MENDEMBLIK, NETHERLANDS — Now in its 16th edition, this annual gathering of Olympic class boats serves as a good gauge to determine who is strong and who needs work as September's Olympic Games loom ahead. Good weather conditions met the sailors for Day One, and several of the seven classes in attendance managed to get in three races.
Officially there are 41 entries in the Men's 470s class, not as many as last year, but according to Sailnet's Team 2000 correspondent Bob Merrick, who is here racing in the 470 class with Paul Foerster, "there are a lot of good people in the fleet." Merrick says that everyone was at the pin for the start of Race One in the 470 class. "We were definitely one of the last to start, so we had a big uphill battle to pass boats. The wind was very shifty, and it was hard for us to tack where we wanted because of dirty air. We just tried to find clear air up the first beat and probably rounded the first mark in the 20s. We must have been going well because by the finish, we were in ninth place. I guess what happened was there were 12 boats over early and a lot of those were ahead of us, so that moved us."
For Race Two, says Merrick, "We decided to stay away from the crowd, and we had a beautiful start near the boat end and tacked immediately on a 20-degree lefty. We had clear air and we were on the first shift not caring if the pin had been favored. Then we got headed and tacked to starboard, crossing all those crazy people who started at the pin. We played the shifts just like we wanted up the first beat, and what do you know, we were leading by eight boatlengths at the weather mark!
"It was getting very light and puffy then, so we just ignored everyone and sailed on our shifts. We went on to win easily and found out later that there were nine boats scored OCS (premature starters) in that race.
"In the last race, we picked what shifts we could and rounded the top mark about 30th. We went low on the first reach and passed five boats and we got five more downwind. Then we hit some good shifts up the next beat to get to about 12th and passed two more on the run for a 10th. That's a lot of hard work, but at least we were not OCS. Another eight boats were called over early in that race.
"We're now in fourth overall. A Greek team is winning because they had an awesome day of 1-4-1. The good Portuguese team had 3 OCSs, and several good teams had at least one OCS.
"There are several other US Olympic representatives here, since every class but the Solings has finished its Olympic Trial regatta. In the Lasers, John Myrdal is here. In the 49ers, Jonathan and Charlie McKee are racing (standing in second overall), and John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree are here in the Tornado Class." The event continues through May 28.