The
Hobie 16 Worlds - Report From Eliza Cleveland
(USA) Sailing In The Womens Hobie 16 World Championship
Hello
Race Fans!!!
This is my first report from the Women´s
Hobie 16 Womens World Championship! I am down
on the Riviera Maya -- about an hour south of
Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula. I got here two
days ago and it is about 85
degrees during the day going down to about 70
at night. The hotel that is hosting the World
Championship is huge with a huge pool, beach,
spa, and
I’m not sure what else. I have done absolutely
nothing except eat eat eat since my skipper and
I weighed in only .7 kilos over the minimum weight.
Today
was the first day of racing for the following
World Championships: Youth, Masters, Grand Masters,
and Womens. There are 60 boats provided by the
Hobie Cat Company, and so there are two heats
of sailing.
In the morning the Masters and Grand Masters went
out first while the Women and Youth waited on
the beach.
Finally it was our turn, and the conditions had
gotten more and more perfect. By the time we got
out to the race course, it was blowing about 14
knots and there was some chop and waves.
We had an amazing first start. We were probably
in fourth place and then rolled the boat in third
place. But when we got to the windward mark, we
HIT it (which is a huge no-no) and we had to do
a "penalty turn" which meant that we
had to turn 360 degrees on the water. It is a
very very slow thing to do and means that all
the boats that are close to you just zoom by you.
We caught up with some boats down wind, but then
on the next beat, we hit the mark again. Annie
Nelson (my skipper) was trying to stay on the
trapeze as we started rounding the mark, but she
got tea-bagged and flew off the back....thus forcing
us to hit the mark again. So we did another 360!
But we did catch up with some of the pack and
ended up finishing in 7th place (out of 18 boats).
Race 2 the conditions were fairly similar except
that the waves were getting a little bigger. Our
start wasn’t the greatest, and then we actually
hit another mark. Our rudder got caught on the
line and kicked up slowing us way down. At this
point we were second to last.
We tacked and went to the right side of the course
where no one else had gone...we had nothing to
lose... But it paid off and we rounded the windward
mark in about 7th place. We kept going to the
right side of the course on every beat, and eventually
we ended up finishing in third place in that race.
We are in 5th place overall and the top American
team.
We have two more days of racing.
Liza Cleveland
More
information including results at: www.hobieworlds.com
