Thursday 22 October 2009

Rolex Osprey St. Petersburg 2009

We've done seven flights today at the Rolex Osprey Match Race. The club has 10 Sonars, so all the teams got their dedicated boat and the flights - with each five matches - went smoothly and efficiently. The RO was very good and her team did a great job.

We don't have rubber-boats to umpire in, but fixed polyester powerboats. The one I got had a 115 hp engine and a good console and seat. When I first saw the boats I had my doubts, but that went away quickly. Manoeuvring is good and with plenty of power you can get to were you need to be quick enough. Only you have to watch out for the wake.

I umpired with an America's cup umpire from Canada today. Since some of the races were decided pretty early in the match, we had time to talk about the Louis Viutton series in Aukland and Valencia. He told me stories about umpire calls and about the - then still- friendly atmosphere among the teams. It made me wish AC 33 was over and done with already. Perhaps I should trow my hat in for the new World Cup series Loius Viutton is setting up.....

We didn't have exceptional situations today, so I don't have much on the rules front. Some 17 overlaps were good to warrant a couple of greens and we did do some yellow's and blue's.

Tomorrow we will see some closer matches as the highest seeded competitors will meet in the end of the round robin. We will do two of those and then on Saturday go to quarter, semi and finals.

The club is very nice and real classic. Big club facilities with even an immense ballroom.
I'll tell you more about it later. For now I'm going to bed.
Don't let the publishing time throw you off. My lap-top is still on the Dutch time zone (CET). It's 6 hours earlier over here.

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