Final Photos of the 2011 Sudopti

On our way home

A good day of racing yesterday with some more great results. Makai finished in 30th position with 4,12 and 29 yesterday. Makai sailed well every day including the practice days and definitely benefitted from the early arrival to sail well in the regatta. Antonio finished in 63rd position with 14,41 and 19 yesterday. Antonio also sailed well both in practice and in the regatta and he is disappointed not to have sailed more races to get the 2nd drop. Rory and Chase struggled a bit more with the conditions but had some good races to finish in 96th and 114th. Rory finished the regatta with 33,44,28 and Chase 33,21,50.
Overall the team worked hard and showed excellent team spirit. Their behaviour, attitude and results were very good.
We are finally on our way to Santiago 3 hours behind schedule as the luxury bus forgot to pick us up and some of team CAN and USA. We are in a hastily arranged school minibus instead. Never a dull moment. We arrive home tomorrow afternoon.
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Day 5 - racing

It is the last day of racing here and the plan is for 3 races, with first race at 11am.
With 2 cancelled days, these will be races 7,8 and 9. So no 2nd drop for our sailors.

The weather is not perfect and so it will be a challenging day for all. There are strong swells and light winds resulting in tough conditions for sailors and race committee. The boats have launched so we are all relieved about that after spending 2 days sitting and waiting on the dock.

Closing ceremony will be around 7pm tonight.
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Racing cancelled today

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Rest day

Makai's birthday

Still waiting

The wind has changed direction - but the sea is still rough. Does not look good for racing.
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Day 4 - racing

The waves are big and so it is too dangerous to go out. We must wait for the wind to change direction and so we are at the club again waiting...
We have lots of photos to upload but no internet...
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Photos from The Nations Cup

Team racing

The team beat CAN2 and then lost to ISV and CAN1. They were the better team against CAN1 but made some errors and handed the victory to CAN1. That's team racing.

After 6 nights of the exact same dinner the team is off to enjoy dinner at the club restaurant for Makai's birthday. Although the provided food is bland and repetitive the boys have enjoyed it and have eaten well.

After dinner there is a party for the sailors at the club.

Tomorrow is a rest day and the team will sleep late and then they are joining the Brazilian team for some local sightseeing.

The team is out on the water

Team racing day

Today is team racing day. There is very little wind again and so it is postponed for now.
BER is in the Nations Cup and the team will sail against CAN2 first. The boys are looking forward to having some fun today with shorter races and team tactics.
More to follow when the wind picks up.
Happy birthday to Makai today.

Photo 3 - waiting for wind

Photo 2 - waiting for wind

Photo 1- waiting for wind

Racing cancelled today :(

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Still no sailing

The wind is up at the club and we will know at 3.15 if there will be any races today. If so the sailors can be out until 7pm. More later.
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Still no wind

Team is at club waiting for wind to increase.
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Results - day 2

It looks as though the tracker is unreliable. The team had a good day with some great results.

Makai 32nd ( today 7,17, 13)
Antonio 60th approx - error in results (today 18, 10, 22)
Rory 87th ( today 22, 30, 8)
Chase 124th (today 36, 34, DNC)

Unfortunately Chase missed the last race due to illness. He is feeling better and will be OK for tomorrow.,
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Day 2 - racing

Racing today has been postponed until 1pm.  Clear blue skies again with wind 8-11 knots. 

 

There will be 3 races today for each sailor with the Bermuda sailors racing as follows:

Race 1   Rory

Race 2  Chase & Antonio

Race 3  Makai

Race 4   Antonio

Race 5   Rory

Race 6   Chase & Makai

Race 7   Rory & Antonio

Race 8   Chase

Race 9   Makai

 

It will be a long day……

Action shots from yesterday

Day 1 - results

Today saw one of the windiest days here yet with strong winds and strong currents testing the Bermuda team.  The team struggled to get good starts in the 1^st race but starts improved with the 2^nd and 3^rd races but the conditions were tough for the lighter members of the team.

 

Results are Makai 53^rd, (15,34,10); Antonio 80^th (28,22,28); Rory 106^th, (33,30,38); Chase 115^th, (31,45,38)

 

All of the boys tried really hard in the conditions and they are looking forward to calmer seas tomorrow with expected winds of 7 to 9 knots.

Day 1 - racing

Racing is underway under clear blue skies.  Weather today is perfect with winds increasing from 12 to 20 knots this afternoon.

photos from today

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Saturday - Practice Race

After 5 days of training the team is excited to be starting the competition.  Today is the practice race and this starts at 2pm (Algarrobo is in the same time zone as Bermuda).  The fleet has been split into 2 fleets based on even and odd sail numbers with odd starting first.  The boats have their tracking devices on and so the link to tracking should work from now on.

 

Actual fleet racing starts tomorrow at 12pm and the fleet will be split into 6 groups.  Unfortunately the pink ribbons have gone missing and so the organizers are looking for a solution to this problem and will announce the allocations later today before 7pm.

 

Fleet racing will start at 12pm each day and races are scheduled for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday with 3 races per day planned.  Team racing will take place on Wednesday.

 

The coaches meeting took place this morning and unique to this area included the instructions for a tsunami warning.  For those interested: in the event of a tsunami caused by a Chilean earthquake there will be 2 options based on the situation.  The boats will either go to shore immediately or the committee boat will lead the boats out farther.  For a tsunami caused by another Japan earthquake there will a day’s  warning and so the boats will not go out.  We have only felt one small tremor on land since we arrived but the organizers are obviously well prepared.

 

opening ceremony

The opening ceremony started at the hotel and finished at the club walking down the main street with a marching drum band.  The speeches were short and then the sailors had dinner and adults were invited for cocktails.

 

Another beautiful sunset in Algarrobo

More training photos

Here are some great training photos from Zizi.

Training Photos

Argentine photographer Matias Capizzano has some great shots of the sailors from training