“1ST OF MAY CUP – 2013”- ONCE MORE ON THE TOP!
This year the May 1st holiday fell in the middle of the Greek Orthodox Holy Week and it was moved to Tuesday after Easter Sunday, therefore the “1st of May Cup – 2013” organized by N.O.K.V. was rescheduled accordingly for May 7th. As a consequence, following an entire week of north winds, now we had to deal with the increased humidity and the elusive wind from the south.
Had the Faliro Cove been selected for hosting the event the race would had never become a reality as the north wind was dying down as close as Glyfada, with some last gusts from the shores of Voula, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza.
The race started in Vouliagmeni at the mouth of the Cove with the first leg towards the rocky shores of the Fleva Island. Performing to our best we managed to cross the line before time expired with the rest of the fleet behind us.
Unfortunately only a few meters away, Aeolus the ancient Greek god of winds, decided to pull a trick on us, bringing MELX II to a stand still for those few but extremely crucial minutes.
The boats on either side of ours had enough wind while we were left floating in the middle with our sails empty.
When the wind started blowing again we were in the unfavorable position, being leeward from the much faster JINETERA and 2-3 other boats, doing our best to cover for the lost time.
After the Fleva Island the next mark was close to Arsidas Island. All the boats started the second leg with spinnakers up, close hauled on starboard tack up to the moment that the north wind started blowing again close to shore, at a handsome speed peaking around 20 knots, sailing thereafter with medium genoa on the barber hauler, on a close-hauled course on port tack.
The return from the 2nd Arsidas Island mark to the 3rd near the starting line was again close hauled on starboard tack. Up to that point in the race JINETERA – in a different class than ours- was way in the lead while we managed to overtake CLEOPATRA of Kalamaki N.C., the only ORCi boat ahead of us.
The last leg of the race was to the Fleva Island mark and back to the Voula Cove with the finish line outside the Voula N.C. jetty. MELX II tried really hard to beat the clock securing a chance to win the race on corrected time.
Although we finished the 22nm race 1st in our class we dropped to the 3rd place on corrected time and therefore being left with an even stronger will to win the next race in our calendar; “The John Latsis Cup” on Saturday May 11.
RESULTS:
This Race