NORTHERN TRIP

I left Tallinn at 4 o'clock in the morning, after the sailors party we had in "Museum" at the end of Melges 24 worlds. Straight to Malmo, Sweden, for the J24. My mates are gently taking care of the measurament of the boat, while I'm taking this day off to sleep a bit and try to reset the brain.

In Tallinn the first two days went wrong. After that we had a "podium" series, from race 5 to race 10. We were very upset yesterday when the wind died and we were 4th when the day was cancelled, with our biggest opponenents (for the top 5)zulu flagged(Gullisara) and over the 30th(Audi).

I 've tried already to analize what went wrong in the beginning. I think the first race had a very bad mental impact for us. We started free in the middle and after the start the wind turned 30° to the right. We were in the pack from the first mark, and then failed in the crowd to focus on the big picture, and lost some positions during the rest of the race.

On the second race we were in the front, but still I was not sure about the wind pattern. The wind was so light and you couldn't see the puffs on the water.We lost 3 boats to finish 6th.

The second day was terrific.On race 3 we had a very bad start in the middle with 6 knots of wind. While we struggling to get free air, some pressure came first from the left and then from the right and we missed both.36th after a small recovery.

Race 4: we took a zulu flag penalty during a general recall...that really killed our championship and our confidence.... a 13th became a 3o points.This was the worst sailed race since we could have been in the top 3.

Race 5: finally we take some risk starting not well but near the pin ,and tacking immediatly towards the next right shift. We were leading since the very beginning and controlled well Uka Uka all along the course.

On race 6 and 7 again we started a bit too central than favourite side. So were racing ok but not really in the front of the fleet.11th-9th.But it was ok since everybody made big mistakes and we were the 4th boat of the day.

On the last day we scored 13th-6th-2nd, starting to feel all the time more confortable with the wind shifts. We were the second boat of the day after Uka Uka, and we were very happy for that.

The feeling now is that with more days to race we could have been in the top 3. For sure we missed in beginning some specific practice on Tallinn waters.Probably the previous Estonian championship would have been the best training. Shame we came only at last, but at list we had come!

results here

The event after all was a success. I enjoyed all the evenings of the class, with daily awards and drinks, the best way to meet all the sailors.Shame that many italians teams never came.

For sure the race comittee was not the best, but the wind inconsistence never helped.

Thanks to our supporters which continued to believe in us even after the very bad first two days....and thanks of course to all the people who made this trip happen!!

Thanks to Pierrick Contin for the pictures.