During the week of August 8th my crew, Jeff Aschieris and I began competing in the 2011 Snipe World Championship held in Rungsted, Denmark. Jeff and I had been preparing for this event for over a year and we qualified by winning the Silver Cup in Lake Carlyle, Illinois last Fall.
Jeff and I had put a lot of time into our training and we had been working with North Sails to try and construct the perfect suit of sails for the Rungsetd conditions. Jeff and I were confident in the 5-10 knot conditions we had been training in and we believed that we would have a chance at winning the event if we saw those conditions.
When we arrived in Denmark we were greeted to beautiful summer conditions; 5 to 10 knots, temperatures in the mid-70’s and plenty of clear skies. Unfortunately the conditions took a turn for the worst, as the regatta got closer. The first few days we spent in the boat park measuring in and modifying
our boat to get it as close to what we were used to as we could. As we headed to the boat park for the first day of racing we were welcomed with 30-knot winds and 40-knot gusts (just a little too windy for a Snipe). We spent most of the day postponed on shore waiting anxiously for the winds to die down so we
could hit the water. At 5pm local time, the AP flag was lowered and we were told to sail out to the course. The first race was wild, while the wind had died
off the race committee was still seeing gusts in the high 20’s. The first and only race of the day Jeff and I broke our whisker pole launching system which
holds the jib out for the reaches and runs. We ended up having a pretty tough race that day but we were fortunate not to break a mast or seriously damage the boat. When we got to shore we were able to fix our pole launcher and gear up for the remainder of the regatta.
Day two was the complete opposite of day 1. Lighter winds with very unstable and shifty conditions. We saw a new wind direction everyday and velocity that
ranged anywhere from 0 to 25 kts. Jeff and I felt like we were sailing smart races. We had good fleet management, good general tactics and fairly good speed. Unfortunately we got into some trouble with the Alphabet. On the third day of racing we picked up a ZFP and an OCS. In junior sailing they teach you to avoid letter scores and leave the alphabet for school. My aggressive starting strategy that I acquired from my college sailing didn’t benefit us in the 65 boat fleet. In the races which we were over Jeff and I sailed solid races and recorded respectable finishes, needless to say we were very bummed when we found out we went 1 for 3 on the day.
The final day of racing was not much better than the one before. We started the day with a solid top 20 finish while using our awesome boat speed on the runs to catch a large pack of boats and climb back from the middle of the fleet. The second race started well for us with a great start near the pin and the ability to put the bow down and make our way towards the favored left side of the course. About a third the way to the weather mark we heard a loud snap and I felt the mainsheet lose power- I frantically discovered our mainsheet had snapped and unfortunately we did not have a spare with us on board. We were forced to drop out of the race and get a new mainsheet from our coach before the third and final race began.
Jeff and I had our fair share of bad breaks during the regatta but we never got discouraged. In sailboat racing things don’t always go your way. Jeff and I learned that the best guys are able to adapt or even foresee potential disaster races and avoid them from happening. Jeff and I leaned that practicing a lot doesn’t always teach you how to avoid the letter scores- regatta experience is the single best way to learn how to avoid the disaster race.
Jeff and I come home having experienced a great world championship and learning a ton about Snipe tuning and regatta preparation. We look forward to continuing to improve on our mistakes while implementing our new skills in order to constantly raise the level of our sailing and achieve better results.
Thank you competition fund for all your support in helping Jeff and I compete in the 2011 Snipe World Championship, we couldn’t have done it without you.
Sincerely,
Tyler Sinks