1999 J-24 World Championship
by Bill Fastiggi
(Bill is sailing with Alberto Gonzales Mas from Chile
Day Five
Light air today – only one race sailed. A bad race for us – we sailed our worst race. We got caught on the wrong side of the shift on the first beat and were in very bad shape at the windward mark. Trying desperate things to catch up, but weren’t successful.
We ended up 11th for the series…
1 Vasco Vascotti 13 points
2 Lorenzo Brassini 18 pts
3 Tim Healy 27 pts
4 Juan Grimaldi 29
5 Roberto martinez 32
6 Flavio Flavini 37
7 Andrea Riboli 41
8 Serguei Chevstov 49
9 Luigi Ravioli 51
10 Gianfrancoe Noe 58
11 Alberto Gonzales Mas 61 The finishes we counted were 4,5,26,3,23
Day Four
No Races today. A long day on the water with no racing.
Tomorrow is last day. If we race, top 5 is still within reach.
Day Three
Not a great day for us overall. Breeze again was out of the North – we had 3 races. Vasco Vascotti now has a commanding lead in the regatta.
Race 1 we didn’t have a great start, but were able to hold our lane for a long time. The boat to leeward finally worked out ahead and crossed. We were looking somewhere near 10 or 12 until a big right shift about 2/3 up the beat. We tacked ahead and to leeward of the big pack of boats, and unfortunately the breeze stayed right with a lot more pressure and we rounded about 30th. We caught up again some downwind, had an excellent leeward mark rounding and sailed a long port tack lift toward the right side. Again we were on the outside of what was a persistant shift for the leg and rounded the windward mark about 35th. We finally sailed the last beat correctly and passed a bunch of boats to finish 26th. Pretty discouraging.
Race 2 we started near the boat and were able to tack to the right early, sailing to leeward of the fleet in good lift. The breeze shifted back about 10 degrees to the right and we were among rounded the windward mark 4th. We sailed most of the race between 4th and 7th and ended up 4th. We felt good about that one.
Race 3 we had quite possibly the worst start immaginable and had to sail in bad air almost all of the beat. We were probably close to 50th at the top mark. We sailed well to get up to about 35th by the leeward mark. It started to get very shifty and crazy and we ended up working our way up to 23rd by the end of the race. We missed two opportunities to move up a few places – one small shift near the end of the second beat and a huge persistant left shift on the last beat.
Overall after 5 races (with one throwout)
1 Vascotti ITA 2,1,1,6,4 8 pts
2 Brasini ITA 1,24,4,2,6 13
3 Grimaldi ARG 10,4,7,11,2 23 pts
4 Martinez ITA 5,9,9,1,15 24 pts
5 Healy USA 8,2,3,20,11 24 pts
6 Noe ITA 9,6,5,9,30 29 pts
7 Ravioli ITA 12,7,17,15,1 35 pts
8 Flavini ITA 11,16,6,43,3 36 pts
9 Gonzales CHI 4,5,26,4,23 36 pts
10 Riboli ITA 6,11,13,10,38 40 pts
David Ogden of Canada (Geoff) was 2nd in the first race today.
Day Two
Wind from the North 14-18 knots in a dying breeze. We got off the line cleanly but could not tack on the first shift. We rounded the first mark about 10th and sailed most of the race in 9-13 place. On the last beat we passed a lot of boats and finished 6th. One boat ahead of us was OCS.
Day 2 results
1 Vascotti ITA
2 Healy USA
3 Chevstov ITA
4 Grimaldi ARG
5 Gonzales CHI
6 Noe ITA
7 Ravioli ITA
8 Chieffi ITA
9 Martinez ITA
10 Iwade JPN
25 Eiffert USA
48 Ogden CAN
OCS Reynolds USA
Totals after 2 races
1 Vascotti ITA 2, 1 3 pts
2 Gonzales CHI 4, 5 9 pts
3 Healy USA 8 ,2 10 pts
4 Iwade JPN 3,10 13 pts
5 Grimaldi ARG 10 ,4 14 pts
6 MArtinez ITA 5, 9 14 pts
7 Noe ITA 7, 9 15 pts
8 Riboli ITA 6,11 17 pts
9 Ravioli ITA 12, 7 19 pts
10 Cruciani ITA 7,17 24 pts
Only one race today – breeze died before start of second race. Start scheduled for one hour earlier. Probably will have 3 races tomorrow.
Day One
Race 1 results – (76 boats)
1 – Bresani ITA
2 – Vascotti ITA
3 – Iwade JPN
4 – Gonzales CHI
5 – Martinez ITA
6 – Riboli ITA
7 – Cruciani ITA
8 – Healy USA
9 – Noe ITA
10 – Grimaldi ARG
11 – Flavini ITA
other of interest:
22 Ogden CAN (Geoff Moore crewing)
34 Eifert USA
53 Adam Zangerle USA
61 Kirk Reynolds USA
Fleet is made up as follows: 21 ITA, 1 Chile, 1 Argentina, 1 Uruguay, 2 Canada, 4 USA, 7 Japan, 2 Australia, 5 sweden, 7 France, 2 Hungary, 5 Germany, 1 Ireland, 7 Great Britain, 5 Netherlands, 3 Monaco, 1 Swiss.
We had a good start and great speed. The breeze was a dying Northerly beginning at 13-15 knots and dying to about 6-8 by the end of the race. We were among the top 3 boats most of the beat and took control late in the leg. We overstood slightly when the last shift was a big right one, allowing one Italian to slip in just at the weather mark. He then had a bad set and had us pinned outside and wouldn’t gybe when the shift came. We lost about 4 boats because of this and sailed most of the race in sixth place. We passed two boats on the final beat – purely on boatspeed.
Practice Day
Today was the practice race. We were very fast in Blade condidtons. We started about 1/3 down from the boat. The breeze went right about 5 degrees and we were still able to stay ahead of all the boats from the right, as well as easily get over the top of the boats to leeward. We played the shifts up the middle and rounded the windward mark about 6 boatlengths ahead of an Italian boat.
We extended down wind and by the second windward mark had a 200 yard lead. We sailed down and continued through the gates, electing not to go upwind for the final beat. A very good day. Tito is very happy, and the guys are confident now in the sails and boatspeed in all conditions.
The fleet is 75 boats. The courses are all W-L 5 legs with leeward gates and an offset mark. Tomorrow is the first race (one only) then two races a day. 9 races sceduled, with one throwout after 5 races. We are fast, the boat is excellent and our team is very, very good.