From Joanna Byron (USA) and Chris Beneteau (Canada) USA-8026:

Hello from afar! Chris and I finally found an internet cafe to communicate to y’all and make you feel bad that you are not in sunny/rainy England with 70 boats for the 2001 worlds. Its awesome baby! We have 16 teams from the Us/Canada combined with amazing sailing conditions and screaming planes.

For all those who opted not to come sail with mom, you lose big as mom led the first 3 legs of worlds race 1 yesterday – she was hot. Crew Yvonne from Westwood is sailing with mom and they get along great. Mom managed an 8th in the first race which was shortened and flukey. Barney pulled two 9’s and isn’t so happy but pulled up today with a 2 and 3. Chris and I were doing well until I self exploded for a 27 and then ocs’ed the next race. Life has been better. Today was hooting good with huge planing conditions in long 3 lap races. I can’t quite feel my arms or shoulders but its all good.

The band rocks and Gary Bain wins the snoring award outdoing Doug Foord but not by a whole lot from what i understand. Canadians that chartered boats have been dealing with breakdowns – Ken and Tim and Mary while Raines and Abbey are smoking hot in Mac’s other boat. Shipping my own boat was about the best thing I could have ever done – well worth the cost.

Wilda and heather m are the unofficial photographers for the week so you know they’ll be good.

Torquay at night is a sight for sore eyes – its amazing what outfits the youth here where – saw some nurse maids and cowgirls and no – its not Halloween. seems the more skin you show the better.

Lots of good beer but doesn’t always meet the Canadian cold standard but pints are aplenty. A short vocab lesson for Scooby and we are good to go.

Gotta run – trophys in an hour. They copied what we did in the us and the winners are pulling boat numbers for prizes – that’s been fun. Dave Wallerstein and Peter Duncan got awesome vests last night.

I think results are on the website – not exactly sure.

More later in the week.

Cheers!
Joanna Byron
USA-8026

From Yvonne Howard (Canada) sailing with Daphne Byron (USA)
USA-8027

Hi All,
Having a truly amazing time here in Torquay. Winds are big, Daphne is awesome, we led for most of the first race on Sunday (yes, that is correct Daphne and Yvonne led the fleet of 68ish boats for most of the race!!). Bad wind on the last leg meant that we finished ninth which considering the company we were keeping was pretty good!!

Yesterday we had wind and lots of it, the first race was two hours long with four one mile upwind legs and lots of chop! The second race was windier but less choppy and we planed at amazing speeds on the reaches! Daphne said she had never had such sustained planing in her sailing life, I had never gone so fast!! We were happy to finish the day without dumping and in 28th place, just behind Tim and Steve (who are sailing well when the boat isn’t breaking!).

Today the wind was a gale force 7 gusting to 9, not sure of the knots but I’d say bloody windy!! At least half of the fleet didn’t sail but we did and stayed upright for 40 minutes until a huge gust knocked us over. We got the boat up and it promptly fell on top of us – a bit scary! Shades of Hobie-Cat rightings!! Eventually we had to be rescued by our very nice rescue man as the waves were enormous and we were getting tired and a bit cold!!

The rest of the North American fleet are experiencing mixed fortunes, Teresa and Ann have had problems with their boat, Ann white and Miles have had some good results, Ken Clark has had problems but finished today’s race, Mary Neumann and Chris from J-Town are sailing in an ancient Albacore and having all sorts of exciting things happen, no vang being one of them!! Barney and David were in third place yesterday but finished eight today so will be well behind Mike McNamara who is doing very well! Joanna Byron is sailing well and completed today’s endurance test nicely!!

That’s the race report from Torquay for now. Hope you are all having half as much fun as I am and good winds!!

Bye for now,
Yvonne ( of the very sore hands!!)

From Peter Duncan
USA-6434

Saturday
Practice Race- 8-10 knots
Barney, Mike McNamera and Mike Holmes launched out to a significant lead.
Barney held the lead much of the time, but let Mike escape from his cover on the last leg and Barney finished 2nd.

Sunday
Race #1- Light 4-6 knots
Daphne lead 3 of 4 legs. Barney, Mike McNamera and Mike Holmes closed on the reaches. At the leeward mark Barney took the lead, and covered Mike McNamara, but then missed two shifts on the final beat and he slid back to 9th as the rest of the fleet sailed past the leaders. It was clear that in this very competitive fleet that most boats in the top half of the fleet had great speed and the smallest error could knock you way back in the pack.

Race #2- 10-15 knots, very shifty (sunny) sailed out at mouth of bay (7 legs)
This may have been the nicest race. The RC sent us out to the mouth of the bay to get better breeze. The seas were big making the upwind legs a challenge, but the equilateral triangle courses gave beautiful planing on each reach.

Race #3- 15-20 knots steady 3 rounds (10 legs)
The fleet got really stretched out. Each leg the leaders extended further so that by the end of the race they were nearly lapping the slowest boats.

Race #4- 20-25 knots with higher gusts (10 legs)
Occasional gusts required easing the jib to keep the boat upright. A long day of sailing (over 20 miles of racing) in challenging, but manageable winds for most of the 70 boat fleet.

Monday
Race #5- 28-32 knots with higher gusts (7 legs)
Wind and sea began to build as boats launched. By an hour before the start it was blowing as strong as the previous day (mid-20 knots) and continued to build. Everyone was in full depower mode and still flogging mains most of the time when beating. Anything off a beat and planning was inevitable.
Seas built large coming across the 2-3 mile fetch. The conditions were certainly sailable, but it was clearly a survival contest as boat after boat capsized. Several of the North American team opted to stay ashore, but those who ventured out will have a story to tell that rivals the final North Americans race in 2000.

Just after setting watches at the 5 min gun a big gust caught Peter Duncan and David Niblett and blew them right over while near reaching. “With both sails flapping and us fully hiked there was nothing we could do to save ourselves from this blast,” Peter commented. Fortunately, they were both able to land on the board, pull Mega Woof back up, and with the high wind bail dry before the 2 minute mark. Daphne Byron was not so fortunate, capsizing as the starting gun sounded and taking several minutes to right the boat forcing her to abandon the race.

The windward end seemed a bit favored, but Joanna and Chris started way to leeward. afterwared Joanna said, “our objective was just to start upright, so we just planed down the line until it was time to go.” Barney and David started about a quarter of the way down the line and began a ferocious drag race with Mike McNamara. Upwind things settled in as the boats blasted off waves and staggered in the puffs. The fastest boats stayed bolt upright and found a way to plane through the puffs with power rather than feathering up and loosing speed.

Jim and Susan Graham made it to the reach before being blown over. Barney took the opportunity to wash out his boat at the 2nd gybe mark, pushing him back from a close race with the leaders to an 8th place finish. Raines Koby and Abby McInnes came from way back (have to see if they had some disaster early on) to a solid finish in the top 15. On the final reach while planing at top speed they got hit by a puff that tried to blow the boat out from under them. Quick action to release both sails kept them upright and in the game. Ken Clarke finally was able to complete a race without a boat breakdown.

At the end of UK Nationals (first 5 races) the top US/Canadian boats are

Barney Harris and David Byron (West River Sailing Club) 6th place
Raines Koby and Abby McInnes (Royal Canadian Yacht Club) 10th place
Peter Duncan and David Niblett (West River Sailing Club) 20th place
Joanna Byron and Chris Benateau (West River Sailing Club) 23rd place

Peter Duncan