Well, I'm starting to feel intimidated...the biggest fleet I have every sailed in is set to start the Rolex Miami Olympic Class Regatta on Monday. 43 Tornados are pre-registered as of today, nearly all are the full-on pro crews, majority from overseas....fresh from the Worlds in ARG this past December.
Since last Monday, my boat/trailer/van has been making it's way across the USA from Los Angeles, through the ice storm in Texas. All thanks to a good buddy of mine. I fly in tomorrow to do the
rockstar
thing.
2-3 races per day for 5 days...followed by 2 day break (unless I get into the Championship race for the top-ten (Yeah Right <img src=
alt=
/>). Then the North Americans run Mon-Thurs the next week, with 2-3 races per day.
Should be a real hoot for this amateur!
Will try to post reports/pics here wifi permitting.
Mike
Tornado CAN 99
Mike, Nice to have you on the right coast for a change! I'll be rooting for you! Best of luck, Brian
Hope you mange some of your reports Mike, but I hope have a good time even more! Should be better than the last time now that you are sailing your own boat <img src=
alt=
/>
If you can, check out the helming technique of the pros. I am wondering how they helm their boats under the different conditions.
I'll look for you in the media coverage. Go get them!
In todays video report, Gary Jobson said that tomorrows production will focus on the tornado class..
Look out for CAN99!
I hope you can sail the way that you imagine..... luck has nothin to do with it! Go out there and do what you know!
Same goes for Sarah and Jaime, Mark Herendeen and Robbie.
. . . and Jobson obviously knows zero about the leaders -
Darren Bundocks and Glen Ashley
.
Where's the boat cam shot on the T's?
What a tool.
My favourite:
Tornados are not close winded
<img src=
alt=
/>
Gotta love those
clever turtles!
I have to watch out for them on several Tybee legs...
Turtles
are a lot better than his
swallowers
from the Athens coverage.. <img src=
alt=
/>
Hope Mike (CAN99) have fun and are learning a ton.
Lol - I think he's recalling incorrectly the
snail
that was tried for a while. How tough would it be for someone to mention the correct name to him during ****?
Now, if he'll just say
one-edging it
tomorrow, my world will make more sense. <img src=
alt=
/>
The pair started the day seven points behind the British pair of Leigh McMillan and Will Howden with the Spanish pair of Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz a further 13 points behind. With the medal race offering double points and non discardable it was all to play for today.
Bundock said
we knew we had a lot on today to get four boats between us and the British to take victory but we have had a outstanding record in previous medal races when the pressure is on
Bundock went on to add
its a great result after not sailing for six weeks, we had everything go wrong this week, OCSing, capcising, being physically exhausted from sailing miles to the race course and lack of sleep due to jetlag. Its been a really bad week and to win makes it all worth while
.
Ashby being elated with the medal race result.
Gee the medal race was tricky today, never over until the finish, huge shifts and pressure differences. We came back from the dead, the British held us up match racing for a bit until we broke away. We sailed extremely well to get back in the game. Even rounding the final mark we still had to get at least one more boat between us and the British. I reckon the British were feeling fairly nervous when we past the Russians coming into the finish
Regatta Website is http://www.rolexmiamiocr.org/
Darren and Glenn will stay in Miami for the Tornado North American Championships starting on Monday. Daily updates on www.darrenbundock.com
Hi John
The Turtle refers to the bag on the tramp system ... fill it with a sail... its a turtle... The Tornado's used this for a short while... they refused to consider the Nacra 20 end pole snuffer. The class initially thought that the areodynamic penalty of a pole mounted snuffer would be high. The aussies' developed a toilet bowl system that put the hoop on the tramp on port with the bag running under the tramp. The snail never made it to the Tornado. The single forestay and jib get in the way of snuffing with a snail. It was used on the Marstrom 20 and some of the F18HTs which use a split forestay (like the A cats). In the end, they refined the mid pole snuffer. The small improvements are a kevlar tube instead of a bag to stuff the sail or integrated pole and tube arrangements.
The Tornado class and cats in general are just not part of the sailing press's comprehension.
Here is the olympic team from Sweden with the
snail
fitted on their T (top image of the collage).
In this position, the
snail
was too hard on the sail. Incidentally, they were the first team using Gran Segel spis, now the class standard spi. It is kind of a funny story, one of the Gran Segel sailmakers passed by their boat on his way to work while they was rigging. He glanced at their spi, shook his head and returned two days later with a new one. Hoisted the new one, shook his head and returned the next day with mark 2. Now mark 4 and 6 is the most common spis on the Tornado. As it turned out, the best Tornado spi shape (yet) was designed about 800meters from their club.
![[Linked Image]](http://www.catsailor.com/bb_files/98187-tornado.jpg)