4th September 2012

It was finally Formula Worlds time of the year and I had to switch gears from slalom training to Formula, testing a few new sails and my JP Speed board I felt like I was getting back in the groove. Some early morning sessions on Maui to get the light winds needed and I was ready to go. I ran into a bit of a bump on my way to Latvia when my flight from Dallas to Frankfurt was cancelled and I had to spend 24 hours in Dallas. This meant I would be arriving into Latvia on the eve of registration day so no sailing before the racing. I did finally make it and so did all my gear so this was good. I made it from the airport to the race site late in the evening, checked that my board was in one piece then went to my hotel and went to sleep. I awoke early the next morning and went to the beach to prepare my gear and get out on the water. With a good forecast for the week it looked like there would be plenty of racing.

Formula worlds day one

The wind was slightly off shore and gusty but strong enough to race. I went out and tested my 11.0 and this felt like the right set up for my JP Speed. There were over 100 competitors so they did split fleet racing which would mean we would do four races in each fleet and then the top half would move to a gold fleet and the bottom would go to the silver fleet. After these four races you would get a discard and then take the points from your best three and where ever you finished in the fleet that would be your first score and could be used as a discard if enough racing was done.

First race on my 11.0 had great start good speed upwind on the first upwind but then sailed into a hole on the left side of the course and stopped planning for about one minute. On the second upwind the same thing happened and then on the downwind I also stopped planning. Not a very good start for me, I think the sail was the right size because I had a lot of power in the gusts just the holes were to big and I seemed to find them.

Second race I thought about taking my 12 but it looked like the wind was back up just before I left the beach so I stayed with the 11. As luck would have it the wind died off as soon as I got out. This race I didn’t have a lot of power but had my best finish even stopping on the last downwind and losing 4 spots. As long as I was planning I felt like I had good speed but not planning is very slow.

Third race I took my 12 we went out and did one start and then they cancelled it right before the start for some reason, I had plenty of power. Then we stood around for almost 45 min while they changed the course and I guess waited for the wind. We finally did another start and I had plenty of power again and they cancelled right after the start again. We waited again for about 15 min and they sent us back to the beach. Ten minutes later they sent us back out in the same conditions and did a start and I couldn’t even pump my sail there was almost no wind but they went ahead with the start. Another horrible race, even stopped planning on my 12 quite a few times. Very typical formula racing in Europe, questionable conditions.

A very tough day of racing for me, I felt very out of formula shape to be racing in those sub planning conditions where you are fighting the whole time to stay going and then fighting the gear in the gusts because you are on such big stuff.

Formula worlds day two

With one more race to do before the gold and silver fleets were to be determined the race crew got straight to business. I was changed from the blue to the yellow fleet and was up first, with light winds still prevailing I choose to go with my 12 and this was the correct call. Starting to get more comfortable with my gear and formula racing again I had my best finish so far with a tenth. I planned the whole race this time and that sure makes a difference, making it much easier to get a respectable result. The blue fleet started right after we had finished and completed their race but due to some problems with one of the marks drifting or an extra one on the course, never got the exact story but regardless the race was thrown out and they had to race again. They finally got this fourth race in and it was official I had made it to the gold fleet but would surely use this one result as my throw out.

Once the fleets were set and after quite a few protests we were supposed to get back out there but the wind was not there so we waited and waited some more but it never returned. With a windy onshore forecast for tomorrow we will have to see if it is even possible to race. click here for more :https://www.formulawindsurfing.org/news.php?id=2169