racing
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Second training weekend – getting there
One more weekend on the water with Orza Racing Team on Aquaranta: over 20 gennaker sets and as many drops, over 30 tacks and 20 gybes, 10 practice starts and 2 one-on-one duels with other boats… I must say that I was quite dead on Sunday evening after such an intensive training! We are far from perfect, but we are as ready as we could get with only four days of practice in our wake. We are conscious of our weaknesses, which are tacking speed and close quarters maneuvering: with the latter, we tried to improve by involving other boats in our sessions, but the real test will be next…
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First training weekend of the season
Last weekend was the first of a 5 weekends course on yacht racing that I’m teaching for Orza Scuola Vela on their Archambault 40. The idea is to bring sailors which are almost entirely new to regattas, up to speed with each other and ready to race in the winter series in La Spezia. The course had its first edition last year, and it had been both good and bad for a variety of reasons. As a starter, we were the slowest boat in the ORC-A category, giving us basically no chance to have real duels with other boats. While the boat is light and fast, it did not have…