How did I get here

Day One of the 2022 J/70 World Championship dawned bright and beautiful, but with no wind evident, and none in the forecast neither.

At the competitors’ meeting the race committee discussed the wind. Forecast for some building later in the day. Start would be delayed.

And then the start was delayed again, and again, and again, and finally the day was abandoned. There is just nothing that can be done when you have no wind.

So now what to do with the day? Well, you can walk around Monaco, see the sights, stop for a coffee, see some more sights, stop again for coffee, etc. And this is what I did 🙂

My meandering took me to the Monte Carlo waterfront East of the hill with the Hotel de Paris and the Casino, where there is new construction to build a whole series of ugly Bauhaus -style buildings on caissons in the water. I can’t describe how horrible this looks, and how it destroys the whole feeling of the town.

The artist rendering here is incredibly optimistic – the truth is far worse. But it is still under construction so who knows, maybe it will turn out better than it looks now. It feels like the whole vibe was sacrificed to increase the amount of real estate for sale.

After this I walked back along the waterfront to the Fairmont, which is right on the water, thinking to have another coffee stop. But it turns out to be hideous too; another big chunk of concrete with no architectural interest at all. I walked in – there is a Nobu there, among other things – but the interior was equally as bad as the exterior.

I couldn’t bring myself to stay so I walked back to the Hotel de Paris. And so it goes … a lost day of racing and a lazy afternoon …

With day zero on the water in the books, it was time for – ta da – the Opening Ceremony.

I’ve been fortunate to have been in a few World Championship regattas recently, and the Opening Ceremonies are each a bit different. The one in Malcesine for the Moth Worlds was pretty cool; a march through the old town grouped by teams.

In this one the organizers introduced each country, and the teams came up to the stage. One of the members of each country said a few words. It was cool and pretty exciting, and set a great tone.

Pretty cool and amazing … once again I have to ask myself … how did I get here?

Today was “day zero”, that it, the day before the World Championship regatta begins. We had a practice race which was great practice, though held in light air, and then later in the day would be the Regatta Competitor’s Meeting and the Opening Ceremony.

The racing was hampered by a lack of wind which might be a theme for the week. The J/70 class rules specify that no race will be held unless there is five knots for five minutes, and we wonder whether and how often that will be met.

The practice race confirmed a few things; we needed practice 🙂 and man, a World Championship fleet is tough. As Món commented, “there are no bananas out there”. At least we weren’t one either; we did end up ahead of about 1/3 of the fleet.

Biggest challenges for us: getting a decent start, playing the right (left) side, managing boat heel, and playing the puffs downwind (up in the luffs, down with pressure). We also need to be a bit better at anticipating crosses and gas, and working ahead on fleet tactics.

Nothing a good night’s sleep can’t cure … but first onward to the Opening Ceremony!

Okay, I know you’ve been waiting for this, and here it is…

This is a rather rough video with samples from our practice day. We had enough wind to go through all the maneuvers and figure out who does what. Of course, you’d want to have more than a day or two to practice this, but given the circumstances I think we did well, and we’re ready. Onward!

Okay! So I’m here in Monaco, having a great time tourist-ing, but now it is time to sail … the reason I’m here.

I meet Outlier, our mighty steed for the week (my friend Fede’s J/70, from Barcelona), and I meet Món, Matti, and Dario, my crew for the week.

There are a few things to do: rig the boat, get everything measured (serious stuff for the World Championship), launch the boat, and then … go sailing!

We had a nice practice sail in the bay outside Monaco … tuning with some of the other boats here … all well. Among other things, the new sails look perfect.

Sailing was just like sailing anywhere, concentrating on the boat, the crewwork, the sails … I suddenly pinched myself and thought “wait a minute, here I am, sailing in Monaco!” Pretty amazing.

I had brought my Velocitek with me – a sailing GPS instrument – which gives speed, heading, calibrates distance to starting line, etc. And it records a sailing track. Here’s the one from the day:

Most definitely the first track I’ve recorded off Monaco … you can see, it didn’t take long before we had left Monaco, passed France, and were headed for Italy 🙂

I also had my GoPro camera aboard – will see if I can post an edit – stay tuned for this.

After we put the boat away, hung out for a while with some of the other Spanish teams … my high school Spanish was put to the test as I gamely tried to follow the conversation.

And then of course, had to wrap the day with a nice dinner, scallops, amazing…

So ends another day … onward!

Wanna know the difference between Monaco and Monte Carlo? Well, Monaco is a country, and also a city, whereas Monte Carlo is a mountain and district in the city. Though in practice they are almost synonymous.

It turns out that the yacht harbor and the Port Palace hotel are in Monaco but not Monte Carlo, while the Yacht Club is in both…

Up on the hill above the harbor are the Monte Carlo Casino and the Hotel de Paris, which are the legendary heart of the town. And so onward to find them!

So that was fun! – if a wee bit touristy; now back to the hotel for a little nap (!) and then dinner at La Momé, the hotel’s rooftop restaurant.

And so ends day two. Two!? Yeah only two so far; tomorrow my boat and crew arrive, and the real sailing starts … stay tuned!

I know, you have been reading this blog with interest, but wondering when will it stop being a travelogue and turn into sailing? Not yet (!) but getting closer…

When last we left off I had arrived in Monaco, yay, and so now it was time to walk down the street and visit the Yacht Club de Monaco, host of the event.

As I mentioned before, proper attire required…

Fortunately and not coincidentally the YC is an easy walk from the hotel…

Enough browsing around, time to enter the club because I have an important mission!

And so exploration continues…

Well okay! Yacht Club found, event oriented, burgee swapped, etc. Next up maybe go into Monte Carlo?

Wow what a day. Started early – after yesterday’s week in passport line, I was gunshy of being my usual last-on-the-plane self, so got to the airport in Warsaw super early. And of course – praise Murphy – there was zero line, I was waved through, and ended up with an 90 min to kill. Which I did, with a nice breakfast.

And so then it was off to Nice! (Oh and BTW yes, I was the last-on-the-plane anyway after all 🙄). An uneventful 3 hours later …

For the ride to Monaco employed my trusty “hey Mr Taxi show me your town” approach; walked over to the airport Sheraton and found an English-speaking Taxi tour guide. I’d like to meander a bit, see the coast, and visit Eze on the way (!)

My driver was Robert (roh-bear), a would-be Gran Prix driver except for the continuous phone interruptions from his girlfriend 🙂

As with most medieval cities there are no roads for cars up into Eze; you park at the base and walk up, following in the footsteps of others up the rickety stairs 1,000 years ago.

And so now on to Monaco! … ‘tis but a short drive away …

And so here I am in Monaco! Yay. Onward to the club!

Hi there, in case you weren’t excited enough about upcoming J/70 World Championships (and maybe you weren’t), here’s a great video from the Yacht Club de Monaco:

How excellent is that? Excited now? (!!!)