Pizza, Pasta, Gelato and racing! Can it be any better?
No!
Garda was calling and of course we made our way to Malcesine. 14 other boats did the same. Team Wanna-B even flew in from the Netherlands Antilles and Garda proved that no matter how long your journey is, it is worth it to come. Thursday welcomed us with a beautiful practice race in classical Malcesine conditions. For those how haven’t known it until then: Yes, in Malcesine the left is paying! So, no wonder that everybody was fighting for the pin end in race one on Friday. Team Blanc sur Blanc and Firlefanz won the start and were the first who were tacking just underneath the sailing club, giving them the early lead. As the windward mark laid slightly more south of the Navenne bay, probably 700 m from the shore, the wind was very light there. Which gave us the chance to catch the lead just before the first upwind mark as we staid longer close to shore. We kept this lead until the finish. Race two was quite similar with a hard but fair fight for the pin end. As the wind shifted slightly to the left the fleet was already on layline when everybody tacked again just underneath the club. Hitting the layline exactly brought us lead number two and bullet number two as most of the fleet were overlaying the mark. Team Blanc sur Blanc, ASPRA and ESSEBOATS posted solid results in both races of day one. Which gave them overall rank two, three and four after day one. Closely followed by Firlefanz, Maitresse and Wanna-B. The last two mentioned were ready for some good races on the next day…
While waking up on Saturday a few guys might have wondered why the first start was only at one o’clock, while a beautiful north wind was blowing until eleven o’clock. But no worries guys 😉 Garda has more to offer than a sail in the morning. What about beautiful sail in the evening after a nice pasta? That’s no problem when you are in Garda! So, let’s go with another classical Malcesine day. Let’s give the guys in the restaurant something to look at when we are tacking just in front of them:
Young team Maitresse seemed to be especially motivated to impress the people on the shore and posted a series of five, two, two on that day, due to good starts at the pin end and a real commitment to the left-hand side. Team Wanna-B was not less motivated to show their friends and family, who came with them to Lake Garda, what they are capable of. Place two, four and three catapulted them into second place overall after day two. Team Maitresse followed one point behind. Blanc sur Blanc and Firlefanz dropped to place six and seven overall after both scored an OCS after a hard fight at the start. Our self scored two more clear bullets in race three and four and another one in race five. But the last one was everything but clear as we found our self in the middle of the fleet on the second upwind, due to some missed shifts in the dying southerly wind. But getting the last shift of the upwind right, a good downwind, as well as a good leeward mark rounding secured as the fifth bullet out of five races. Which gave us a nine point lead for the last day.
We are sure the guys, who wondered themselves already on Saturday why we are not racing in the morning, did the same on Sunday. The first possible start was again at one o’clock. Yes, this time you have been right :D Sunday was cloudy, a bit colder, a bit rainy, with strong north wind. The signs were not promising for a classical Garda day. It didn’t become a classical Garda day. We started a race into the dying northerly wind. The first lap was alright but things got really tricky especially on the last downwind. Boy, oh boy, so many lead changes with winds coming from everywhere. But let’s forget this race, it didn’t change much in the overall ranking anyway. In the end someone always just remembers the good things. And how good it was indeed. Three classical Garda days for everybody who arrived on Thursday and one whole week of pure classical perfect Garda conditions for us, as we have done a training before.
Join us next year! You won’t regret it!
See you there!
The crew of pura gioia
