Just got finished today with my first match racing a pair of Swedish Match 40's. We had five rotating teams of four sailors. One team was the Russian match racing team and their skipper is ranked # 13 in the world. We lost to this team but held on to win the silver beating all the other teams.
What a fantastic experience to be racing these magnificent boats with an umpire boat calling the fouls and a committee boat setting the races.
We went through the 'dial up' in pre-start as they do in Americas Cup racing sailing in circles and bring the boats head to wind and holding position for minutes at a time to see who could gain an advantage.
The owner of these boats owns no less than six of them at a cool $250K each. He also owns a number of other boats and a fleet of Shields which we race on alternate days.
Racing again tomorrow and I can't wait to get back out there, WOW!!
What a fantastic experience to be racing these magnificent boats with an umpire boat calling the fouls and a committee boat setting the races.
We went through the 'dial up' in pre-start as they do in Americas Cup racing sailing in circles and bring the boats head to wind and holding position for minutes at a time to see who could gain an advantage.
The owner of these boats owns no less than six of them at a cool $250K each. He also owns a number of other boats and a fleet of Shields which we race on alternate days.
Racing again tomorrow and I can't wait to get back out there, WOW!!