October 15th, 2001
On the first regattas
Sylphe arrived from Croatia some two weeks before the first regatta was to start in Cannes. Marjon, my sister had joined me for the trip from Dubrovnik to Cannes. And this time we even had some very nice experiences in Italy. We stopped in places which were a little bit less known and almost all islands (Itly has 41 islands), and it was delightfull. We stopped at Lipari, Stromboli, to see the vulcano spitting fire in the middle of the night, Capri, Ponza, Ventotene, Giglio and Elbe. It was a delight, the food good, good shelter in the bays and not too busy. For those yachties amongst you readers and planning a trip including a crossing from Italy to Greece, please do include Otranto, this charming place on the heel of Italy is forgotten, but what a delight to visit, We were so very surprised that we stayed for two days. Although we hardly had any wind on the trip around Italy (1000 miles) we ran into some heavier weather in Elbe and were forced to wait there the last days, before crossing to Corsica and than onward to Cannes, almost forcing Marjon to miss her plane, but she managed.
So, Marjon left for Holland and the next day I still had a charter in Cannes. The weather was lousy, (or maybe the quantity of wine of the night before) but after two hours we were back in Cannes as some of us got seasick. Still we managed to pass an agreeable afternoon on Sylphe, enjoying the sun and playing cards (and drinking more wine).
After this last obligation I was left with two weeks to prepare the boat for the Cannes Regatta, after all my first experience, and I was slowly getting nervous. So, again I varnished, sanded, cleaned, arranged, bought new sheets and other stuff, just in order to NOT stand out between all the other classics. Sylphe was to take part in two consequetive events, one week racing in Cannes and than the week after that in St. Tropez. Basically the same boats participate in both events, so the marina of Cannes slowly filled up with all these majestic boats. We were moored at the end of a pontoon giving us a superb view (sometimes of only 3 meters away) of all these beauties as the entered or left the port. At the same time the Dragon worldchampionships were held in Cannes, resulting in 80 of these beauties trying to leave the port under sail, as they do not have an engine. So, imagine the following scene, the harbour-entrance (exit) is about 50 meters wide, with on one end of this gap SYLPHE. Now, 200 boats try to leave at the same time, some only 7 meters long and no engine, others 35 meters long and diffiult to manoeuvre. It was a spectacle, which I will never forget, and this all enrolled itself, while we were leisurly lying on the deck of SYLPHE. See and being seen was the motto. On tuesday we had our first race and after some training on sunday and monday I felt very confident about the crew of friends, family and invitees. The main problem was the language onboard as half of the crew was french and the other half did not understand french……but you need to have some challenges in life. It took some time before everybody understood the the yell from the foredeck "borde" meant that the genua-sheet had to be hauled in further, but once we got this under control it became easier.
The starts for these classic races are divided in groups, to prevent the very big boats starting at the same time as the small, as this has resulted in the past in accidents. So, SYLPHE ended up in a group of 20 boats taking the same start. SYLPHE was the smallest of these. The first day was dramatic for us. First we had a very bad start and than there was little wind and due to another language-problem and understanding/interpreting the french rules, we did not dare to hoist the spinnaker. (later it turned out that we were allowed to use it after all). But we finished the race, were not the last to cross the finish line and were happy after all.
The next day there was too much wind to race so this was cancelled.
The third day we got things under control, and we were right on the starting line 5 seconds before the gun. Unfortunately two other boats thought that they could still manoever themselves in between SYLPHE and the starting boat. There was still room for the first vessel, but the second simply did not fit. Resulting in a lot of screaming, panic, sails flapping, and than…………..BOOOOOM. Four boats collided. You could walk from one boat to the next as we were all glued together. Then, there is more noise coming from above, we looked up and saw our mast entangled with the mast/sail of the boat next to us. More noise, ripping of a sail (of the neighbour) and we were loose again. It all lasted 10 seconds, but it is like in a slowmotion film. Nobody got hurt on SYLPHE, nor on the other boats, no hands got in between boats and beside some material damage everything was okay. BUT what a start it was. We raced, checked our rigging, while we were under sail and continued. We raised a protest against the boat that hit us, but it was clear that it was the fault of the third boat, who tried to force herself onto the starting line at the very last moment. So in the evening I find myself confined for hours with the international jury to sort out what happened and whose fault it was. SYLPHE was cleared of any guilt and all damage was to be repaired and repaid by the start-intruder. In port we checked again our rigging and it turned out that a top-part of the mast was twisted and needed to be repaired at a later stage. We could continue.
The Cannes week passed by with glorious moments, Cambria sailing by, having a better start than Agnetta on the fourth day and on the last day some spectacular sailing with 30 knots of wind. We reefed in time and were nicely getting wet with spray all over the boat. A lot of baots retired from this race, but these conditions I know best, as SYLPHE does a lot of sailing with lots of wind. So we sailed and flew, we rounded the bouy and were on a downwind reach when the wind became less. We tried to take the reef out of the main, but were unable to hoist the sail further up. It was jammed somewhere. We tried four times, invain. So we finished with hardly any wind and a reefed sail. Later it turned out that a screw came out of the mast, bloking the sail. What a pitty and we finished 8th again. It turned out that we had a patent on the 8th position as this was also our overall classification after 3 races. Happy with the result, with the crew, with the atmosphere, with the friends, etc, etc.
On Sunday we had a race that would bring all the boats from Cannes to St. Tropez and we finished 25th in a fleet of 80, not bad. This sunbday was also the day Marit was supposed to return from pakistan to join me for this weeks regatta, but with the events happening in pakistan it was absolutely uncertain whether she could make it on time. So, boy, was I happy when I heard that she had landed on Nice airport, while we were racing with SYLPHE from Cannes to St. Tropez. Upon arrival in St. Tropez Marit joined me, and I was very happy to see her in one piece.
In St. Tropez I had clients on the boat and this also turned out to be a great week. The atmosphere of St. Tropez is much different, not only do the 80 classic boats participate but also Wally's (extreme modern design boats) and some 200 other modern boats. The racing is more leisurly and more relaxed, but the atmosphere in port and town is more alive than in Cannes. St. Tropez had arranged for three dutch-flag boats to be next to each other on the principal quay of town, and this was a nice sight. St. Tropez organises a lot of festivities on shore as well and this gives a fine sight for the visitors. A crew-streetparade resulted in Marit and myself walking along with two-metre long dolphins strapped to our backs. We made the front page with a full colour photo with this appearance. We offered the jury for this parade t-shirts with the french text: If God wanted fibreglass boats, he should have grown fibreglass trees. This made the front page of the St. Tropez gazette and we made quite some friends among the polyester boat-owners………ahum. Anyway this was a n unforgettable week. Marit finally enjoyed the sight of all these classics and realised now more than ever before why we are spending the winter sanding and varnishing.
On Sunday afternoon it suddenly is all over. Peace and quietness returns to the harbour, the first boats are leaving and you are left with an empty feeling. We will have to wait one year, before it all can be re-lived again.
Cannes and St. Tropez are thanked for their warm welcome to SYLPHE and we will be back.
Marit and I returned on monday to Cannes, to enjoy one week of peace together, before she returned to Pakistan to finish her contract. We carried out the repair work on the mast and enjoyed each other, friends (newly made and old ones) and the fine weather.
Roland will start the voyage to Moanstir, accompanied by Rob.
Will keep you posted of our progress,
Roland