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15 April 2011
Extreme Sailing Series - Qingdao
I told you it would be crazy! But THIS crazy?
This is only our second event as a team in the Extreme Sailing Series, but
we already know what to expect in "Stadium Racing”. Short courses, plenty of
excitement and plenty of randomness. But now we have a new word to add to
the description: “carnage”!
It was a unique day in every respect. When we first got out to the course
right under the city's skyscrapers there was no wind. The whole city was
shrouded in fog. Every 30 seconds there was a freezing puff of wind from the
sea...then 30 seconds later there was a hot wind that suddenly shot out of
the city! It was crazy. You just knew this was going to be a day to
remember.
We started the first race in the cold breeze from the sea. At one of the
marks “The Wave, Muscat” crashed into “Oman Air”, suffice to say that
neither boat finished that race.
Then for the second race the city breeze made its intentions known! It took
everybody by surprise – none more than “The Wave, Muscat”. They were
sailing downwind at high speed when suddenly a huge gust pushed their bows
down. We all watched as they did a full nose dive in front of us. Then we
saw all the crew falling through the sky towards the mast and indexsail which
were both now in the water. It was scary to watch. Then it got worse. As the
guys landed in the water, we heard the sickening sound of cracking carbon
fibre as the mast broke. This allowed the hulls to fall on top of the crew
that were in the water. Thankfully, they were not seriously injured, but
they were definitely shaken! This was the end of their day. The boat and
sails were towed upside down all the way back to the dock. As I write this
the boat is tied up on the same marina as this morning, but still completely
upside down!
As if that wasn’t enough carnage for the day, there were three more
capsizes! In the last race of the day “Red Bull Extreme Sailing” capsized.
But this time instead of turning all the way upside down, the top of their
mast got stuck in the mud and after some pretty good work from the safety
boats they were able to right the boat....with mast and sails intact! Lucky
them. Right now they are at the top of their mast pouring water down it to
try to flush the mud out!
Two more teams fell prey to a capsize in the last race. “Oman Air” had come
back out to the race course after rushing one of their crew to the hospital.
They flipped out in the deep water. As did “GAC Pindar”. As I write this
those two teams are still out there in the cold, with their boats upside
down.
A long night ahead for all of these teams as they try to get back out for
racing tomorrow.
We had a better day onboard Artemis Racing. We sailed better as a team and
not only got the boat around the course without too many mishaps, we managed
a 7,7,4,4 which was a solid improvement on yesterday.
We have two more days of stadium racing to complete this event. Something
tells me there are more crazy moments to come....just hard to believe any of
them could be as wild as today!
Morgan Trubovich
Trimmer
Artemis Racing
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