“JOHN LATSIS CUP -2013” – LIFE ISN’T ALWAYS FAIR!
The 2013 “John Latsis Cup” memorial race, organized by N.O.P.F., took start at 11:00’ in the morning of Saturday May 11, on a triangular course from the Faliro Cove to the 1st mark off the shore of Kalamaki, the 2nd near Tourlos Island, to the finish line by the Flisvos Marina jetty, 22nm in total.
At the start of the race the morning wind from the north had changed, coming from the south, therefore the first leg was a beam reach on the starboard tack all the way to Kalamaki. As we chose to start near the windward side of the starting line, but to leeward of our direct competitors and with perfect coordination among the crew, we took the lead right from the start way ahead of the rest of the fleet, that the faster boats JINETERA and VANA VIOLETA III only managed to overtake us just before the mark.
From there off to the next mark by the Tourlos Island on the port tack lay line, as all the boats changed course MELX II stayed slightly to the left for good clean wind away from JINETERA’s sails. Half way through this leg the wind started to gain in strength while changing gradually to starboard giving us the opportunity to sail past faster boats to the head of the fleet, once more.
Sadly enough, the Tourlos mark being off by 1nm in reality than on the Organizing Committee papers cost us some of our advantage, nevertheless we remained in the top position for the rest of the race leading the fleet back to Flisvos with spinnakers up on starboard tack.
The leg to the finish line was fast and with no surprises. JINETERA took first position and VANA VIOLETA III finished right behind us. All in all, it appeared safe to assume that we had won the race on corrected time and maybe with ease.
However, the ever increasing strength of the wind along with the calm sea in favor of the smaller boats, together with the lack of necessity for tactics, dropped us to the 5th place (!) of the ORCi class.
Life isn’t always fair, but we save it for the next round, the weekend of May 18-19, in the windward-leeward race of the “4th Hellenic Offshore Racing Club Cup – 2013”, which also counts for the “Athens Sailing Circuit”.
RESULTS:
This Race