Racing cancelled for 12s

But a practice race was held, reports Andy Rice from an event-filled day on board Flica II

Sunday's racing was bigger than anyone had expected. The first proper day of the America's Cup Jubilee was evil, winds up to 28 knots gusting off the Isle of Wight shore.

We got up early at the Flica II base camp above Pascall Atkey, the famous chandlery in Cowes High Street. Meeting down at our black 12-metre yacht at 0730, we put in some last-minute preparations before heading out into a blustery, rainy, dull-grey Solent - not an inviting prospect.

With no engine on the yacht we are totally reliant on the seamanship of our crew on our matching black classic motor yacht, Orn, which dutifully tows us to the start line each day. Hoisting the mainsail in the lee of Norris Castle we bore away down to the start near Lee on Solent.

The wind was already whistling, and on our practice run upwind the mid-deck was getting drenched as a constant 9-knot wall of water did its best to wrench the leeward grinders and trimmers off their feet. With no guardrails and few foot- or hand-holds, there is little to keep you attached to the deck, as we were later to discover to our cost.

Flica II was staggering upwind as we took her on a practice run. Thierry Peponnet, our resident Olympic Champion, called for a reef in the brand new but old-tech Dacron mainsail. This was not a straightforward task and by the time the crew had fought to control the flailing mainsail, the Grand Prix class of 12s had already begun their practice race.

Eventually we bore away but had left ourselves little time for pre-start preparation. We already had a strategy in mind, to hit the island shore as fast as possible, so our owner and helmsman Alex Falk manoeuvred Flica to leeward of the fleet at the pin end of the long start line. We didn't have much pace as the gun went, but a minute after the start we had eked out some space ahead and to leeward of the fleet.
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