Andrew Campbell

Third Day of Hyeres Blown Out

April 22nd, 2008 in Regattas.

 Yet another day of breeze greeted us here in Hyeres, but unfortunately another day of racing would not materialize. The race committee had all classes postponed ashore at 10 o’clock when many sailors would have been ready to go sailing. Tension built throughout the regatta center when the first announcements came over the loudspeakers in French to announce the committee’s intentions. Some classes and sailors were clearly happy with their Gold-fleet-qualifying scores and having their equipment remain intact by staying off the water for the big wind. Other classes and sailors on the cusp of making the break out of Silver position were poised to jump at a moments notice into their boats and around the racecourse to take their try at improving their standings. As the english translations passed through the loudspeakers apparent disappointment, relief and bewilderment made their way around the faces of the crowd. All classes but the Laser, Laser Radial, the RS:X men and the 470 men were abandoned for the rest of the day, but the remaining four were to standby for further directions.The next move by the race committee shocked many of us. They left the Lasers and RS:X postponed and sent the 470s well offshore to their normal racecourse and the Radial girls to an inshore course but nonetheless into the elements.We went back to the house to wait another hour or so for the instructions about our start time and watched the carnage unfold. As the fleet sailed downwind to the racecourses the wind picked up from a steady 25 knots to an overpowering 28-35 knots. The wind blew. The sailors zipped around ragging their sails and doing their best to stay upright. The race committee reneged on their ambitions of starting, and the fleets struggled back to the dock in 40 knot gusts and legendary conditions. Even with the breeze coming over the flat beach the waves picked up quickly into white caps in as quickly as fifty yards from the beach.As the 470s and Radials pulled out of the water, all the AP flags were replaced with AP over A flag signaling the end of racing for the day. It was an interesting call to abandon any chance of racing at noon because of the possibility of the wind dying late in the evening. I should say it was an interesting call until a local French sailor informed us that the weather report from Marseilles, fifty miles upwind of our location, the wind was blowing 40-50 knots and heading our way.Instead of racing a few of the Finn boys came by the house where we are staying and we played a few rounds of bocce and a round of our board game of choice: Corner the Market (an improved Monopoly spinoff). The competition never stops. As soon as the boatwork was finished this afternoon, the Chess boards and Backgammon dice come out, the Soccer matches start, and the Hearts and Cribbage take over. The wind never backed down and is supposed to continue through the evening and into tomorrow. We will wait and see, but I’m not sure many of us want to wait much longer. Racing is what we came for and racing is what we’ll have.More to come from CampbellSailing.com. Results and great photos of today’s chaos at: http://sof.ffvoile.net/index.php?page=5

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