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Report from Halifax

Bill Symes blogs from the 2009 Laser Master Worlds

First, some clarification. We’re not actually in Halifax. We’re in St. Margarets Bay, a 45-minute drive west of Halifax. It’s a deep water inlet about 10 miles long and 3 miles wide ringed with impossibly picturesque coves. A beautiful place to sail. (Morbid note: it was at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay that SwissAir Flight 111 went down in Sept. 1998.)

Also, the Laser Master Worlds are not to be confused with the Laser ”Senior” Worlds that wrapped up here last Wednesday (won by 2008 Olympic gold medalist Paul Goodison). The “seniors” are elite athletes who compete at the professional and Olympic level, and very much our junior. All you need to do to sail in Master Worlds is to be at least 35 years old and still breathing. That’s it.

Not that masters aren’t serious. Among the ranks of the 295 entrants are a lot of big names from Laser yesteryear: Bertrand, Neilson, Cockerill, Pimental, Tillman, Seidenberg, and more. The field includes Olympic medalists and former world champions. Most of these guys still work very hard at it. There will be no slackers at the front of the fleet.

Laser masters are divided by age into 4 divisions: Apprentice (35-44), Master (45-54), Grand Master (55-64), and Great Grand Master (65+). They are further divided by rig (standard and radial) and gender (male and female). Great Grand Masters and women sail only in radials. So, at the end of the week, we will crown not one, but 11 champions. I’ll let you do the math.

In my division, Grand Masters, the man to beat is 6-time (and defending) master world champion, 2-time Olympian and former world champ in the Soling and J-24 classes Mark Bethwaite from Australia. He’ll be hard pressed by former Finn Gold Cup winner and German Olympian Wolfgang Gerz, plus a whole bunch of very good sailors you never heard of. My goal is to break the top 10. It won’t be easy.

Day 1. Sunday, August 30, 2009

Tropical storm Danny passed through last night, blew down the regatta tent and knocked out power at the yacht club. The site is a mess and everything is soaking wet, but the Lasers are OK (before leaving last night they advised us to turn our boats over and put the dollies on top). First start is at 1 pm but the race area is reported to be an hour’s sail away. The eager ones start leaving the beach at 11, and we beat out of French Village Harbour in bright sunshine and an 8-knot westerly. Then 5 knots. Then 2 knots. By the time we get to the standard rig start area, it’s 1:30 and the wind has evaporated completely. We drift around for another hour or so (I think I fell asleep for a while) before the RC spots a breeze line coming up the bay. Up goes the L flag and off goes the start boat (a 60-ft sloop) with 160 Lasers trailing along like a flock of ducklings. The new course is set and the first warning goes up for the Apprentice fleet around 3:30. Show time, finally.

Make a long story short: all fleets got 2 races in the bank. Southwest breeze, low to mid teens, lumpy seas. In my fleet, Standard Grand Masters, Gerz came out of the blocks hot, scoring 2 bullets to Bethwaite’s 2 seconds. I managed to hang with the top group for the first ¾ of each race, fading on the final leg. These races are loooong; about 1 hour 20 minutes each, which is about 20 minutes beyond my attention span. Pushing a Laser through giant slop takes a lot of concentration.

Highlights from the other fleets: In standard rig Apprentices, the Greek Adonis Bougiouris jumped out in front of pre-regatta favorite Brett Beyer from Oz. Andy Pimental leads a Newport, RI, top heavy leaderboard in the Standard Masters. The invincible Peter Seidenberg dominated the Great Grand Masters with two bullets, as did Canadian Rob Koci in the Radial Apprentice fleet. The pecking order is starting to take shape.

It’s 7:30 and bone chilling cold by the time we straggle back to the beach. No time to socialize or hang out. Just pack up the boat, pray for hot water in the shower, find food (anything will do at this point), and a fall into bed. Zzzzzz. . . . . .

Day 2. Monday, August 31, 2009

Another long day on the water. Things look promising to start. The Apprentices take off in a 15-knot sea breeze, but the wind goes south (actually west) and the RC pulls the plug just as the fleet approaches the weather mark (ILCA chief honcho Jeff Martin cannot tolerate an imperfect race). So, once again it’s anchors away and we’re all off to the other side of the bay in search of dependable breeze (or shallow water, or more exercise, or whatever; can anybody tell me why they have to move the course a few miles every time the wind shifts?). We finally settle down over by the western shore and things get going again around 3 pm. When the gun goes off it’s 10 knots and dropping fast, and sure enough, just as my Grand Master fleet is slouching toward the leeward gate on the last leg, the wind goes south again (literally this time) and a jumbled up fleet reaches home in a 12-knot sea breeze (no abandonment this time; damn).

With a newfound sense of expediency (it’s getting dark), the RC promptly rotates the course and fires the warning for Race 4. Off we go. I shake off the urge to collapse and find myself – surprise! – 3rd at the weather mark. Then 1st at the leeward mark! Then, as I close in on the second weather mark, having already calculated my new score with a 1 on the end of it, the breeze clocks back to the west and I hear the dreaded 3 horns of abandonment (damn again). Crash boats start herding the tired masters into towlines for the long ride home. In the ensuing mayhem, more than one competitor loses his damage deposit. Last one in gets a cold shower.

With only one race completed, there are few changes at the front of the leaderboard. Ray Davies from Canada led the Standard Apprentice fleet home, but Bougiouris still leads with Beyer closing in. Scott Ferguson (Newport, RI) took a bullet in his qualifier to climb on top of the Standard Masters fleet, with Marc Jacobi taking first in the other Masters qualifier. In Standard Grand Masters, Australia’s Rob Lowndes did an end run around the left corner to snatch victory from Texan Doug Peckover, but the German Gerz came in 3rd to solidify his lead in the series. Over on the radial course, Grand Masteress Sally Sharp came home first as series leader Rob Koci took an OCS. Speaking of OCS, 5 of 14 Radial Apprentices jumped the gun, including series leader Richard Bott from Australia, leaving the victory to Willmott Grant. Brazilian Carlos Eduardo Wanderley is beating up on the 37-boat Radial Masters fleet. And (yawn) Peter Seidenberg continues to be unbeatable in the Great Grand Master fleet.

I want to be like Peter when I grow up.

Day 3. Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009

With the forecast for offshore breeze from the north, the Standard Rig course is tucked up into the northwest corner of the bay, the sunlit beaches of Queensland just beyond the weather mark. Judging from the fleets starting ahead of us, the conventional wisdom is to go right. Sounds good to me. I get a clean start near the boat, tack, and put the pedal down. About ¾ of the way out to the right layline I tack back and, sure enough, I’m crossing the whole fleet (I just love it when the plan comes together). I round the weather mark with a 50-yard lead and manage to hold on until the second reach, when Mark Bethwaite puts it into hyperdrive and nearly runs me down. We battle to a draw on the final run and reach, but I get the overlap at the leeward mark and take the gun by a boat length. Yes!

But victory is fleeting. As I approach the pin end for the second start, the wind suddenly dies and goes left. Can’t lay, can’t tack. Time to bail. Trying to sail through the starboard tack peloton, I’m getting bounced around like a pinball. Meanwhile, the leaders are hiking hard and sailing away out on the right side. But squirrelly winds are both a curse and a blessing. I begin to find my own personal puffs on the run and second beat, and by the time I reach the finish line, can only count 7 boats ahead. Dodged a throwout, barely. Gerz got another bullet.

After Gerz and Bethwaite, the Grand Master fleet is getting very tight. I’ve moved into 5^th behind Alan Keen of South Africa and Rob Lowndes of Australia, with Doug Peckover and Jack Schlacter hot on our heels. Tough competition; no one is giving an inch.

Lesson learned: Had a close encounter with Mark Bethwaite at the start of the second race that messed up both of our races (his more than mine). In the heat of the moment, I forgot the Basic Rule: friendship is more important than sailboat racing. What should have been a happy sail home was clouded with regret. Going forward, I will re-resolve to sail hard, sail fair, but never forget to keep my priorities straight.

Day 4. Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009

OK, gotta make this real quick (turns out they can run races faster than I can write, and the final round is about to start). Wednesday was the lay day, which we used to catch our breath and take a closer look at some of those excruciatingly cute villages that dot Nova Scotia’s southeast coast. It was a beautiful day, and this place is one big sailing postcard.

The seabreeze returned on Thursday and we got off 2 races in classic Laser sailing conditions: fully hiked, spitting out salt water on every other wave, insane surfing rides down the short, steep waves to the leeward mark. I found my mojo in race 1, sailing way out in front of the fleet with big dogs Bethwaite and Schlacter. Alas, they both got me in the end. Race 2 started well, but I faded in the stretch and wound up 6^th, with Bethwaite taking another gun. At the end of the day, Gerz is still leading but Bethwaite is closing. I’m now in a very tenuous 4^th, beating Jack Schlacter on a tiebreaker.

The Standard Masters have now concluded their qualifying round and split into Gold and Silver fleets. Scott Ferguson is still on top of the leaderboard but the Dutchman Arnoud Hummel (2007 Master World Champion) is coming on strong, with 2 bullets in today’s races. This fleet is incredibly deep (see Tracy Usher’s report for the up close view).

That night LauraLee teamed up with French chef extraordinaire Alain Vincey to prepare an epic meal of barbequed lobster, insalata caprese, and fresh berry pie at the gorgeous waterfront estate where we are slumming with 6 other sailors and wives. Mark and Carolyn Bethwaite brought a case of wine and we drank it all. No doubt we will all remember this evening long after the pain of endless windward legs has been forgotten.

Day 5. Friday, Sept. 4, 2009

The seabreeze came back on Friday, but my mojo pulled a no-show. In race 1, I went right and the wind went left. Rounded the weather mark deep in the pack and never could get back into the boat race. There goes throwout #1. In race two, I went left and didn’t fare much better. Going very, very slow. Spent half the race looking for weeds on my blades, but I suspect the only undergrowth was in my head (or maybe it was the case of wine). Struggled to finish 11^th as Jack Schlacter ran away with the race and possibly my last shot at 4^th in the regatta. Wolfgang Gerz finished the day with 1,2 and has now pretty much put away the Laser Grand Masters world championship. Well done, Wolfgang.

Day 6. Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009

It’s over. The 2009 Laser Master World Championships ended Saturday with no races completed, so the standings as of Friday night became final. Not that we didn’t try. Sailors were towed out to the race area across a perfectly glassy St. Margarets Bay in hopes of a 1 o’clock start. Around 2 the RC moved the course up about a mile, chasing an elusive breeze coming off the north shore. But after almost 2 hours of starts, recalls, postponements, and abandonments, they finally threw in the towel and started picking up boats for the hour-long tow back across the bay to St. Margaret Sailing Club.

So we end on a somewhat disappointing note, but LauraLee met me at the beach with a rum and tonic (with lime!), and soon things were looking up. I ended up in 5^th place, which is better than I had hoped for coming into the regatta. I had an outside chance to move up a notch but an even greater chance to move down a notch or two, so I can’t complain.

Now it’s off to the gala awards dinner at the Cunard Center in Halifax, a last chance to party with old and new friends from around the world. Tomorrow we’ll have to clean up the house, pack up the boats, and get ready for the long flight home to Oregon, where the Mother of All Visa Bills awaits us. But long after that’s paid off and forgotten, we will treasure the memories of sailing in this beautiful place with this terrific bunch of sailors. And don’t be surprised if we show up next year to the 2010 Laser Master Worlds in Hayling Island, England, to do it all over again.