Poor starts but second overall

Andy Beadsworth reports on progress within the Star class at the Holland regatta

Races 3 and 4: Wind - 8-10 knots occasionally 14.170-190°

Race 3

It appears the race committee are doing a fine job of getting the premature starters without recourse to General Recalls. Over half the Star fleet were named and shamed. We were buried in the second row and still got caught.

Anxiety was high, no more OCS'

Again in race three the start line was heavily biased to the right end. We lined up late but got drawn up to the line. An individual recall was signalled, those on the front row of the group we were in were definitely over, however were we????? IS the whole fleet over??? It is so difficult to know where the line is when you are buried in the second row. A few went back but we ploughed on after deciding we were probably okay.

With a poor start we struggled to get clear air, sailing against the shift to find a lane. Eventually we found one and settled in. We were in the last half of the fleet, in good company but it doesn't help much. Hopefully there would be lots of numbers on display at the windward mark, but not ours. There was not. None!!! At least we were not over.

A good run got us back in the hunt around 6th at the leeward mark although we dropped back having to tack left for clear air. By the top mark we were back in 6th with some breathing space behind. Loof gybed at the offset while the Germans Rotterman sailed high. We took the middle route and gained all the way to the finish with four boats crossing within half a length. It was not quite enough. We were fifth. Half a length from second. Great Racing!!!!

Race 4

A more even line for this race so we opted to start away from trouble down the line. It was not a great start and an individual recall was again signalled. Although not certain, we were confident that we were safe this time. However we were in terrible shape with a boat ahead and tight to leeward with another boat reaching over the top of us and no tack option.

Eventually we tacked and dipped almost the whole fleet. Very frustrated!!!! At the top mark we were around 10, 11 - a recovery of sorts At the leeward mark we were fourth close with Kusznierewicz - good tactics but amazing speed. We certainly seemed to have good downwind speed today in 8025. Kusznierewicz had a problem and had a poor rounding and we footed through his lee. The top two Loof and Stanjek were well ahead. We closed them down but nowhere near enough to attack down the run, however we did open up a bit of a cushion on the boats behind and finished third.

A good day considering. It could have been worse. We recovered well from poor starts. Confidence was high and a good atmosphere in the boat working hard. Our speed upwind was okay, but we were struggling for height a little in the first race. A change in the mast rake sorted that for the second race.

Overall we are now second with one discard, almost half way through. If we get nine races we will get a second discard. We will need to sail well to close Loof down currently 5 points ahead but discarding a third.

We need to keep beating him. All to play for.

Andy and Freddie

Results:

Pos	Helm		Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot
1	Fredrik	Loof	Anders Ekstrom	SWE	2	1	3	1	4
2	Andy	Beasdworth	David Carr	GBR	1	OCS	5	3	9
3	Mateusz	Kusznierewicz	Dominik Zycki	POL	5	OCS	1	4	10
4	Robert	Stanjek	Markus Koy	GER	3	OCS	6	2	11
5	Maurice	O'Connell	Ed Peel	IRL	4	2	7	12	13
6	Matthias	Miller	Frithjof Kleen	GER	8	OCS	2	5	15
7	Mahesh	Ramchandran	Nitin Mongia	IND	6	3	13	9	18
8	Philipp	Rotermund	Fendt Florian	GER	7	OCS	4	8	19
9	Hein	Dijksterhuis	Marc van Bemmel	NED	14	5	9	6	20
10	Christian	Monberg	Martin Leifelt	DEN	9	OCS	8	10	27
11	Marc	Blees	Gert van der Heijden	NED	13	4	16	11	28
12	Alwin	van Daelen	Peter Peet	NED	10	OCS	12	7	29
13	Albert s.	Ekels	Siebe C. Ekels	NED	11	8	14	19	33
14	Chris	Frijdal	Edens Rob	NED	12	7	15	18	34
15	Arie	van Harwegen den b	Brad Nichol	NED	16	9	21	13	38
16	Cees	van Grieken	Van de Pavert Johan	NED	15	OCS	10	15	40
17	Han	Bergsma	Remco Beernink	NED	17	6	20	21	43
18	Alberto	Barovier	Nando Collanino	ITA	DNF	DNF	11	14	48
19	Henrik	Dannesboe	Ramis Fayzullin	SUI	18	OCS	19	17	54
20	Vasyl	Gureyev	Korotkov Volodymyr	UKR	DNF	DNF	18	16	57
21	Sander	Jorissen	Veldhuizen Erik	NED	DNF	DNF	17	20	60
22	Ante	Razmilovic	John Tremlett	GBR	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	69