The weekend before the event all teams arrived and started building their boat just outside the city. Logistically a little bit different than before but that is the charm of Venice and its waterways. A full 3 days were needed to have all the boats rigged, measured and floating. Holmatro past all the measurement requirements easily, a short test sail followed to make sure everything worked and spent her first night in front of the San Marco square.

Racing in the city

The racing area was in the middle of the city, all commercial traffic was stopped for 4 hours and 8 races a day where planned. A short racecourse with natural border around it combined with light winds made it a tough first day.

Only 5 races where sailed of which one was a real bad one for us. The other four where good which saw us just outside the podium positions after the first day of racing, 4th on the overall leader board. A good result but plenty of room for improvement!

Day 2 had similar conditions as the previous one, light wind and a short course. With good spirits onboard we started the day. Good starts where followed with several small but costly mistakes during the races. Not as good as the first day, dropping one place on the overall leader board but still close to the top three in points. Everything was still possible for the final day!

Light winds

Even lighter winds welcomed all boats on the water on Sunday. A change of the wind direction made for a change of the racecourse. The start was more important than the previous days as not a lot of passing lanes where available. Unlike Saturday our starts where not that good which made us follow the boats in front around the racecourse. One good race out of six for the final race day saw us drop from 5th to 8th on the overall leader board. A very dramatic day, which made our first two days almost worthless, even tough the overall points where really close to 5th. A long evaluation session followed and made us even more aware of our strong and weak points. A bad ending to a great event in a beautiful location! 

A week after our first iShares Cup event the four of us have been talking about the next event in Hyeres. Plans have been made to improve on our results and all of us are ready to show which position Team Holmatro should be in on the leader board!

Next stop iShares Cup Hyeres 3rd, 4th and 5th of July!

Mark van Gelderen
Team Holmatro