December 2, 2006 - Event Recap
Adventure Sports - Neil Pryde; JP-Australia; Cabrinha Kites
iWindsurf.com http://www.iwindsurf.com/
Race reports by Vincent Barre & Ron Kern follow.
Race report by Vincent Barre:
Hi,
Here is a little summary of the I-to-I race….
After a short 5-hour drive I arrived in Ft Lauderdale for a night's
rest. Ron indicated that tomorrow's start would be early, so we got up
just before 0700. Given the length of the race I tried to intake as
much food as my stomach could tolerate at this early hour. I was not
strong enough though to take the infamous Ron's morning stew, whose
recipe will remain secret to the reader.
We arrived at the beach greeted by a nice 10 knot side-onshore
breeze and because the first buoy was so far upwind, pretty much
everyone elected to go on the full light air kit. I opted for 11.7
and a 70cm+8 fin. The course was simple: Go to the horizon to the
furthest offshore buoy at the end of the Port Everglade channel,
dodge a couple of tankers and numerous 100 feet luxury boats on a 11
miles reach to another buoy out of sight and come back.
The start sequence was simple and the 16-boat fleet hit the short
start line relatively together. I got to the pin end of the line on
port and tacked immediately for fresh air going offshore. It paid
off; I got on a plane immediately and was close to Ron and
Fernando. We had very similar speed and angle on that first tack
which made me feel good because I have been trailing these guys for
the last couple of years. I chose to tack first toward the Port
Everglade to get the benefit of the outgoing current. I got into some
light air and lost a lot of ground. I elected to stay at the border of
the channel to avoid any collision risks. Ron and Fernando crossed
right through it and got much more lift from the current. After a few
tacks I passed the big buoy in a very irregular chop caused by dozens
of boats whose size made me feel like a small bug.
After the buoy, the acceleration to the downwind mark was awesome and
I began to cruise above 20mph toward the Lighthouse. This was the
landmark close to which I hoped to find the second buoy. But first
thing first, I had to dodge three moored tankers and two maxi yachts
that were coming toward me. I had to go upwind a little bit but I did
sail the wake of the yachts, which completely flattened the water on
200 yards. I was like having 15 knots of wind on a perfectly glassy
water. I picked up so much speed!
After a few miles the chop calmed down and a nice SE swell allowed
for some long surf. I tried to change my stance every 20 to 30
seconds to avoid cramping. Fernando was getting closer and closer and
I was hoping to pass him before then end of the downwind. However my
mast foot began to inch forward and I had to stop and reset it. That
put Fernando out of reach. Ron was long gone.
I managed to find the downwind buoy and began to go back upwind.
After about 5 minutes, the wind began to get very, very light. I could
stay on the plane easy but making ground upwind was difficult. I was
getting very tired and low on drinking water. After about 40 minutes
I lost the plane near a pack of condos and as I tacked out I saw that
I was heading back toward the lighthouse. That was not a good sign.
Fortunately on the port tack I had more sail pressure. I assumed that
there was some current heading North and that was really handicapping
my starboard tack. I saw Ron and Fernando's sails finish the course
and I knew I would be no better than third. On the upside there was
nobody behind me. So I elected to stop for a bit and tap into my
reserve water and food. I also knew that the longer I waited the more
chance I would get to completely loose the plane. But it was a good
move and when I lifted the sail back up I had a much more
"perky"
pumping and I began to make more ground. Still the progress was slow
and I was getting concerned about completely running out of juice.
Thankfully I got a 5-degree lift due to either wind or current shift
about 3 miles from the end line and I hiked as much as I could,
finally reaching the line without further tack.
Upon exiting the water, my arms were burning with lactic acid from
pumping so much upwind. But after 5 minutes of stretching I was
surprised that I wasnot too exhausted and I felt pretty good. I
congratulated Ron andFernando for pulling a horizon job on everyone
else. I felt competitive against them up until the downwind mark,
albeit my tactical mistake at the Everglade Inlet. But then I just
did not havetheir angle in the light stuff.
After about 30 to 40 minutes Eduardo came in. He was the last person
that managed to do the entire course in the time limit. Joan came in
afterwards but he did not go all the way. Finally, Peter the Iron man
(he told me later the "Iron head"….) came after more than 5
hours of
grueling slogging upwind. Now HE was exhausted. He completed he whole
course but came out of the 4-hour limit. Everyone else had jibed
early and was already back on the shore.
The rest of the day was spent stretching, drinking 2 gallons of
water/Gatorade and having a good time. We had a nice party at Ron in
the evening. After that I headed back North to spend Sunday with the
family.
This was a very good experience. It was also easier than I expected.
It was impressive to sail so far offshore for so long but I felt
fairly safe due to the onshore wind. Only the part in the Port
Everglade channel was a little iffy due to the heavy big boat
traffic. But this was largely offset by the sheer pleasure of gliding
so fast, so far.
Ron did a superb job this year organizing a fun event, definitely
different from running and up/down wind course between inflatable
buoys.
I'll definitely try to go back again.
Best regards.
Vincent.
Race Report by Ron Kern: This year's i-To-i Distance Race took place on Saturday, December 2nd. A grass roots event with no entry fee, no fancy hotel, and no event t-shirts came off as planned.
Armed with weather forecasts which included a tailored dead-on report from iWindsurf's meterologist, Matt Corey, it was decided Saturday was the day to go. Most of the 16 competitors arrived on time for the 8:30 a.m. skipper's meeting which was postponed waiting for a few stragglers to show up and rig.
Pointing to marks & starting line.
Drawing the course in the sand.
The meeting took place and the start sequence was scheduled for 10:35 a.m. but the actual 15 minute start sequence started at 11:03 a.m. taking longer for competitors to rig than hoped.
The wind was looking favorable blowing ESE at about 10-13 mph on the shore, the nearby international airport reporting 11 knots consistently.
Wind graph of Saturday's wind courtesy of iWindsurf.com
Everybody made it out to the nearby start line on time for the start and started with an "all clear". The orientation of the line made it almost mandatory to take a port start and tack over to starboard immediately. It was hard from the water to see the other competitors so I can't report much from the water other than what I was experiencing nearby. The water state was mixed chop and swell 2-3' and the water was quite clear and mostly weed-free making for a scenic ocean race experience that wasn't threatening to those who haven't ocean sailed much. All but one entrant, who sailed a Prodigy board, were on Formula equipment with sails from 7m to 12.5m.
After the start I could see that Vincent Barre and Fernando Martinez got off the line planing and were making good speed to weather on starboard tack. Vincent tacked off first to port and was trying to get close to the inlet mouth to take advantage of the outgoing tide but it didn't pay off with the wind lightening closer to the beach and he lost distance and angle to Fernando and I. Fernando went out longer on Starboard, I tacked in between Fernando and Vincent also hoping to take advantage of the outgoing tide from the inlet. I crossed slightly in front of Fernando on the next tack but had an additional tack to make so we were neck in neck for the lead. When we crossed again I was quite a bit ahead having stayed in the outgoing current longer than he. I rounded the mark first at 28 minutes, a 14 mph average speed, and 6.3 miles of sailing. Fernando was next after a frustrating few spare tacks to get around the mark and Vincent third.
The trip downwind to Hillsboro Inlet marker was fun for me riding the swell nicely powered up. The leg was all on starboard tack taking 33 minutes, for 11.2 miles and an average speed of 20 mph with speeds of 14-24 mph along the way.
I rounded the mark and started back upwind towards the finish. I could then see that Fernando was quite a bit back from me and Vincent was quite a bit back from Fernando putting me in in 1st place for the moment. The wind was more SE than I thought it would be going to weather. The forecast was for it to shift more to the east. After about 4 miles I was getting concerned I was going to have to throw in a tack or so to get to the finish but was also concerned doing so would cost distance if the wind did shift. It was getting a bit lighter inside and I thought there would be more wind further out. I tacked. I went .7 miles out, picked up a bit more wind but also allowed Fernando to catch up. Fernando tacked when he got close to shore, I tacked to cover him and move out to better wind but sailed longer and further out allowing him to take the lead. Sailing closer to the beach worked out for him, outpointing me and taking the win.
Log from Ron's GPS
I finished in 2nd place about a minute or so behind Fernando after sailing to weather for 50 minutes, 11.9 miles at an average speed of 14 mph.
Back on the beach competitors that sailed the shorter course options, broke down or gave up were waiting for Vincent Barre who could be seen from the beach and Eduardo Owen, Joan-Pere Aguilo, Peter Ifju to appear. Vincent finished 3rd having run out of planing conditions about Sunrise Blvd. Eduardo next slogging, planing, slogging 4th place. Next was Joan-Pere slogging, planing, slogging 5th place. Nobody could see Pete. An hour went by and still no Pete. Finally passing hour 4 Pete appeared in a spotting telescope slogging slowly upwind. He wouldn't quit and finished nearing hour 5, passing up Al Bernau's 4 hour epic journey of two years ago, for 6th place.
The whole race for me took 1 hour 52 minutes, covered 29.4 miles at an average speed of 16 mph.
Leave December 8-9, 2007 open on your calendar for the 5th Annual Inlet to Inlet Race.
2006 NOR (Notice of Race)
Previous Years of i To i Results, Photos & NOR's