Etchell’s Worlds in Australia

Wednesday 11/8 : Tuesday 11/14 : Friday 11/17 : Saturday 11/18 : Sunday 11/19 : Monday 11/20 : Tuesday 11/21 : Wednesday 11/22 : Thusday 11/23 : Friday 11/24 : Sunday 11/26

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etchells worlds Australia
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2006 20:34:03 -0800 (PST)

I plan to send back updates from the Etchell’s Worlds in Australia. I don’t know if I will get to it each day, we shall see.

In three days, we get on a plane for Fremmantle, Aus. We learned Monday the boat made it in one piece. Andrew Whitome was kind enough to help get it out of the container and with any luck it will be waiting for us when we arrive on site Sunday. Keith and I have never been to Freemantle, and are looking forward to our first trip, though the thought of 17 hours of air travel to get there is bit overwhelming. Craig spent about a year there during the ‘87 America’s Cup . He is certainly looking forward to getting back and seeing the city again.

Currently it looks like there will approx 70 boats entered. Last I checked there were nine boats from the US, of which five are registered from the San Francisco fleet. There is a strong contingent from the UK, several fomr NZ and of course Australians from all over their country. There are likely 15 boats with a realistic shot of winning, so it will be tough, but that is what makes it worthwhile, right?

Our basic itinerary is (all dates local Aus = PST+16 hours):
Arrive Sunday 11/12
Practice and measurement Monday - Thursday 11/13-11/16
Practice race Friday 11/17
World’s races start Saturday with one race scheduled per day, 11/18-11/25.
There are eight races scheduled, of which we will count our seven best finishes.
Our sail number is USA-946. We have been assigned bow number 73, but you never know on that one until you actually stick them on the bow. The skipper is Craig Healy, and our bowman is Keith Stahnke.

Results, news, etc. will be posted here at the event web site: http://www.etchellsworlds2006.org/

Hopefully over the next two weeks we will have good things to report. Thanks to Craig we have the right boat, new sails, a good tuning partner. We are motivated to do well. We are also thankful to have the support of our families allowing us to take 16 days away on what is admittedly a pretty selfish mission.

More to come.
Dave

From: David Gruver
Subject: Re: Etchells worlds Australia
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 19:59:15 -0800 (PST)

Crag Healy, the owner/driver is arguably among the best amateurs in the US. He is a dentist by trade, but his sailing CV is long. He was a top laser sailor and the top US Finn sailor leading up to the ‘84 Olympics, but failed to qualify. He sailed as navigator on Tom Blackaller’s USA-61 12m team in the ‘87 cup in Freemantle. More recently he was the middleman on the US Soling team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and won the Soling worlds leading up to the Olympics. Our bowman, Keith Stahnke is one of those quiet local guys that you never really hear much about, but is a great sailor, outstanding seaman, and one of the nicest people I have ever known. I can’t list what all he has accomplished on the water because he never talks about it . He was part of the Laser group in the bay in the late 70’s early 80’ and also successfully campaigned a few I-14s over the years. I consider myself very fortunate to sit between these two.

Together, we have sailed this same boat since 1993. We got the boat and sailed our first worlds in Newport in ‘94. We ended up winning one race, and were top amateur team at fourth overall. We have had pretty good success with the SF local fleet, winning the season 4 or 5 times. We finished second at the ‘98 North Americans; after winning the first three races it hurt to lose that one! At last year’s worlds here in SF we won a race, and if we had not been OCS twice, well, woulda coulda shoulda as they say. So we are either due, or we don’t seem to have the abilty to close the deal. We shall see.

Take care,
Dave

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etchells Worlds, Tuesday 11/14
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 07:00:32 -0800 (PST)

We have had a good few days since arriving and are starting to get fully into the rhythm of the area and the event. We had good flights here with no delays or issues and arrived at our apartment on Sunday a bit past 1pm. After checking in and unloading our gear we headed to the Fremantle Sailing Club to find our boat in good shape. After a few hours of unloading gear and stepping the mast we were ready to go by 4pm and contemplated splashing the boat. Realizing that were still pretty tired from the long flights we decided it was better to wait until the morning, and focus on getting our living situation sorted out.

We are staying in a well setup three bedroom unit that is part of an apartment complex built right on the water overlooking a marina. Several other crews are staying here as well. As far away as we are from home just something like seeing a familiar face in the walkway makes it that much more comfortable. We are just a mile or two away from the FYC. There is a bike path the runs the full distance from home to club. Keith and I got a chance to try it out for the first time tonight, and enjoyed it very much. The FYC club grounds are expansive with a two story main clubhouse and several other buildings as part of the club. It reminds me a lot of the San Diego Yacht Club in terms of scale. They have a large dry storage area as well, though the hoist is a bit of nightmare. All the folks are friendly and helpful. When it came time to drop the boat in the water Monday morning, it was the club commodore who was helping run the hoist.

Our first sail on Monday was just for a few hours to make sure everything still worked, including us. It was atypical light air for here. But we all know that whenever you travel for an event the locals will tell you two things; “It’s never like this” and “You should have been here last week”. On Monday night we took a walk from the apartment back towards the boat. Nearby there are a number of restaurants and bars located right on the water in the adjacent marina. They have a pleasant boardwalk set over the water and all the restaurants have outdoor seating on the boardwalk. One of the things we noticed right away was they have no railing on the boardwalk. Clearly Fremantle is short on lawyers, and long on personal responsibility. We ate outside around 8pm. It was 75-80 degrees with a nice breeze and lots of folks out enjoying the warm evening. I think the best way to sum up the architecture and feel of Fremantle would be to describe it as a sort of a Spanish version of Key West.

Today, Tuesday here, we chipped away some items on our work list in the morning and then headed out for our first full day of practice. The tuning partner we had planned to sail and work with for the event pulled out of the regatta at the last minute. This was a bit of a bummer for us. For the last two days we had discussed who might be good to hook up with for speed testing but hadn’t really resolved anything. We were surprised when we got on the water to see Jud Smith’s coach boat heading our way. It was a great opportunity for us to tune with Jud. For those not familiar with the Etchells class, Jud is one the two major sail suppliers and one of top guys in the fleet. For this event he is sailing with Dirk Knuleman, who builds some of the best Etchells. The ironic part in all this is we have used North Sails exclusively, Judd’s main competitor, for the past five or six years. Our boat was built by not by Dirk but by his competition. As Craig so succinctly put it, we are the odd couple. On the water we had a good three hours of sailing with Jud before the wind died and found we were at least equal in terms of speed. That was a good sign for us since we were using older sails and have not yet fully polished and buffed the boat. We agreed to continue to partner with Jud over the next few days. We hauled the boat tonight and will finish prepping the hull in the AM. Tomorrow we will be a long day of prep and sailing.

The actual event still seems many days away, but I know it will be on us in a heartbeat. I plan to write again after the practice race on Friday, hopefully we will have more good news to share and maybe some pictures as well.

Dave, Keith, and Craig.

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etchells Worlds Saturday AM udate
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:20:58 -0800 (PST)

To our families and friends, It’s Saturday 11/18 here and we have had a busy and productive last few days. We invested a lot of time into getting the boat completely prepped for the racing. Everything has continued to go smoothly and by Thursday night we had the boat ready to compete. We went over every part, spending about fours buffing and polishing the hull. The boat looks almost as good as it did when we sailed out first world’s event in 1994. Back then we were one of the newest boats in the fleet, here we are among the oldest.

Wednesday we had the first normal seabreeze since arriving. We spent another few hours on the water practicing with Jud Smith. The sailing area is in fairly shallow water. When the breeze is up the waves are big and steep. It’s wet upwind. You end up pumping the boat out constantly. Downwind the waves are there to ride, and again more pumping but this time on the sails.

Per the event rules all boats were required to be in the water by 4pm Thursday and they must remain in the water for the duration of the event. Most had hauled out on Wednesday night for the final polish, and there was a frenzy of activity to get all the boats into the water by the time limit on Thursday. The club hired three mid size mobile cranes. It seemed everywhere you looked Etchells were being plucked from their trailers up into the air and on into the water.

Yesterday was the first test, the practice race. We had 10-15 knots of breeze, lighter at the start and building throughout the day. Since the race did not count, everyone was pushing the start line, and we chose to try and get a legal start. We ended up in the second row and got tacked on constantly on the first leg. In a 70+ boat fleet, if you aren’t on the first row, you are destined for a lot of pain and bad air. But our speed was good and we managed to pass a good number of boats to finish around 12th. It doesn’t really mean a whole lot, a bit like baseball or football pre-season. But it’s an indicator we aren’t slow.

Last night there was an event party at the Fremantle Maritime Museum. It is a stunning, modern looking building with an arched roof and could easily be mistaken for some type of CIA aircraft hanger. The exhibits inside are almost exclusively devoted to sailing vessels. They range from early Aboriginal canoes, to 19th century workboats, to 1950’s racing skiffs and the crown jewel of the museum is the 12 meter Australia II, the boat that won the America’s Cup in 1983. The skipper of the boat, John Bertrand, and a few of his crew are sailing in this event, and were at the party. It was a rare treat to listen to John Bertrand talk about the event, very humbly, as he stood in front of the boat that changed the America’s Cup, and in many ways the landscape of pro sailing.

We are about to head down to the boat now, time to jump in the water, give the bottom a scrub, and go over the boat that final time. Its hard to believe we have now been here almost an entire week and the competition has yet to begin. I hope we have good things to report after race one.

All the best,
Dave, Craig and Keith.

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etchells Worlds Race 1
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 15:05:42 -0800 (PST)

Greetings race fans!
Finally, after a week of fixing, buffing, measuring, eating, not eating, and weighing we are underway on the real deal.The morning started out light, and the race start was delayed over and hour due to shipping traffic coming across the race course. We had a few container ships and four navy vessels come by in succession, the joke around the water was that no one knew that Australia in fact even had four Navy ships. By the time the race committee got the starting sequence going it was 12:20.

The breeze had filled in to a solid 12-15 knots from the southwest- the normal seabreeze. We changed to our heavy jib and lined up for the first start. As is typical at an event like this everyone pushed the line on the first start, and we ended up with a general recall. On the restart Craig put is in a good spot about two thirds of the way down the line and finally we were off, on the front row looking strong. We had a bit of a drama when on the third tack Keith went across the boat as he always does, but had a bit too much slack in the jib sheet and did a Mike Nelson right over the side of the boat. He was hanging on to the sheet like a cop on a donut and stayed with the boat, Craig and I grabbed onto him hauled him back on board. We continued on with a bit of a chuckle, no worse for the wear. In thirteen years of sailing together, and more tacks than we can count, this has never happened before. At least Keith was soaked and heavy now — hike! We worked the middle left side of the first beat, and with about three fourths of the leg completed looked to be in the top two or three. One last shift came in the left letting a few boats by us and we rounded the top mark in six.

We lost two boats on the run because we got caught up in some traffic and bad air, rounding the bottom mark in eighth. We worked the left side of the next beat. It was very shifty, and we took a few left shifts to work back to the right, but were unable to improve our spot. We actually passed one boat, but at the top mark Chris Bush from San Diego got inside us, and we were eighth once again. We worked the second run hard, pumping and chasing waves, and rounded the last bottom mark right on Chris’s tail, with John Bertrand right on ours. Unfortunately our rounding was not perfect, and we were unable to hold a position on Chris’s windward side. Again we worked the shifts and maintained our spot on Chris, and distanced ourselves from Betrand. Our good friend from Cowes, Anti Razmilovich, had worked the right side and made some big gains. He was now even with us as we approached the finish. We came in from the left side, Anti coming in from the right. Anti tacked just under our leeward bow with about 150 meters to go, he was just slightly ahead. We hiked our asses off to get over him and edged ahead inch by inch, wave by wave. Now in comes Chris Bush from the right, we had both made gains on him and it was going to be very close, but Chris held the starboard tack right of way advantage. At the finish we had to duck Chris slightly, but held on to keep eighth with Anti coming in ninth. The three of us finished all within about 6 seconds of each other. Close racing, and no doubt a glimpse of what the next seven days hold in store.

Jud Smith sailed a great race to win. Some of the favorites like Rob Brown, Skip Lissiman and Stuart Childerly all had tough races finishing out of the top twenty. No doubt they will recover to finish better, and it’s a reminder that a bad start, or bad mark rounding, or picking the wrong side of the race course can pop you off the front before you know what happened. There are lost of fast well sailed boats, and it going to be tough. We are very pleased to open with an eighth. Our speed is good. It’s all about race course management and making good decisions on the shifts. So on to race two today.

All the best from down under,
Dave, Craig and Keith.

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etchells Worlds Race 2- ouch!
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:35:48 -0800 (PST)

Hell again from Freo.
No easy way around it, yesterday we stubbed our toe, and stubbed it bad. For race #2 we finished 11th on the race course but were called over early at the start. We never thought we were even close enough to the line to worry about it and did not return to the start line to clear ourselves; bam our 11th place finish turned quickly into 70 points added to our score. The upside is we will get to discard our worst race. We are not out of it, but we have left ourselves no room for error in the remaining six races. As Keith pointed out last night, only about five boats have not effectively sailed their throw out, so it may not be quite as bleak as it looks on the score board.

As for the race itself, it was a head scratcher. The wind was moderate 8-12 knots from the SW and was shifting 10-15 degrees every 3-6 minutes. There was more wind pressure on the left side of the race course. It was a game of playing the shits and progressively working left to get to the greater wind strength. You would cross a boat by five lengths, only to be ducking the same boat on the next cross if you missed a shift, or were forced to tack off a lift by another boat. We managed the race course well on the first beat, and by making a final push to the left on the last part of the leg rounded eighth. Halfway down the run we were up into around fifth, but missed the last shift and lost about six boats. Did I mention the racing is close? Again on the beat we worked our way through the shifts and got back into ninth. The second run was a repeat of the first, early gains followed by late losses. On the final leg to the finish we worked our way back into eighth. When we were out the port layline to the finish, Andy Beadsworth tacked onto our wind forcing us to take two more tacks. That one move allowed three boats to pass us right at the finish. We were a bit depressed having lost three boats so close to the end, but it was at the dock we found that we were over early. At that point an 11th would have been pretty nice.

But as they say around here, no worries. Last night Keith and I joined Andrew Whitome, his girlfriend Liz,and Jim and Deb Gregory for an excursion North of Fremantle to a bar on the beach for what is known as the Sunday Session. It was a quite a scene. The place was a series of rooms leading to an outdoor deck in back. Each area had a bar. Some rooms had live bands. There were probably over 400 people in the place. Lots of college age kids drinking lots of Red Bull and vodka, and plenty of loud music. Our group was easily 20 years senior to the average age in the place. Even though we felt like parents we enjoyed the people watching. Apparently Sunday night is a big night out in Australia. From the looks of things last night, I really doubt much gets accomplished around in this country on Monday morning.

Today we will get back out there on the race course and put yesterday behind us. We are fast. Each day we have a better feel for the race course. Today will again be different though. A front is moving through and its raining as I write this. I hope that ends soon.
Talk to you all tomorrow, we hope with better news, and fewer points scored!

All the best,
Dave, Craig and Keith.

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etchells Worlds, Race 3
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 14:10:10 -0800 (PST)

Good morning from Australia,
A short note this AM, as the hands are sore from many days of sailing. Swollen fingers don’t type so well.

Monday began with rain as a weak front passed over the area. We heard many jokes from the Brits about it being a “fine summer’s day” as we headed out the harbor. By race time the front had passed, the sun was breaking through and it looked to be a normal Freo day.

It took three times to get off a start as there were two general recalls. For the third start some one set up close to leeward of us, and we could not hold our spot on the font row as the gun went off. The good news is we weren’t OCS, the bad news is we were off the front, fighting for clear wind. In a large fleet if you aren’t in the top 15 or 20 it’s miserable. You have to contend with dirty air and endless boat wakes. It seams every time you want to tack on a shift someone is in your way. It takes a lot of patience to make the best of a bad situation and create opportunities to maker back some gains. By the top mark we were deep, 43st around. We picked off boats on each leg by being patient, showing some good speed and working the left side of the race course. By the finish we were 23rd. Not a great result, but certainly better than yesterdays OCS.

We are now 33rd overall counting all our scores. Discarding our worst race we sit in about 14th. We will work to improve on that today. We know if we get a good start we have the speed to stay on the front. There are still five races remaining and we will work to move our way up the results.

All the best,
Dave , Craig and Keith.

From: David Gruver
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:37:16 -0800 (PST)
Etchells Worlds, Race 4

Hey, how about some good news for a change. Today we finally achieved on the water what we know we can do. We ended up second to our mates on GBR-1333; Anti Razmilovich, Stuart Flinn and Jez Fanstone. They are staying right across the walkway from us at our apartment complex and we have spent a fair amount of time with them since arriving. They are all good guys, lots of fun to hang with, and if it couldn’t be us, we were happy it was them. But make no mistake, we would have been happier if it was us with the ace! After the last two days, it was good to know that if we start well, we are there with the speed and smarts to stay on the front.

Today’s race was in fairly classic local conditions, sunny and warm with 10-12 knots at the start, building to 20 knots by the finish. Craig got us a good start on the left hand side of the start line. We got off the line with clear air but there were three boats to about 20, 40 and 60 meters to windward, and a little bow forward on us.We were in a vulnerable spot for them to take our air and push us off the front row. Craig did a great job of steering through the waves, and we shifted gears in the puffs and lulls to eek out ahead inch by inch as we sailed side by side on starboard tack for over 1.5 miles. For anyone watching it would have literally been like watching grass grow, four boats sailing alongside all moving at about half the speed of a well charged golf cart; ho hum. But for all of us involved in the struggle it was a make or break moment for each boat. We managed to work our way in front of them, and were second place at the first windward mark. We moved into first place on the run, but Anti had moved into second from sixth and took the left gate buoy, while we took the right gate at the leeward mark. Anti’s choice of marks gave him about a three boat length advantage. We caught back up some on the leg and he went around the second windward mark first with us about five feet in back. Anti and his boys sailed a great fourth leg and moved out in front by about six boat lengths.

On the final leg to the finish we focused on protecting second as Anti has slipped away and Jud Smith and others were closing up behind us. We got a bit of a scare when the block holding the outhaul on the main exploded about halfway up the final leg. Luckily the rope itself held, and we were able to maintain enough tension on the foot of the sail so as not to lose too much speed, thus maintaining our second place.

We are now at the halfway point of the event, and there is still lots to play for. As long as we can avoid mistakes, we can improve our overall position by heaps. Unfortunately there are about 68 other boats with the same basic plan.

Talk to you all again tomorrow,
Dave, Craig, and Keith.

Another day, another race. We started the second half of the event about where we left off in race four. Again we woke to sunny warm weather, an indicator of a big breeze day. All the locals were saying it would blow 25 knots plus.

The race committee did a good job of getting the line set, and the course laid out. By 11am it was start time. Again we choose to start on the port end of the line, with a plan to drag race to the left side of the course. Craig nailed another good start in about 12 knots of breeze. Much like yesterday it was a hike fest to get over the guys to leeward, and in front of the guys to windward. The photo was taken shortly after the start. We are to windward on USA-946, Cameron Miles is on AUS-117. We had the boat going well, had chosen the correct side of the course and were first around the top mark, with John Bertrand and Cameron Miles right on our tail.

We sailed well in the first part of the run, but got some dirty air from a few boats and like has happened all week, one mistake and the others jump you. In Craig’s words, “There aren’t many creampuffs out here”. We rounded the leeward mark in third behind Bertrand and Miles. On the second beat we worked back in equal with Miles, but Bertrand extended his lead on both of us. At the second windward mark we tacked right to leeward of Miles on the starboard layline hoping to get inside of him at the mark, but we could not lay the mark and had to tack twice and follow him around.

We held position on the downwind leg and rounded the last leeward mark just a few feet behind Miles. We all sailed along working to the left until the final half mile. At that point the fun started. We had been gaining on Miles and he began attacking us, tacking on our air at every chance. We had extended far enough ahead of fourth place that there was no threat from behind, and we responded tack for tack gaining a few feet each time. After about a dozen tacks, Miles tacked under our starboard bow and we were able to stay up off of him to draw almost even with only a bout 10 feet separating the boats laterally. But at this point John Bertrand tacked to windward of both of us and was disturbing our air more than Miles causing us to slip behind. We tacked away, and Miles followed with us. When we tacked back and Miles just crossed us and tacked directly on our wind with 150 meters to go. Craig dove the boat below Miles and it was an all out drag race to the finish with each crew hiking hard and trying for the second slot on the race course. We both shot the finish line simultaneously, but unfortunately Miles got us by less than five feet. Five feet after 15 miles and three hours of racing, arghhh.

Still, we can’t complain about our third place finish. Cameron Miles and his team deserve a lot of credit to hold onto second. It was an outstanding race. One of those races that we will remember for a long time. We have now moved into the top twenty in the standings. We have lead two races. We need to sail a little smarter and not give up the lead once we have it. Its’ a rough playground out there. There is always a well sailed boat ready to pounce on even the smallest error and it’s never easy to get it back. Three of the current leaders faltered today with poor races and the entire points spread is getting tighter. We still have three races to go, and will do our best to continue our ascent up the leader board.

Tomorrow is another weigh in. So tonight we are laying low, taking it easy on food and drink and looking forward to a very big breakfast after we hop on the scales in the AM. Tomorrow is also Thursday here. There has been talk of the club cooking up some turkeys for the Yanks. More likely we will head out to dinner with Anti and his boys. Even though we are a day ahead, we will be thinking of all our family and friends getting together for wonderful family meals. After 12 days away we are still having fun, but also missing home.

We hope it’s a good Thanksgiving for all of you. And please, save us some dark meat.

All the best,
Dave, Craig and Keith.

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etchells Worlds, Race six
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 07:10:58 -0800 (PST)

One more day, one more race.- race 6

Today the doctor was in, and in this case it has two meanings. The sea breeze here is called the Fremantle doctor. When the doctor makes a call, it means breeze on, 25 knots +. Today the doctor was definitely in, and we sailed in the most wind we have seen since arriving. The other doctor is the guy who steers our boat, Craig. When the breeze is on and the waves are big, there is no one you would rather have on the helm.

The day started with the mid regatta crew weigh in. Once again every crew had to step on the scales and ensure there were under the 285kg max crew weight. We skipped dinner last night, and came in 2kg under weight; we shoulda gone out last night!. The club got smart and had a big breakfast buffet waiting for all those that had fasted for the past 24-36 hours. Once we weighed in we sat down for some eggs, toast, juice and anything else we could get our hands on. The real entertainment was watching other crews that were slightly overweight out jogging around the club grounds fully dressed in foulies trying to drop those last few kgs. As each crew came into the restaurant, a sign they had made weight, those sitting gave a cheer and a clap, and mostly a laugh. We are all competitors and all trying to do well but it’s still equally as much about friends and a shared experience. This morning was a good example of that.

On to the race course. Like I said it was breeze on right form the start. We once gain started on the left hand side of the line, but today there were a lot more folks trying to do the same. We didn’t get a good start, actually directly astern of one boat, with boats both to leeward and windward of us. It was looking like a tough day. But instead of panicking and tacking out, we stuck to the plan, and held our spot working left. Craig did an amazing job holding position directly behind AUS-924. One by one the boats all around us fell by the wayside. Every time it seemed someone was about to roll us, we managed to keep our lane and keep going. Somehow our marginal start turned into a seventh at the top mark. It’s a pleasure and a privelage to be in a spot like that sitting next to one of the best helmsman in the world. I really don’t think there are many folks that could have pulled off what Craig did. Those who have sailed with Craig know what I mean.

On the run it was all on; big breeze, planing, riding waves, pumping and working hard to make any gains. We did a good job and moved into fifth about 10 lengths behind Noel Drenan at the first leeward gate. On the second beat we worked up close to Drenan, slowly grinding him down with better speed. At the top mark we were just three lengths behind. Again downwind we did a good job riding waves, and got overlapped with Drenan about six lengths from the second leeward gate. But he luffed us and broke the overlap gaining the advantage for the mark rounding. On the last beat to the finish we were able to use our speed to finally grind over Drenan and finished a solid fourth behind NZL- 950, our pal Anti Razmilovich, and John Bertand in third. Once at the dock we learned that John Bertrand had been over early at the start. That moved us into the third spot making it three days in a row on the podium, and a great result for us considering how our day started.

With six races sailed, we are now able to drop our worst finish, that damned OCS, and have moved into sixth place on the overall standings. Ahead of us are all well sailed boats and it will be tough to move much further up the leader board, but we are going to keep trying.

Tonight we celebrated Thanksgiving by having team GBR-1333; Anti, Stuart and Jez over for a barley pop before heading out to dinner. With our door open to the walkway, folks kept spilling in. Before we knew it we had people from the Irish boat IRL-1320, Andrew Whitome’s team plus wives and Antis team. All were out on the deck sipping a few beers and enjoying the sunset. After they all cleared out we went to dinner at our fav spot Sardino’s with Anti’s guys. It wasn’t much like being home with our families but it was fun nonetheless. And a Thanksgiving in Australia is something we won’t forget. We hope your Turkey day get togethers are as memorable, and as full of friendship.

Tomorrow is race seven. It’s supposed to be another windy day. Time to take another Advil and get some sleep.

All the best,
Dave, Craig, and Keith.

From: David Gruver
Subject: Etcvhells Worlds -Race 7
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 14:49:25 -0800 (PST)

We went into today with high hopes of having another good race and making another move up the leader board. Instead we had a day of struggles, and some triumphs. In the end though it was not what we had hoped for but not as bad as it could have been.

It was another windy day. There were two general recalls at the start, and we were disappointed because each time we had good position on the line, with a clear lane. On the third start we got crossed up in some waves, and that is all it took for us to be in the second row suffering in the bad air of the fleet. We tacked a few times trying to find a clear lane to head left. Ten minutes into the race we were probably in about 50th place. We continued to work the left side, made back some ground, and somehow managed to get around the top mark in about 25th place. Unfortunately as we round we touched the mark, and had to do a 360 degree penalty turn to exonerate ourselves, that let another five boats by us.

It was windy on the run and we planed by a few boats and continued to pass boats on the second beat rounding the second top mark in about 18th place. On the second run it was big breeze, We sailed high angles and ripped through the fleet passing three boats as we planed by with spray flying everywhere. About 15 lengths from the leeward mark the mainsheet traveler car blew off the end of the track, not a good thing. Keith quickly grabbed a piece of spectra rope and lashed the car in place on the center as we approached the mark. Somehow he got it done just in time to run forward, get the pole off the kite, and help with the rounding. The lashing held perfectly and we were able to sail effectively on the last leg. We passed a few more boats and finished overlapped with Chris Bush at the finish, with him nipping us by a few feet giving us a 14th place.

Overall we lost some ground to the top five in the points standings, but remain in sixth place. Our race could have been a lot worse and if not for Keith’s quick and effective repair it could have been a complete disaster. For the last race today we cannot mathematically do better than fourth place, and that will take some help from some others if it happens. Our friends on GBR-1333 have a shot at wining, along with Jud Smith and the “kids” from New Zealand. It should be a very good race, and the breeze is predicted to be full on again today. We are tired and sore from a long week of sailing, but so is everybody else. We know if we get a good start we have the speed to win a race, and will be trying our hardest to do so. After the race it’s bug out time. We need to get the boat out of the water, taken apart and into the container prior to flying home early Sunday morning. Its going to be a very long day, but one that will go better if we can finish on an up note.

All the best,
Dave, Craig and Keith.

From: David Gruve
Subject: Etchells worlds race 80- final update
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:48:34 -0800 (PST)

Racer eight - final update

I am typing this final note while on the plane heading home across the Pacific. As I mentioned after race seven, Saturday was destined to be a long day. We were late getting off the water and even later getting home after a bit of fun at the closing ceremonies. The regatta is over and we finished strong for the “I Love My wife” team of USA-946. Going in to the final race we were mathematically out of the top three, sitting in sixth place. To get fourth would require us to put 16 boats between us and Andy Beadsworth, a tall order to do against a well sailed boat. Behind us were 4 boats all within 7 points. We couldn’t do much to influence the outcome of the other boats, so our focus was to sail a good race of our own trying improve our overall position and let the chips fall as they may for the other boats. The day started with a light southeast wind, and the race committee wisely delayed at the dock for about two hours waiting for the seabreeze to build from the southwest. All the crews hung out at the club, and it was an enjoyable time congratulating each other on the races sailed to date, talking about other events, discussing futures and enjoying each other’s company. Everyone was pleased when the postponement flag was dropped, and the entire fleet of 69 boats headed out the harbor for race eight.

The wind filled quickly and it was another 15-25 knot day on the racecourse. We had two general recalls, and we were off on the third start. We started at our usual spot on the lower left end of the line, and planned to head left. We could not hold our spot and got bounced out right for a short tack, but found clear air to head back left. It was not looking good at that point. We were about even with Andy Beadsworth, and three of the boats behind us had a jump on us. We managed to maintain our lane, get left, and by a combination of good fortune and great boat speed we had worked back into sixth at the top mark, ahead of all those nipping at our heals in the standings, and about 10 boats in front of Andy. Things were looking up. On the run we sailed fast and sailed past John Bertrand to move into 5th. On the second beat we passed Joe Bainton and now were lying fourth behind Anti, Chris Busch, with Jud Smith leading. We closed up with Anti on the beat and on the last run planed right up alongside him. At the perfect moment Craig jibed the boat on a wave, and we surged ahead of Anti, and into third. It was particularly satisfying after Anti had burned us off on the run in race 4. On the final beat we closed with Chris Busch, but were unable to pass. At the finish for race eight it was all USA as Jud Smith won, Chris was second with completing the regatta with a third. By virtue of his first place, Jud won the regatta. At the finish there were lots of spectators cheering, and one large powerboat playing the Star Spangled Banner. It was a special moment on the water for all of us, and certainly for Jud, as he had yet to win this event, coming in second four times previously.

Anit ended up third in the event to the New Zealanders in second. Our third place finish in race eight moved us into 5th overall for the evnet as Andy Beadsworth finsihed clsoe enough behind to preserve his fourth place. It’s a result we are proud of. We sailed well and never gave up even after our race 2 and race 3 setbacks. In the end we had four race finishes in the top three. Everyone was in agreement that this event was far tougher in terms of the quality of the fleet, and the conditions than last year’s San Francisco worlds.

After the race it was a bug out at the dock; boats out of the water, masts down, boats into containers and lots of handshakes to all the competitors and new friends we have made over the last two weeks. The awards ceremony was the typical mix of speeches, alcohol, and food. In this case there were three clubs partnering in running the event, and it seemed there was an endless string of club commodores giving well deserved praise to various volunteers and sponsors. It got to the point where we made a drinking game of it similar to Hi Bob. Every time someone said the word commodore, we all took a sip. It was a late night with about 2 hours sleep before the 3:30 am am wake up call for the plane. That is why I am writing this from seat 58K.

In the end it was a memorable, challenging, extremely well run and very competitive event. The people in Fremantle were as friendly as you could hope. The sailing conditions were outstanding and above all we enjoyed our time in Australia both on and off the water. Thank you for all the replies of support and encouragement over the past two weeks. It is a wonderful comfort to be so far from home and still have the support and communication with family and friends. As much fun as we had in Oz, we are all looking forward to seeing our families again just as soon as this plane lands.

Thanks,
Dave, Craig, Keith.