Sailing Blog
Melges 32 – St. Thomas Rolex Regatta »
March 21, 2013
Getting back into the routine of doing daily recaps from regattas has been harder than I anticipated. It is probably similar to going back to the gym after a lengthy stint away and despite the gusto to get ripped like AP, you find yourself in the steamroom after a brisk 10 minutes on the eliptical.
Since the last report from the Melges 32 event in Virgin Gorda, it has been a busy couple of weeks with racing Melges 20s in Miami with Jim Wilson on Oleander, and now back in St.Thomas for the 2nd M32 Carribean Series event. With just 9 boats competing, the fleet will once again be smaller than anticipated, but with no weak teams, there is no shortage of action . As we found in the previous event, the fleets seems to travel around the course together in a tight pack, and a small duck, bad tack or gybe doesn’t cost you a few lengths, but 3-4 boats. And with a small fleet, the racing will go down to the wire as it is always hard to put many points on your competition.
As for St. Thomas, the scenery and sailing down here is unreal. The Volpe and Delta teams arrived on Tuesday and locked ourselves in our hotel rooms as going out on the town only would have been temptation to eat and drink before our weigh-ins on Weds morning. With our team being tight on weight, and after missing my target weight by +5 pounds the previous event, I was on double secret probation and would have not been a good career move being over again. The weigh-ins are painful couple of days, but in the end it is ultimately my fault for pounding too many chicken wings while watching football this winter and getting to a weight of 204 instead of being closer to my target of 189.
We were a quiet boat heading out for the first day of practice, rehydrating and feeding, but with a quick look around at the scenery and being on a fun boat sailing down-wind in the trade winds, it doesn’t take long to get the positive vibes rolling. It should be a good week of sailing, and being based out of the St. Thomas Yacht Club is awesome. This club has an island feel to it, in an amazing location and they understand the sailors are there to race hard and have fun and they do and great job of providing both.
Racing starts on Friday with 4 races scheduled, stay tuned for results and photos from St. Thomas.
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