You have to read this report from an Australian crew that sailed the recent J/24 World's in Malmo, Sweden. If you thought Moose's accounts were fun and informative, Hugo's account is simply hilarious-- particularly for any of you that have traveled to foreign events and chartered boats. Here's his account:
Part one – pre regatta. Our 2010 Worlds campaign started 12 months ago, this included organizing a crew who would sail in the 2010 Nationals and commit to the worlds. We had all won nationals and competed in many world championships.
With this depth of experience the work required to prepare for a worlds was spread amongst all the crew. This involved finding a good boat, sail design that was suitable for the Swedish conditions and covering every issue that can and has impacted on past campaigns. We seriously looked at all the things that had worked or failed in previous campaigns.
We included a Danish sailor in our crew who sailed in Malmo Sweden in J’s and is regarded as one of Denmark’s finest. Our Danish crew assisted with local logistics, finding bikes, driving us around to get sails repaired, hotels and advising on the local conditions which included a current that changed direction during each day.
We discussed our sail design with local Olympic sailor from North Sails who discussed the best designs with his counterpart from North Sails one design in San Diego. We ordered the latest Kevlar Genoa and spinnaker from North’s which was made by the One design loft in U.K. We shipped an equipment box to Sweden which had spare parts, sheets, blocks and sails. Our accommodation and flights were secured 6 months prior to leaving. Our “Special” Charter boat was investigated and secured early in the charter pool.
When we arrived and inspected our charter boat, we discovered that our boat which had great results under its previous Italian owner, had a "very special custom" set up. After sailing in so many J regatta’s I had never sailed a “special J/24″, and as such didn’t understand what “Special”(in the European context) meant.
I strongly encourage you to read the rest of the story here--- too funny to be true-- especially the account of one boat getting into a collision and also losing two outboard engines overboard!
