After a few days of dealing with the car conversion to European standards, we picked up our dear friend PJ and drove south, stopping briefly in Prague and St. Moritz in the Swiss Alps. We continued along lake Lugano, through Milano to Luca, where we spent a night with our friend Irena and her newly wed French-Canadian husband Marco. They had just settled in the quiet medieval Ponte de Moriano, a few minutes north of town. The next day we drove through Pisa and Carrara to Scarlino, in west Tuscany, our home for the next 3 productive weeks.
Scarlino marina was built recently, in cooperation with Nautor, as part of a very ambitious resort to be completed in 2010. It is one of the most impressive yachting facilities I have ever seen, although not the largest, geared toward serving the Swan community.
Conveniently located in the shadow of Elba, it is in near proximity to some of the best sailing destinations of the western Mediterranean, as well as Florence, Siena, Voltera, San Gimignano and other jewels of Tuscany and Umbria.
The yard is a showroom of Swans, home to most of the 45, 42 and 601s in Europe, as well as X37s, Mum 30s and others. The staff is friendly and meticulous, never in a hurry, but always on top of things with great care.
European marine suppliers don’t have an easy distribution system like in the US, being scattered throughout the continent, but in Scarlino you can get anything within 2 days, ordered by their resourceful magazine desk.
We were sanding, polishing, fixing and customizing detail under the hot Tuscan sun, hiding in the shade of the sun tent with Dorota and PJ, later replaced by Nina and her friend Cyrus. Dorota took charge of bringing the gelcote to new life. Nina’s team buffed sunshine into the stainless steel, while I was sweating the bottom. On weekends we explored the tourist attractions of the region. Finally, Marcin Chodakiewicz joined us for the final touches, including building the very sexy passarelle, boat weighing and measuring by the scrupulous Marco Barbieri and the delivery to Sardinia.
Kuba and Ania delivered our van, full of support equipment, to Porto Cervo via the Piambino-Olbia Moby Line ferry.
Our trip was spectacular, with breeze picking up in the morning. After almost stumbling on the nocturnal isle of Monte Christo, we headed toward the monumental peaks of Corsica, lit by morning sun rising from the mist of the Dolomites. We spent the night sheltered by the ancient Bonifacio harbor, climbed endless steps all the way to the Citadel, wandered through the maze of steep streets of the town and cemetery and left the white cliffs behind, crested by the thousand year old city the following morning. The passage is only 30nm but filthy rich in light slaloming among hundreds of islands and rocks, little bays of an unusual color of sand and crystal water and topped by the background of the north Sardinian raggedy coast. We stopped for a swim close to one of those turquoise beeches, surrounded by pale pink dunes, to be quickly stung by jelly fish.
On our arrival in Cervo, we watched Maxis finishing one of championship races. The entering traffic held us for over an hour, waiting for our turn to dock in a tight spot in front of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. The daredevil dock hands on their speeding ribs are perhaps the most impressive attraction of this world’s yachting capitol.
Reunited with the van we again converted Better Than.. into a racing machine. Decorated with flags, with our new passarelle on display, polished to full luster, we waited for the rest of our team.
The nights were hot and loud with never ending parties in the club and Italian crews starting their daily yelling routines before the blistering sun was up.
Devotion arrived, breaking Clemmie’s ribs in the tricky process of stern-in docking. Steve delivered our new sails and invited us for a lovely dinner in their villa. The regatta village transformed from the Maxi to the Rolex/Audi Swan Cup with new tents, flags and crowds of enthusiasts doubling in size during the transition. This was the first time I have witnessed such a dazzling condensation of beautiful women and luxurious cars crammed into the same place at once.
Finally, I drove Nina and Cyrus to Olbia for their ferry to Rome and parked at the airport to meet Gosia, Andrzej, Marcin, Peter Sernicki, Waldek and Chris whose plane converged with the one from Warsaw carrying Pawel and Arek freshly back from Beijing games. The airport was full of sailors.
We drove through Costa Smeralda’s two lane road, winding through mountains with the blue sea dotted with white sails, around the picturesque Golfo Aranci, Porto Rotundo, Portisco, and porto Paglia to via Della Marina, our street behind the club building where seniora Lina let us into our main villa after collecting a heavy suitcase of our cash deposit.. and for good reason…
The house was not only the closest possible to the docks, club and supermarket, but also the most fun and full of glamor out of all the dwellings we ever occupied during our expeditions, including a swimming pool and private beach overlooking the harbor mooring fields.
It was best example of the humble eco-architecture of Smeralda, blended into rock and blooming flora, filled with a collection of art and trophies from the owner’s vast achievements in formula one, polo, speedboats and sailing including, the Mascalzone Latino campaign.
The second house down the street, at the corner of via Della Bolina, was the scene of our evening feasts prepared daily by the madre-figlia team of Fabrizia, and Albertina (correct me if I am wrong) under Gosia’s direction with Andrzej’s skillful translation. Speaking of which, we had an entirely polish speaking team for the first time in history of the 18 program; one more excuse off the list. Maybe that is why we were so efficient. The registration process was completed, including weigh-in, before dinner, with some help from Diana running the show. The fridges weremloaded, the main on the boom, the weather forecast printed and the rig tuned accordingly.
Monday morning we went for a full day practice with the entire 22 boat fleet to tune with. Marcin hadn’t driven since the 2007 Audi Invitational, so we couldn’t afford to waist time.
It was a good day with light breeze building in the afternoon. We tried different sails, working on improving communication and new crew coordination.
Day 1, Tuesday September 11th, brought a light and shifty easterly. Peter Craig, running this 100 boat venue, with 4 classes on 3 courses, managed to cram in 3 low quality short races. The bullets went to Tea Ekengren’s Blue Nights, with Jeff Madrigali, and Early Bird, with America’s Cup tactician Sten Mohr, who won the day in front of Andrea Massi’s Ulika and Marco Salvi’s Vertigo, with Vasco Vascotto calling the shots.
At dinner we all got presents from our Olympians, souvenirs of the polish Olympic team.
From Krzysiek’s notes:
“Day 1,Race #1, Wind 8-12 kn Jib#1 M + A1, Rig tune JP 2300
We got a pretty good start in the middle of the line. We were working mostly the left side upwind, but maybe not decisively enough (Blue Nights started to leeward of us and went all the way to the left corner and …………….. won the race!). We came in 7th to the weather mark. The race was very close and each mistake even a small one cost us some boats. At the end we finished in 12th, which was a good beginning of the series.
Race #2
We started at the Committee Boat on port. Not a bad start all together, but not according to the plan, which was to start close to the middle of the line. Due to a drop in the wind and a crowd we did not manage to tack from port to starboard on time and had to go towards Committee. The Right side had a bit more velocity, but again we did sail conservatively - not hitting the right corner all the way, but rather tacked to starboard after a few minutes to “check back” with the fleet. Close to the weather mark we were in good shape (in around 10th position) and as we were approaching the mark on port tack and I knew that it would be very crowded so we over-stood (by about 2 boat lengths) our starboard layline. Just after we tacked to starboard the wind shifted by about 10-15 degrees and since we did not have the option to tack back to port - since we had a few starboard tackers on our weather hip as well as a few port tackers still approaching from the left side - I decided that we have to make the mark no matter what. It was very painful and very slow, but we coasted pass the mark losing at least 5 boats in the process. It was one of those situations where the decision of overstaying the layline was good, but the amount by which we did it was not adequate.
Race #3 In this race we had our best start in the regatta. We started close to the Race Committee Boat with lots of speed. Close to the weather mark we were going on starboard and Wisc came on port and lee-bowed us. It was a crucial situation, which could have put us in front of the fleet or in the back. We were holding with Wisc for quite a long time, but finally gave up and were forced to tack. We arrived at the weather mark in around 15th position and after the downwind leg we picked up a few boats by rounding the right gate. We were back at around 12th position. During the last 1/3 of next leg the breeze dropped to 7 knots and we ran into a big hole in the wind. We did call for powering up (the jib especially) but it did not happened and in a few minutes we lost 8 boats and arrived at the weather mark last, which led us to finish in that position.. “
In the afternoon, the boys discovered a near by go-cart course and began a week long competition, equally as exciting as the one on the water. Peter Sernicki, Peter McKloski, Pawel, Arek, Jacek Wysocki, Piotr Przybylski and both Marcins represented the nation of Robert Kubica. Next year the team will be sponsored by BMW and the competition transmitted by ESPN2 at prime time.
Day 2, Wednesday September 12, Ulika took the first bullet and won the day and Carlo Perone’s Atlantica took second bullet. Early Bird was still leading in front of Ulika and Vertigo disqualified in the first race.
Today another Italian special: lunch for the spouses (female)! Gosia had good laughs at that one. Diana and Andrea who run the class office joined us for dinner and we had to behave ourselves.
From Krzysiek’s notes:
“Day 2, Race #4, Wind 9-13 kn Jib#1 L + A2, Rig JP=2300
In this race we were over early. Unfortunately the Committee did not call us in the first three announcements, but at least 30-40 seconds into the race. The conditions were similar to the first day with the wind speed 1 knot greater on average. Learning from the previous day the rig was on the light side and we used the #1 light for the whole day.
The boat was going really fast and we were able to get back into the race by the second weather mark. Downwind we were sailing just behind Devocean but I made a mistake and jibed away for the puff I saw in the middle of the racecourse. Needless to say this coasted us two more jibes and 4 boats.
Race#5 we had a good start from the middle of the line and had good speed throughout the race. It was kind of an un-eventful race with all the boats very close together – We placed 13th so we did not do badly at all.”
Day 3, Thursday September 13th. Peter Craig let us keep the boats at the docks. It was hot and quiet. Everybody waited, sipping espressos under the shore postponement flag, until 1130 when the guns announced the abandonment of racing for the day. The go-cart course got crowded. Non-racing personnel went for a long walk around the harbor. That night we started watching Lejdis. After the Fiesta Latina party in the Piazza Azzura.
Day 4, Friday September 14th. A long postponement for no wind. We drifted for hours looking at boats and giggling around. The breeze came quickly and unexpectedly. One race, Wisc won. We had a night on the town. Gosia and Andrzej had an owner’s dinner and we went looking for some famous Spinnaker steak place and got lost. We ended up in Schooners and watched Lejdis.
From Krzysiek’s notes:
“Day #4,Race 6 Wind 17-24 kn Jib#1H + S2, S4, Rig JP=4500
This day started with a postponement because of the lack of the breeze, but forecast predicted the wind would arrive by early afternoon. That is exactly what happened and we got 19 knots right before the start. Changing the tune of the boat took us a bit longer than expected so positioning for the start was not so good. Just after the start we tacked to port and sailed a clear line for a long time. We arrived at the weather mark in 16th. Downwind we managed to get to a line of 6 boats ahead of us, but rounding the port gate would put us behind them again. At the leeward mark I decided to round the left gate and give room to DEVOE who was behind us on the weather mark. This was a better choice than to round the crowded right gate. On the upwind leg we lined up with Devocean for a long time and did not allow them to pinch us off. We finished 14th, but very close to 3 or 4 other boats.
There was another race started that day, but the breeze went “crazy” and the Committee did a good job by calling it off.”
We blew our tired #4. North Sails had the repair loft set up and we dropped our chute off in the evening, behind a long line of wet bags. That night, on the way to dinner, Andrzej got a phone call about yhe first collapses on the market. I believe it was Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy. Then we watched Lejdis.
Day 5, Saturday September 15th. In the morning Krzysiek and I ran to pick up the repaired spinnaker. They worked all night and never got to ours, but they let us use their machine for a do-it-yourself job. Pawel came to help and we were ready around 900 but there was already postponement. No racing since the breeze was above a 30 knot range. It would be a “rzez niewiniatek,” we were grateful that the Committee called the racing off. A full blown mistral. I dropped our battle flag worried it would shred and doubled our dock lines. We walked to Porto Cervo.
At the Rolex dinner party only half of the crowd was let into the club building. We were the lucky ones. Business class again, by the 3rd floor pool with oysters and Spumante!
The entertainment was hot, with crowds banging plastic shakers to the rhythms of the rumba, samba and mambo, while drooling profusely at long-legged dancers on the windy stage.
Then we watched Lejdis
Day 6, Sunday September 14th. We forgot our heavy shoot at the dock and had to go back to get it.
From Krzysiek’s notes:
“Day 6, Race #7, Wind 16-20 kn Jib #1H and #3 + S2, Rig JP=6500
The day started with a short postponement because the breeze was too strong. By mid-day we were out ready to race and the breeze was oscillating between #3 conditions and #1H ( 25-27 range to as low as 16-17 knots range).It was a very difficult day to set up the rig. In retrospect we should have set it up for the lower range to give us more power in those conditions. We got a so-so start one third down of the way down the line but with not enough speed. We were pressed to tack to port. In the middle of the leg we did managed to pick up a few shifts and arrived at the weather mark in 12th position. On the second upwind leg it was difficult to find a clear line especially since everyone wanted to go right. This was the leg when we were sailing right behind Early Bird with No Limits just behind us. We did not get right enough and ended up 14th, whereas both of them stayed a bit farther right of us and ended up 4th and 8th respectively.
Race #8
In this race we started late from the Committee. The weather leg did not work out for us since we were being covered by other boats and couldn’t get through. On the downwind leg we did nicely and rounded the right gate. From there the plan was to go towards right side, but every time we tried to do so we were tacked on.
We were running out of time to move up in the standings, so I took some risks and sailed deeper into the left side. It did not pay off and we finished last, but we were close to the other boats.”
The 2008 Swan 45 Championship was over and the world as we knew it was falling apart. We had another lovely dinner. Everybody got their copy of Lejdis and marched to Schooners for some midnight oil. Some stayed till dawn and we had to pack them into the airport shuttle without a morning shower. It was a very emotional good bye and off they flu.
Kuba and Ania drove to the ferry and the rest of us, Dorota, Marcin and I were waiting for the end of the mistral-turned-tramontane. Some boats left into it, to return in a few hours with their tails down. Yasha didn’t come back and had to be towed to Civitaveccia with a leaking rudder and no engine. Devocean left for Bonifacio and still got a beating, especially Clemmie. We met them in Scarlino on Tuesday in good spirits. Monday was a new day, still upwind but light and pleasant. All the boats converged on Tuesday morning, but we beat them to the hoist and everything worked like a Rolex time machine. Boat empty, hoisted on the cradle, rig out and apart, sails dried, everything sorted in the container, rafts returned, business class pizza and on the road before dusk.
We were in Szczecin in 19 hours. Marcin caught the last train to Gdansk and made it to his match-racing regatta. Kuba and Ania drove the van to Poznan for winter storage, and Dorota and I still managed some family time at my folks and 1 full rainy day in Warsaw.
We were back in NY for the second weekend of the AYC Fall Series.
Better Than.. was in 6th place after the first extremely light weekend. Saturday did not change the standings and on Sunday we rolled a few boats in the drifting conditions before racing got abandoned. Long Island Sound as we know it.
This is it. The season is over. Thank you everybody!