Virtual ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships Regatta #24

Virtual ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships racing © SailX

Virtual ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships racing © SailX

Virtual ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships racing © SailX

SailX is running a series of regattas from May to July as the 'virtual' counterpart of the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships organized by Dublin Bay clubs this year.

During the virtual event over 250 regattas will take place, 5 each day at 0400, 1000, 1700, 1900 & 2130 GMT.

The 21:30 Regatta usually gathers sailors from Europe and America and the occasional Australian or New Zealander.

This was a 4-race regatta with an outer trapezoid course. Each race was sailed with a different boat (Laser, Catamaran, Skiff and 420) taking some 10 minutes to finish, the complete regatta taking less than an hour from start to end.

First Race (Lasers)

23 boats started. People from UK, Ireland, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Spain, Italy, Colombia, Singapore, Portugal and Argentina.

With a slightly pin-favored start (7 degrees shift) and a clear favored right side (stronger wind) and no relevant current. The fleet chose to start close to the comitee-boat end but the wind shift allowed for some spread over the whole line.

During the 1st part of the beat upwind the fleet splitted in two groups. Right side group was lead by poti (ESP) closely followed by redrum150 (USA) and shiokla (Singapore). The tacks fight playing the windshifts gave the central boats a clear advantage, near the layline to the A-Mark leaders were now skipper19 (UK) and rainbow_warrior (NZL).

Both boats kept 1st and 2nd respectively during the 1st run and almost to the end of the 2nd upwind where the key incident hapened (t=329secs). During the 2nd beat skipper19 (leading) allowed some separation from rainbow_warrior and that was a mistake, the kiwi sailor gained some meters, enough to force a starboard-port close incident. skipper19 had to tack to avoid trying a very close lee-bow but boats touched and SailX automatic umpire called a violation of Rule 15 and sending the UK sailor 7th after the spins.

The offset leg just before the final run to the end line showed rainbow_warrior leading followed by shiokla, poti and greg77515. During the final run where boats went fast in planing conditions poti passed shiokla to get a deserved 2nd place.

Second Race (Catamarans)

Similar conditions for the 2nd race of the regatta. 20 boats starting with I-flag. 2 boats received individual recalls for early start: KissMyRSTransom from Ireland and the argentinianGuarnaschelly who having attempted the start middle line saw his race ruined from the begining as he had to round the start ends for a valid start.

Cats don't like tacks and the fleet split on the first upwind in two clear groups each one banging one of the corners of the field. The first buoy rounding was quite messy and boats taking sone room gained places. Greg77515 (UK) got short in the approach layline and couldn't avoid gong into irons near the buoy to see how boats and boats passed, unlucky guy!.

But that's not the end of the interesting incidents of this race, during the last run the clearly leading sailor (BigSulK, UK) hit another boat (sailing upwind in previous leg!) during a gybe and system called R15 making him lose the leading place in favour of rainbow_warrior (NZL). Greg77515 (UK) achieved a nice recovery to win back as many places as he had lost in the 1st mark to finish 3rd.

Third Race (Skiffs)

A windy race for skiffs, and that's always fun in SailX virtual waters because skiffs do capsize!. 25 boats started (P-flag start) new boats entering from Brazil and Switzerland. At the start 4 boats were given OCS but this time they just dipped to start again with no big loss.

The 1st rounding of the A mark was quite clean. UK sailors Mirrorking and Flux leading, closely followed by Alden (USA) and chorrisplot (ESP). The replay of the 1st beat upwind shows several interesting 'ROOM-TO-TACK' hails, calls by the automated umpire were done in most of those cases.

During the 1st run the two leading UK sailors took just a bit too-much of risk, and mirrorking's boat capsized. After passing the gate downwind a sudden gust appeared in the right side of the course and (almost) all sailors went there. 3 UK sailors finished in the 1st places: mirrorking, Flux and greg77515.

Fourth Race (420s)

Last race in the regatta. At the start poti(ESP) made a master job. The shift (10 degrees from left) made the pin start VERY favoured. poti started there and after a couple of quick tacks gained control of the whole fleet.

poti rounded first the A mark and kept the leading place during the run but Flux(UK) was getting closer and closer. At the downwind gate both boats hit during the rounding. Flux had got inside (between poti and the buoy to round) but previously when the boats entered the 3-boats-length area poti was clear-ahead (no overlap) and thus Rule 18 protected him while he completed a normal rounding. poti, greg77515 and mirrorking got the honors.

Regatta #24 Results: (top five, standard low-score with one discard)

Full results can be found here

Replays:

• 1st Race replay
• 2nd Race replay
• 3rd Race replay
• 4th Race replay