This year's entry was down to a mere 40 or so 505s, still the largest fleet, with I 14s, Korsairs and Dyas making up the rest of the fleet. The Korsairs and Dyas were almost all German, with - I think - an Austrian boat thrown in to make it International. The 14s were mostly British, with a few Swiss boats and a converted One Design 14 sporting "USA" on its sails. The 505 fleet was mostly German, with some Swiss, some Scandinavian and some British teams, and of course yours truly in USA 7200 - Un Canadien Errant/Time is on My Side - with Jens Wilke on the wire. I don't believe there were any Italians sailing in any of the classes.
Given that everyone in the 505 and 14 fleets (along with a few hundred boardsailors) are all trying to sail in the same part of the lake right underneath the Western cliffs, I have no idea how this event works when the 505s get their typical 55 boat turnout. It was crowded enough with 40! Fortunately the Dyas and Korsairs sailed a different course, and when the fleets did meet, were going in different directions.
Lake Garda is narrow and long, running south to north, in northern Italy. The south end of the lake is wider, and opens onto a broad plain. The north end of the lake is much narrower and is deep into the mountains, with steep cliffs on both sides, particularly on the west side.
During the night and early morning a north-to-south breeze blows on the lake. Though this is sometimes used for racing, most prefer to party late, and race in the afternoon "Ora", the southern wind that fills in around 11:30 on a typical day (and sunny day). The Ora is thermal and driven by the heat on the plains at the southern end of the lake. It is strongest right under the western cliffs, which may also bend the breeze slightly.
The cliffs are over 300 meters high and the lake is over 300 meters deep. The marks are permanently fixed, as the Ora blows from more or less the same direction each day.
Line starts were used, with shifts favoring either end of the line. Though you want to go right to the cliffs, you do not want to go in immediately from the starboard end of the line, as that gets you into the "Bay of Pigs", which has lighter air. The game is to figure out which end of the line gets you ahead by enough that you can lead the fleet right to the correct point on the cliffs. I did not figure this out on this trip, but look forward to returning to Garda many times to work this out.
The courses sounded reasonable, with the short course of beat, reach, reach, beat, reach, reach, tight reach to finish, and the long course of beat, reach, reach, beat, run, beat, reach, reach, tight reach to finish not that different from what we normally sail, however…… The first reach is a not very tight reach across the lake (so the 14s could fly kites most of the time). There are three basic options for the leg.
We chose rhumb line and were sometimes passed on a reach by boats using both the other options!
The second reach is cool too! Sometime you gybe at the mark, and head high for the western cliffs, sailing 30 degrees above the leeward mark. As you get into the breeze near the western cliffs, you have to keep bearing off, and soon find yourself unable to make the leeward mark with the kite up.. dousing early and two sailing to the leeward mark. On the other hand, sometimes its not windy enough under the western cliffs, and the fast move is to not gybe at the mark, continue on starboard near the eastern cliffs, and then gybe late and sail a hot angle back to the western side.
The good guys had this all figured out, and had the boat speed and boat handling to pull it off. We did not. We had occasional bursts of warp speed when we could gain a boatlength in a couple of seconds, but could not effectively depower enough to stay consistently fast like the top Euros. In the penultimate race in 20-25 knots, we finanlly got a clear air start and managed to find lanes into the cliff, and were rewarded with a 4th place at the windward mark, ahead of both Upton-Brown/Mitchell and Schonherr/Bosjen-Moller. Being too conservative - sailing the rhumb line - and a less than stellar gybe ended our hold on 4th rather quickly, while a couple more minor mistakes later in the race dropped us to 9th, our best finish. What a blast! Incredible! When can we go back!
Stefan Boehm and Gerald Roos from Germany really should have won the event, winning three races, however they and a number of competitors neglected to check the course flag before the second start, and raced the wrong course and were DSQ'd from the second race. A later Spiro fitting failure resulted in them having to count a DNF. 1997 World Champions Mark Upton-Brown/Ian Mitchell rarely led at the first mark, but were able to pull through into the top places in each race. 1990 World Champion Jurgen Schonherr, sailing with Jacob Bosjen-Moller were also fast and consistently smart, but were one of the teams DSQ'd for sailing the wrong course in the second race.
The magic of Riva del Garda is much more than the racing. After reliving the highlights of the day's racing while getting the boats ashore - quite an adventure with the one slippery ramp facing the strength of the Ora - competitors would rest, clean up, get something to eat, and prepare for the evening. Evening didn't really start until about 10:00PM, when one would roll into the Café d'Italia for a couple of coffees (expresso), aiming for an 11:00-11:30 arrival at the sailor's pub. That's not the official name, but everyone calls it the sailor's pub, and about 95% of the regatta could be found in the small pub and overflowing into the small street outside any evening during the event. Its hard to keep a large number of happy, drunk sailors quiet, but the bartenders tried hard. No singing!
Another evening competitors had dinner on the outdoor terrace at the sailing club, the Fraglia della Vela Riva del Garda, along with lots of wine. The next morning I had vague recollections of making a speech in Italian the previous evening, using the club PA system, but have no idea what I said, except that a number of smiling Italians were shaking my hand and thanking me afterwards. It was the club's 70th anniversary, which we all toasted with an excellent Italian red wine.
The sailor's pub is in a residential area (people live in the upper levels all over Riva), so the neighbors may not have been impressed with the sailors. Dire threats from the bartenders of kicking people out of the pub kept the group quiet until the final evening when the neighbours must have lost their remaining patience; both the local police and the Carabinieri arrived shutting down activities (I missed this, as Lauren had arrived that afternoon, and we had left early). The next morning the happy, tired, smiling and hung-over sailors considered the police intervention to be the "icing on the cake" of a very successful week at Garda.
Lauren and I are already making plans to be back in Europe for the Garda event next year.
-Ali
Results from the German 505 web site.
Photos from the European Championship and the European Cup in Riva del Garda