Notes from a Race Committee - Wayne Bretsch Tells All

After racing on a difficult day one of the Volvo Melges 24 World Championship in Porto Cervo Race Committee member Wayne Bretsch, Hank Stuart’s number two on Course B, reported:-

We got race one underway cleanly at the first attempt in 14-16 knots from 120 degrees and the competitors had a great first leg, but the wind had dropped down to under 5 knots by the second run making for a difficult approach to the finish.

Between races we were in dramatically shifty and very light wind. The weather mark boat was reporting 18-20 knots from around 115 degrees but at the committee boat end we had as little as 5 knots from 060 degrees. We waited, tried to start, postponed relatively fast, could see the wind on the water that the weather mark boat was reporting and waited for it to hit us, which it did with a vengeance at about 18 knots from 125 degrees. We started the race clean, but a big hole developed at the weather mark and some boats found themselves completely stationary under spinnaker. The first run was relatively light but at the signal boat we had 15 knots. We moved the weather mark to 105 and shortened eventually finishing the race downwind.

It was a rough day for the competitors and it was a rough day for the race committee and the mark boats. The mark guys in particular did an outstanding job of reporting wind and putting marks in very accurately at short notice.