Thursday, August 28, 2014

Model olimpics

Every year model olimpics are organized on Koseze pond in Ljubljana.
Usually three F5g races are organized, marathon/navigation on Monday, match race od wednesday and a regular regatta on Friday, this year is no exception.
Sadly i missed mondays navigation because of the upcoming exams.

Wednesday

Hoewer my father joined me yesterday(wednesday) to do some match racing.
We arived at the pond and the Jury decided to make it a normal race, but that only one lap around the course should be sailed(instead of two), to save time.
No results were discarded at the end(i have no clue why?). Meaning that every "bad" result counted and consistency was crucial.
The wind was typical koseze shit, the windward bouy was set towards the trees and there was no wind. the rest of the course was sailable, but luls lasting about 5min were present from time to time completely stopping the happening on the course.
The event was fun nevertheless.
The starts were pretty important because the firs buoy was only about 10m from the starting line, and a reach followed. The left side of the starting line was heavily favourised.
I messed-up 3 starts, but all of the rest is started as close to the left bouy as possible and always came first to the windward bouy.
My father was charging too, Fila seems to suit his sailing style. He took a strong second place, leaving the third 8 points behing.
I took first easily. Evolution is the boat to beat at the moment.
Most of the succes in these low-wind conditions comes down to it's stiff, perhaps to stiff, yet shallow sails. Which take form easily, and pop to the other side with ease. Meaning that each gust is used as propulsion and not as a sail turning/poping tool!

Friday 

The last race of august is over. Conditions were Koseze specific, zero wind, and i mean zero.
18 competitors showed up. The racing was not exactly exciting as the boats barely moved.
The conditions were made worse by rc powerboats driving near the race course and the organisers did not tell them to stop driving because they're making waves.
I was sailing evolution and was struggling with bad luck and wrong decisions about where the vacum is going to suck the boats. So i was following my father in 3rd or 4th place in most races. He was doing much better with a string of second places.
Leading was #93 a low wind specific boat.
I was a bit frustrated, because there was nothing i could do to better my performance. I started sharp on the right side but couldn't match the speed(slowness) of boats with less wetted area like fathers fila, #49 and #93.
Then there was a 20min pause, me, father and skipper of #93 helped peter a sailor in the wheelchair to get to his car because he was leaving due to heat and zero wind, i came ba about 10min after the pause was declared to find that there was only about a minute left to the next start.
This was a bad bad move by the organizers. One does not shorten the pause without informing all the competitors.
I decided not to sail in that race but i did put together fila trew it into the water and when my father arrived he sailed the race and dispite starting a few minutes late he cam into the top 5.
Me and #93 did not start that race.
Tbh i was dissapointed, the organizers did shit.
The final results are not out yet but #93 was first with all bullets but that one race. Niko #49 was second because he won that race i was left out of. I got third and my father got 4th. now how the fuck did he get forth? he was ahead of me in all race but one. in that race he caught a dead end line that was floating around a bouy(organizers shame on you again), and finished second to last or something like that.
I am pretty sure that they messed up something, we will see when the results come.

Rant

Yes i know that rc sailing or to be exact the F5g class here in slovenia is not such a serious thing like IOM in croatia or Rg65 in south america but with negligence like seen on friday rc sailing here won't ever become a serious hobby. 
Not saying that it(sailing) should be to all, but for some of us it's not only joy but much more.

That is why Slovenia is a small country with a little bit of everything, because certain people tend to work on their own and strive to achieve their goals more than the others. Such people standout from the crowd, it is becouse of them that Slovenia is succesful in many sports from the outside. But these successful people are alone, Slovenia fails to deliver offspring in sports(and not just sports) because of a careless attitude seen all to often. 

(added:
Real succes will be delivering quality offspring for generations not just picking the best one from a generation and feeding him to the world saying "look we very good at this".)

After the sailboat race an exhibition of all models was sceduled.
picasa pictures won't load right now so they are coming soon..



Saturday, August 9, 2014

Bonus photos of evolution














Evolution clips

One day a small storm came in at Premantura, the wind was Yugo, know as a warm, humid wind creating good waves out in the open.
When the clips were shot the average wind was about 18knots, you can see the wave size for yourself.
The handling downwind was excellent, no drama. The only reason for not flying the a rigg is the inability or the poor ability(even with b rigg) to tack, when sailing upwind.
This is due to the low mass of the boat and the waves.
I don't know if anyone ever sailed an f5g boat in such winds. As the races are usually held on clam ponds.
Whatever, if such conditions arrive at a race i will be out sailing, having fun with my model yacht.