Last Day: No wind, no racing, Closing Ceremony

After an early launch, to get the maximum chance of a race in what was forecast to be at best just a light breeze, the sailors waited afloat for some 3 hours before being sent home with no racing. Such a pity to have lost a 3rd day of racing. Therefore, the results were decided with just 7 races sailed and with 1 discard.

From the AUS contingent, Carolina ended up 66 in the girl's fleet of 101 and Tom ended 64th in the boys fleet of 146. Although our results should and could have been better, we felt that, given the depth of competition and standard thoughout the whole fleet we were not disappointed. One success was the sharing of coaching resources with the NZL team which worked out really well and added greatly to the experience for the AUS sailors, both from the quality of coaching, the off water attention receive from Suzanah and the sense of team spirit.

All that was left was to pack away and attend the closing ceremony after which the kids spent the evening through to the early hours having fun, swapping T-shirts, collecting souvenirs and having a great time with newly found friends.

We all reflected on what was a supurbly oganised regatta, what could have been in the results and how we hope for some better winds the next time.

The next day we were up at 4am for a day's sightseeing in Berlin and to begin the long journey home.

Thursday - No racing

With our sailors all needing some good results today, it was a real disappointment to wait the whole day for wind without any luck. As this was forecast, it was no real surprise, but nevertheless a real disappointment as this was the 2 day of no racing for this regatta.

Even with this setback, all the sailors amused themselves, with lots of shirt swapping and inter-nation camaradare. Plenty of amusement was gained with the small sails that the kids obtained from J-Sails. They passed from team to team collecting signatures and boat numbers on the sails, and making friends on the way!

Day 4: Variable conditions

Today started with windy conditions of 15 knots just like yesterday, to the pleasure of Tom and the larger Kiwis but to the frustration of Carolina and Ellie.

It was an early start with everyone sailing out to the race course by 10am. It was a day of mixed results for both Aussie and Kiwi sailors but overall the girls out did the boys both moving up 10 places overall.

The winds dropped all day ending with about 8knots. As it dropped it became very shifty and hard for the sailors to read. Again, starting was everything, but this has now registered with our sailors (both Kiwis and Aussies).

All the sailors have made huge improvements with the starts but they definitely aren’t as aggressive as the European - this shows as I think we must be the only team left with no OCS’s or Black flags.

Today we only managed to get two races due to numerous general recalls including black flag generals where some sailors collected their 3rd OCS.

Carolina managed a great start in race 2 which had her 3rd round the top mark. She held this through the offwing legs and then just slipped to 10th on the shifty final upwind leg to the finish. A real confidence booster.

Carolina 30th 10th moved up to 65th
Ellie 16th 25th moved up to 83rd
Tom 43rd 49th placed 65th
Zak 48th 34th placed 86th
Ken 39th 66th placed 99th
Jack 66th 63rd placed 105th
Boys’ fleet has 145 sailors. Girls’ fleet has 101 sailors.

Back to a 12pm start tomorrow. They are expecting light sea breezes for the next two days so it maybe challenging to get all 12 races in.
Thx to Jan and Susannah for much of the report.

Australian Wins Race at Opti Europeans!

Tom Trottman revelled in the breezy conditions of the first 2 of the 3 races today, scoring a 1st & 5th place.

A reasonable start near the pin, followed by early clear air to the left, gave Tom the chance to work the shifts up the left hand side of the couse, rounding the top mark in the lead. He confidentely held off the attacking German on the down-wind and then sailed a sensible last leg to clinch the what is possibly the first ever race win by an Aussie at an Opti Europeans.

With winds in the first 2 races up near 18 knots, Carolina struggled a bit with the conditions. Starts were everything, and it all seemed so obvious to parents tucked comfortably in the club house watching on PCs using the GPS tracker, coffee in one hand and mouse in the other!

An errant starter bearing down in the last few seconds cost Tom's start in race 3, and so spoiled what could have been the best score line in the fleet today. Carolina fared better in the 3rd race; getting into the race at the start and mixing it with the fleet whilst benefitting from slighly lighter conditions.

Photo above: Zak, Tom, Carolina, Ellie and (seated) joint Kiwi/Aus coach Suzanah.

After overnight rain, todays winds bought a cold chill to the race area - quite a new experience for our sailors and the first time - especially in summer time. Anyway, apparently this is nothing for some of the nations here - we learnt that the Finns, who normally sail on the other side of the Baltic sea from here stop sailing in November every year, only when the ocean freezes. Imagine that in Fremantle!

Carolina - packing away after a windy day.

Regatta centre in Kamien Pomorski

More stories from today's AUS/NZ team on Facebook at "NZL/AUS Team Opti Europeans 2010"

Day 2 - in the end no racing

Sailors went afloat full of expectations but, despite wind to sail, it was not stable enough for the Race Officer to get a reliable course set.

After a few hours the boats came back ashore and waited for 2 hours. All were entertained by clowns and a small fun fare that had been erected for the sailors.

By 5pm racing was cancelled for the day. Young European sailors showed their ski queue decorum (sic) as 200+ sailors attempted to put their sails into the sail shed all at the same time.

We got back to the hotel for a swim!

The dark blue Aussie team shirts are a hit! All the kids are desperate to swap for an Aussie shirt; so Carolina & Tom can name their price. On the subject of team gear, there are some impressively dressed countries, where suppliers & national federations have teamed-up to provide some smart kit for the teams, including smart Musto offshore jackets for the Japs and Germans that must cost a fortune and are totally unsuitable for the >25C conditions but will be great here in 6 months time!

2nd day racing not enough wind

Day 2 under way, but on-water delays whilst we wait for some more wind.

After the late finish yesterday, Suzanah skipped the debrief so that the sailors could get to bed and then gave a good onshore brief this morning.

There was lots of shoving to get the boats launched, seeming as though the racing and international rivalry had started before we got to the water.

Regatta day 1

Today was the start of the regatta proper. After an earlier breakfast, we went by bus to the regatta site and set up for the first 2 races. It turned out to be a long day with a total of approx 6 hrs on the water as there was not much wind.

The sailors were divided into flights, installed their GPS trackers and were away. However, after 40 mins on the water, we found that a simple mistake had been made in the fleet allocation, with one Israli girl being allocated to a boys fleet. This impacted all fleet allocations for countries below 'I' alphabetically, so coaches needed to come ashore to collect new ribbons. Meanwhile, the wind dropped off and sailors came ashore.

After 30mins wait, wind filled in and everybody relaunched for racing. The day never got beyond a light breeze, but there was enough to get all 4 fleets away for 2 races.

Both of our sailors suffered from poor starts as did the Kiwis, but appeared to have good boat-speed. Carolina got a 37th and 16th in girls fleet & Tom 39th & 48th in boys fleet. Nothing to be proud of today, but let's hope we can get some better starts tomorrow! Clearly, this is the area to improve on as everybody in the fleet was sharp on the line and well coached in starting.

Check event website for full results lists at http://europti.home.pl/allresults.html

See some event photos at http://www.europti2010.pl/gallery/6-first-day-of-the-race.html

Adults spent the afternoon trying to track the racing via the big screen GPS coverage in the press office or watching the live video feed of the racing on giant screens at the venue. One giant screen was set up alongside the stage in the town square where full orchestra was rehearsing for an outdoors classical concert tonight.

Nobody I spoke to had ever listened to a live orchestra whilst watching live racing on on-shore screens and tracking postions on laptops. Quite a display of technology by the Polish organisers!