollating gusts just getting around the markers was at times a huge accomplishment. Especially as we had approx 55 yachts racing in class 5/promo. I have some terrific photos of the start line with 3 rows of yachts taking off across the wide beach that I will post when I get home and have had some sleep.
The hire promos that we were supplied with did not compare to what we had built here in Aus to practice with and many of our Aussie yachts (including the pacific magics and club 88's ) would do as well or better I feel than the hire yachts. However with the other promos from France, Tunisia, Argentina and Brazil I feel it would have been a closer match. As to which would be faster well who knows? However as taking our own yacht was not viable we glad that we like many others had the opportunity to have the use of a brand new hire yacht. The hire yachts did not have dacron sails. Apparently the sails for the 20 hire yachts arrived the day before the comp and they were made with the material that is commonly used in Sth America for sails (the stuff we make those plasticy rubbish/garden bags with) I am sure Paul will know what it is called. This is apparently quite common there at 1/4 the price of dacron. Paul was the 2nd highest placed hire yacht after Lester from the US who had brought a sail with him. Paul was fortunate enough to purchase a dacron sail from the competition sail maker who flew down from Buenos Aires during the week. His placings improved at this point, well until his mast step snapped off anyway. The seats on the promos were manufactured by a group called airtrack (operating out of France/Tunisia) for someone small like me I found I rattled around far too much so needed to scrounge some foam to pad me out. My biggest difficulty though was there was no seat belts on any of the yachts. So when (note the when not if
!) you tipped your yacht over there was not belt to keep you in the yacht. This is where being a big heavy guy helped, they tended to capsize far far less and if they did they would sort of step put. Those that were smaller and lighter tended to FLY out the yacht at great speads over the sail onto the hard sand and hopefully not another yacht. Me and my bruises do believe our Australian rules requiring a seat belt be fitted is a good one.
The organisation of the actual event was truly amazing. As I mentioned the better part of the beach was barricaded off with steel baricades for the week of our racing. During the day as we raced the police were spaced at 100-150m intervals along the length to make sure no public wondered on to the course. There were 6 specially painted brand new toyota's plus other vechiles that were for officials and recovery. Two ambulaces and a mobile medical unit on site at all times. Two club houses and a secure area for the competetors only with security plus this whole street block along the beach front blocked off for a central area for media, information, radio commentary etc. It was sooooo huge. On the first day when we raced (the Sunday) there was public lined along the barricade watching for the entire length of the beach. As you sailed down past the main area the annoucer over the PA would tell the public who you were etc. You always new if you had an argentinian coming up behind you because all of a sudden the crowd would go wild and start cheering for their local guy. It did take a couple of laps before I realised it wasn't me they were cheering for!
but is still felt amazing to race along a beach with thousands of people watching and cheering! Even on the weekday racing there was hundreds and hundreds of spectators all along the length of the beach. I have never seen anything like this anywhere else in the world. There was daily newspaper and TV coverage.
The whole town really put on a fantastic show and the coordination and infa structre behind it all was exceptional and one the Argentinian Assn can be very proud of. Including the smaller things like providing interpreters at all pilots breifings and official functions.
Well thats enough of a taster for now of what it was like. I am still jet lagged and need to go back to bed! More later.
cheers Susan
. Basically I had extensive bruising/contusions to legs, pelvis and arms where I either banged about in the yacht or hit the ground, and some grazing to the elbow. Nothing really bad on its own but added all together..ouch. The final straw though was my last dive over the length of the sail onto the beach forehead first. I was dazed enough that my vision went blurry for a while before I really came too, they medics though were taking no chances and I was sent off to have a MRI scan to make sure no real had injuries. I have nothing but praise for the quality of care I received even if it was just to make sure
Actually it is not that hard once you get the knack. Sheet rope and hand either side of the yacht seat, hold a hand tiller if you have one, backside in the air, run like crazy and then either outside foot on the axle and slide in or if you are good swing up both legs together and slide into the seat.
