Ting’s Portuguese Tarts.

Sunday 14th September

With a first possible start of 9am Jason, Vassili and I rushed down to the regatta site. The forecast called for wind in the morning, and there was some rustling in the trees. Down at the beach there were a few light gusts on the water, but not enough to race.

Sean interviewed, Jesper, and Wojtek for “Follow the Winds”, and people slowly began to get organised to leave.

At 12:30 the wind teased us for about 10 minutes, but went as fast as it came in. Again at 4:00pm it tempted again, causing the competitors who had already packed, to look a little nervous.

4:45pm and everyone had given up, and quiver bags were now getting stuffed with sails, boards getting packed, and vans loaded. At 5:00 pm the regatta was officially over with not enough time to get a start away had there been wind.

The presentation was held at the beach with the stage lined with all of the winners. Officials were thanked, speeches given, and then the Santa Pola club in Spain were presented as the host for the Formula World Championships in 2009.

A traditional Portuguese dinner was served, BBQ Sardines………A bunch of us went down the road to the pizza shop

The fleet moved to the sports bar in Alvor town, for celebrations, commiserations, and many many drinks. There was a solo guitar/singer, and he was a little over whelmed when the competitors descended on the bar. He seemed a little confused, and when he strummed up Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon” the end was nigh for him. One of the guys ” accidently” leaned on his amp, and it all went silent (later re-enactments looked like a WWF maneouver). The DJ came on and saved the day. There was crowd surfing, bar surfing and many more frovilities, but as they say………..

“What happens on tour, stays on tour”

Tam and I are now off to Egypt for a couple of weeks of sight seeing, and of course visiting the Red Sea for a few days windsurfing.

See you all at Hawks Nest in a few weeks.

Saturday 13th September

Another beautiful blue sky day in paradise….but there was no wind.

The day was spent watching the official event videos, surfing the internet, and eating lunch. Sean continued working on his “Follow the Winds” project interveiwing Dennis littel, and Arnon Dagan . www.followthewinds.com

Around 5:30 the wind swung to the north west, and the race crew efficiently set a course in a light 6 – 8 knots.  First up were the women, which would give them their eleventh race, and a third drop.  Marta Hlavaty won this race, and Allison in fourth, her light wind settings just not up to speed.  This now places Allison back in second,  desperately needing another couple of races on Sunday to regain her title.

The men were sent out as quickly as possible to make use of the rapidly fading breeze.  I  had a nice spot on the line, and at pumped at 30 seconds to go, just at the last second I got rolled by a light weight, and was left stranded on the line.  As soon the the line cleared I got going, and was not disadvantaged too badly as I now had clear air all the way to the port layline.  Climbing out of much of the fleet and tacking onto port,  I was now motoring into the top mark, and could see the majority of the fleet stuck in light air on the right hand side of the course.  Sean also had made good use of the wind and was full power into the top mark.  Gonzalo, Jesper, and Julien got around the top mark, and then the race was abandoned.    That was it for the day as the sun was now setting.

Dinner was back at the apartment with James, Magne, Sean, Kate, Jason, Vassilis, Tam and I.  A huge pot of Spagetti Bolognese, and Sean in an effort to re-capture some of his glory days brought along a case of beer to try and drink his way into some form.  Sean also managed to scoff two of the four Vienettas we had for desert.  Suprisingly, Basil, the complete health and fitness nut,  also cut loose by having a glass of wine, a beer, and even some Vienetta.

Sunday’s forecast is not so great, but fingers crossed we’ll get another couple of races away.

Friday 12th September

A very frustrating day….The forecast was for 30 Knots, but when we arrived at the beach, it was only 4 -5 knots from the NE. Around 10:30 the wind really kicked in at 35 knots. Gonzalo was out tuning and got flipped to huge cheers from the peanut gallery. I think there was quite a few of the fleet quietly praying we wouldn’t be sent out.

As quickly as the wind arrived, it disappeared again. This was reminding me of the Westerlies in Sydney.

Slowly the wind turned back towards the NW, but there were still 40 degree shifts, and 4 – 20 knots on the course, so we were put on hold. Around 1:30 the AP was dropped, and it was a mad scamble to rig and get out on the course. The start boat was about 1 km out to sea. Reduced to one 530, mast management has become an issue, and as you all know, I’m not the fastest rigger. To cut a long story short I missed that race, so a DNF for me.  Sean got to the start late, and managed a result in the mid forties. He said there was still massive shifts, and large patches of no wind.

Jason scored a 48th, but has withdrawn from the race, as he did not complete the course.

Allison broke a mast on the way out to the start, she also got a DNF.

We were put on hold again, so it was back to the sit and wait.  Arnon began telling stories over the PA of his early days in the PWA, and first world championship.  Something about sharing a shower with Jamie Lever. Very entertaining….but what happens on tour stays on tour.

The wind started to build from the NW, just before the start it was 14 – 20 knots, so I had my 10.7 ready, but rigged Sam Parker style on a 580 bottom.  Just as I hit the water, the wind increased to 25 – 30 + knots. I sailed out to the start, but really had no control, so I watched the fleet start, and sailed back to the beach. Sean also on his 11.0 was doing quite well, and was sitting in 10th at the bottom mark, but some one clipped his boom and he went for a swim. Jason sailed really well to finish in 57th.

Allison re-rigged on her torn 9.8 blizted the fleet.  She had a very commanding lead for most of the race, but only just won it in the end by 20 metres.  This has put her in front of the womens fleet.

Quote of the day, When Jason asked Vassilis how he had done, he said “Quite Good I passed some guys in Black Lycra……”

Goodluck to the guys sailing at Marmong this weekend.

Thursday 11th September

This morning it was a little overcast, but the skippers meeting was scheduled for 10:00 am, and first possible start at 11:00 am.

The forecast was for NW 20 knots, b ut at the beach it was 5 knots SE. So the wait began again.

The good news was that Stash-it had sent me some zipper cars for my board bag, so I put those on this morning.

Around 1:30 pm the wind came in with a bang, quickly building to 25 knots in the gusts.

9.8 or 10 was the selection for most of the fleet. I got a reasonable start in the first race, and sailed around at the tail end of the main pack finishing in 63rd. Jason got 70 and Sean a 36. With a lot more pin end bias, 3/4 of the fleet started on port, and Sean got taken by Michel Polanowski.

The wind lightened off at the finish of the second race, so Sean and I quickly rigged our 11.0 and 10.7 sails. Once we got out to the start, I was beginning to regret that, but I still managed to geta around in 58th spot. Sean again was taken out at the start and finished in 32, Jason in 70.

The third race I was back to my 9.8, but Sean decided he was more comfortable and faster on his 11.0. The wind kicked a few extra knots, so the runs were pretty exciting to say the least. I finished in 56th, Sean in 27, and Jason in 64.

The fourth race, I decided to add a little downhaul, as by now the body was getting pretty tired. I rounded the top mark mid fleet, and noticed I was in front of Dennis Littel. Sean had a great clear start for a change and rounded in about 8th. I finished up in 57th, so I seem pretty consistent, but looking for a few higher results in the last few days. Sean had a great result in 14, and unfortunately Jason broke a harness line and DNF’ed

Allison showed wy she is a three time world champion, by taking three bullets today, by considerable margins. She is now leading the women’s on count back.

Other notable items from today. Markus Bouman sailed all day on a 9.2, and in true Aussie fashion, he had the piss taken out of him all dinner. Even the girls used bigger sails then him today.

Jesper did not have a great day. At one point Alberto Menengetti catapaulted right into him. I also noticed he had a huge chunk out of the nose of the board at the end of the day.

There are only six possible races left. So hopefully the body will hold up another couple of days. The main issue seems to be hands and feet at the moment.

Tomorrow forecast is for more wind, so we are expecting 25 – 30 knots……

Wednesday 10th September

Correction to yesterdays report, Jesper was second across the line behind Gonzalo.

This morning was another clear blue sky day. The forecast on Windfinder was for 11 knots.

Yesterday I didn’t mention perhaps the most important item. The lycra was handed out yesterday, and the top twenty were given black, whilst the rest were given white. The lycra is a “One size fits all”. Except they are about a womens size zero!!! Can you imagine what the likes of giants like Arnon Dagan, or Dennis Littel look like in a tight lycra top which barely covers their chest?

The guys were first on the course today around 2:00 pm. The wind kicked in to around 15 knots for the start of the first race, so 10.7 and 11 metre sails were rigged.

I got a half decent start and sailed in clear air, but still only managed a 59. The second race again I got a first row start, but again only a 60th.

The women were up next. By this stage the wind was now gusting to 20 knots. Allison scored a 2nd, but then found her groove and ran away with the victory in the womens fourth race.

The men were sent out again. The wind was by a solid 18 – 20 knots, so most men were now on 9.8 or 10 metre sails.

I’m not sure what happened in this race, as I broke a mast 30 seconds after the start. More drama happend as Remi Villa was hit by another competitior, and was taken off to hospital on a back board and neck brace. Thankfully its been reported he has no major injuries, just bad bruising.

I managed to quickly re-rig with my now 5 year old 530, and got around the course in around 59th in the still increasing wind.

After yesterdays races

Sean is in 29th overall with19, 35, 28, 36

I’m in 67th with 59, 60, dnf, 59

Jason in 76th with 78, 75, 73, 67

Allison is in 2nd with 2, 3, 2, 1

Wojtek had 3 bullets today, and is in second place, with Gonzalo still leading overall.

The FWC AGM took place after racing. The 3, 3, 1 rule remains, as does the 2 year registration of boards, and a new committee was elected. The minutes of the meeting will be posted at www.formulawindsurfing.org shortly.

The forecast for tomorrow is for 25 knots, and then even more for Friday…..looks like the 9.8 and 68 cm fin will be getting a workout for the next couple of days.

Tuesday 9th September

Today was the day we’d all been looking forward to. The forecast wasn’t great, but the day began with beautiful blue skies.

After putting on the sponsor stickers, and fixing a few fins (I think I’d better start charging for this service) we pretty much sat around in the hot sun, trying to stay hydrated. Lunch packs came out, a ham and lettuce baguette, mars bar, banana, juice and water.

Around the scheduled start time of 3:00pm a light wind started to filter through. By 4:00 pm the girls were off on their first race. Allison got jammed up at the start, and had it all to do in front of her. She managed to come through for a second right at the finish. Marta Hlavaty in first. The second women’s race and Allison again looked to be struggling off the start line, but finished in a respectable third place.

The men were up next. There’s only 85 entries, so just like Melbourne in 2005, I’ve already achieved my goal of making the Gold fleet.

There were two general recalls, and at the third start the black flag was raised. The first two starts I got off the line in the first row in clear air, unfortunately in the start that counted I got buried, and left on the line. I’ve no idea where I finished, but it was much closer to the tail end then the front.

Jason had a clear start at the pin end, but struggled for power as the wind lightened on the second lap.

Seany Boy, had a clear start mid line, and was pacing the eventual 5th place finisher, Alberto Menengetti. He then tacked onto the port lay line, but copped bad air, and went quickly down to about 25th.

Gonzalo was the eventual winner, I’m not sure about the minor placings, I was too far back.

Jesper Vesterstrom was actually first across the finish line, but he forgot he should have been on Portuguese time, and was OCS.

Kook of the day goes to Seany Boy. In the second start, he shot off the line like a rocket, in clear space and air……but he was a minute early, lucky for him it was a general recall.

So for the Aussies, “The Only Way is Up…..”

Vassilis, or Basil finished midfleet, by doing a half Rick and sticking in an untried K70 for the race.

Markus Bouman used a standard K70 to finish just behind Sean, after also getting buried at the start.

So we went out for dinner after the last race had finished, and the opening ceremony by Moonlight. Here we really experienced Portuguese time, pizza and pasta took around 2 hours after we had ordered. Now its time for a long shower and bed.

Monday 8th September

Another beautiful morning in paradise. Clear skies brought promise of another thermal breeze in the afternoon. Jason Roditis, and Vassilis, the real Greek Champion, arrived this morning in the tallest van you have ever seen. I reckon I could almost stand my 11.8 in it.

It was registration day, so down to the beach to have all of the gear inspected. Luckily I got there before the hordes, so it was rather painless. The rest of the day was spent having lunch and then fixing a few dings in some of our fins. Some of the other competitors were so bored they sat and watched me sanding fins. They really need to get a life!

The wind failed to materialise so there was not much else to report.

Dinner was with Jesper Vesterstrom and his girlfriend, oops I mean coach, Skip, and his training partner Kasper, as well as our roomies Jason and Vassilis.

The big event starts tomorrow, hopefully I’ll have the energy to post an update after racing.

PS. Vassilis will now be known as Basil, or Baz.

Sunday 7th September

I woke up today to a bright blue sky day, the Atlantic was shimmering in the sun. The forecast was calling for 10 knots around 4 pm.

Tam and I moved from the cozy hotel room, to a very spacious and luxurious apartment that Jason Roditis had arranged.

The apartment is 2 km from the beach, so we thought we’d try walking down at lunch time. The roads here aren’t sign posted well, and not all streets appear to have names. It was more Labyrinth then suburb. About an hour later we finally made it to lunch, and ironically walked right past the cozy hotel.

The wind kicked in around 2 pm, and it was a steady 12 – 15 knots SW. You could see all of the different teams tuning up together. Some were brand based, others by country. The Australians all tuned up together, with a token Dutch sailor, Markus Bouman, and Steve Bodner from the US.

I think I figured out the cross over point between the cutdown and standard fin, but in the right conditions, I seemed to be holding my own upwind. Downwind Markus and Steve were flying on their F2’s.

Allison also made some significant improvement, and looks as though she has found the ideal fin.

I caught up with the “Viking” Jesper Vesterstrom. He told me he was flying, and from what I saw on the water, I don’t doubt what he is saying.

The equipment tent is now over flowing with gear, I’d hate to imagine how many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of top of the line equipment is in there. As expected there are many Kashy fins around, and a few Deb’s and Hurricanes. VMG Blades are well represented by the Aussies, the occasional Nordic, Aussie/Greek, and possibly dutch sailors.

Boards seem evenly spread between F2, Vapor, and Starboard. Sails are mostly Neil Pryde, but quite a few Maui, and Gaastra sails can be seen around as well.

Tomorrow is registration, and the last chance for any final tuning before racing starts on Tuesday 3pm local time. That’s about midnight for you guys at home.

Saturday 6th September

We woke up to overcast skies and light rain. It didn’t look like we would get any useful sailing in today. The forecast was for around 6 knots.
Overnight news was that both Antoine Albeau, and Steve Allen would not be attending. Antoine looks like he is attending a trade show, and Steve Allen is competing in Polands version of “Dancing with the stars”.

The equipment tent was put up this morning, so we were able to hijack one of the event utes, and move our equipment in around lunch time. I then took the opportunity to do a bit of gear maintenance. By this stage most of the top pros had arrived, and the tent was filling up fast.

Quite late around 5:30pm a light cross offshore breeze came in, around 7 – 10 knots. I went out and with my 11.8, and a softer VMG Blades K70. This setup was ok when powered up, but in the lighter stuff, it wasn’t as good, as the standard K70. I was able to quickly line up with some of the top guys, and I was almost hanging with them, until another sailor came down over the top, and gassed me. I still have a cutdown to test, hopefully we’ll get some more wind tomorrow. I also did some two boat testing with Allison, so that she could choose which fins she is going to register. Looking like she is going to choose a couple of VMG Blades K70’s along with her FOD kit. Sean chose not to sail today, he is happy with his two VMG Blades K70’s, and also has done quite a bit of sailing in the last month.

Dinner tonight was again in Alvor.  A bigger group tonight, Sean’s manager, Kate, had arrived, as well as James from Guernsey, and our old friend Magne from Norway. 

Friday 5th September

Off on another adventure across the world with my Formula kit.  I was hoping for the same luck with excess baggage as my last trip to Malaysia…….but it was not to be.  A smalll fortune later and my gear was accepted on the flight, and I was on my way.

 Thirty six hours of travelling, and Tam won the race to the baggage carousel.  The go around landing had cost precious minutes,  Tam’s plane from Zurich landed before me, and she was at the carousel 30 seconds before me.  Oh well, it was fantastic to finally catchup with her halfway through her around the world trip.

 The baggage handlers must have been having a coffee and Pasteis De Natas (Portuguese Custard Tart) between each bag, as it took an hour for our bags to come out.  One hour later (2 hours) my equipment had not arrived, and we found out it had not made it through the transfer in Frankfurt, but was due on the afternoon flight.  The next morning the lost luggage office could still not confirm if my equipment had arrived, so we decided to head to the airport and find it ourselves.  4 Hours later, I finally found it…..both zippers had been torn off my board bag, and the gear was strewn all over a trolley.  I knew something wasn’t right because I could see the deck of my 162 from 30 m away,  a couple of holes in the board, and it looked like my brand new X9 Boom had been dragged along the ground, but I was so relieved to at least have my equipment.

My plans of leaving it in storage for a couple of days while Tam and I did the tourist thing around Lisbon were soon scuppered when the attendent shrugged his shoulders and said “It’s Full”.   So a 38 Euro mini bus ride to the hotel, and our luck took a turn for the better.  The General Manager of the hotel, Joao, is a new windsurfer, and was more than happy to store it, and even helped carry it for me.

Tam and I spent the next few days sightseeing.  Really interesting 15th century monestary,  12 century castle, and the Maritime museum were highlights. Of course the Coffee and Portugese tarts were delicious, especially at only $1.50 AUD each.  I even managed to drag Tam down the Lisbon Downtown Worldcup Mountain bike course…..on foot. 

Late  Wednesday night, New “Greek National Champion”, Sean O’Brien, straight off the plane from Greece, and then 24 hours of driving from Belguim dropped by to pick up my equipment.  Huge thanks to Sean and Markus Bouman for transporting my gear down to Portimao.  It was a tight squeeze, but we managed to get it all in, in addition to the 7 other sets of formula gear already in Markus’s van.

 Tam and I caught a train down to Portimao the next morning, and we arrived just after lunch where Sean met us and then drove us into town.  We dropped off all of our gear in the temporary storage at the event hotel.  Next job on the list was to find some accomodation for a few days.  Our Greek/Aussie mate, Jason Roditis, had arranged an apartment, but we wouldn’t get access for another few days.   Sean, Tam and I are currently squeezing into a small double hotel room, and Sean’s manager will join us for the night tomorrow.

 Friday morning  buffet breakfast in the hotel, then down to the beach to repair my board, and then on the water to test some fins.  Just as I hit the water, it occurred to me that this is the first time I had put a toe in the Atlantic Ocean. The wind was a nice S 10 – 12 knots.  We saw Allison, a Brazilian and a Polish guy on the water.  Sean was testing the new VMG Blades 72 cutdown I had just built for him, and I was on the trusty fin I had been training on all winter.  12.0 and 11.8 sails were the order of the day.   I know my equipment had been going very well at home testing with Sam Parker, and Sam I hate to tell you, but Sean is going at least as fast as us with the new fin.  Only a short session and we got off the water as a bit of a storm came through and killed the wind.  I’m pretty happy that my setup seems to be working over here,  but I do have another couple of fins to test before the first race next Tuesday afternoon.  Oddest thing was that there was only around 8 sailors in total out training today, seems a bit odd this close to the start of the regatta.

After sailing Sean did his best Zohan impression, and gave me a haircut……Tibor, if you’re reading, I hope you’re coming down to Portimao. 

Tonight we went into Alvor for dinner. I sampled some genuine Piri Piri chicken, fantastic.  The strangest thing we saw was a souvenir shop selling boomerangs!!! 

Tomorrow the wind is forecast to be good so we’ll be out testing some more fins.

 Chris