A week of stretched high...

Last year, I already had the whole route of the second regatta with the guys. Firstbyfirst (aka Tchainik Cup) and now it was very interesting - what will be its third edition? Won't it turn from a friendly encounter into a purely commercial event «with blackjack and whores?»What kind of innovations will appear? With these thoughts, I packed a travel bag, put a powder «compactor on my shoulders,» and set off on my way.

Moscow, Zagreb, Split merged into one indistinguishable bouquet of stations and airports. And finally, last year's familiar Marina Cashtela, where we were waiting for two fleets of excellent club racers: Beneteau First 45 и First 35. These boats occupy a special niche in the family of today's mass yachts - strictly speaking, it is they who reserve the right to the long-standing definition of «cruising and racing yachts». For one simple reason - the majority of high-volume sailing boats today are clearly oriented exactly to the cruising component, energy efficiency, controllability and fine tuning of sails there are adapted to family recreation, not racing.
While the Festivals are exactly club (although there are higher level performances, not club) riders with a fully developed cruising component: a spacious salon, a normal galley, latrines, showers, heater - everything is available. Those who want to chase will find on these yachts a large area of sails, long and normally located epaulets giki-skot, developed hangouts and other tools for setting up. Narrow deep rudders contribute to good handling - although they cannot sometimes prevent brooches (of course a double rudder feather would be preferable; I am not talking about skegas, which seem to be tightly and forever forgotten by almost all boat builders - except a pair or three, perhaps).

Of course, there is a downside to everything: Festivals are slightly more fragile than most comparable length mass yachts. There are subtleties - for example, last year during one of the races, our crew broke the engine control knob. That's ridiculous, but it just happened. The lightweight plastic on this handle was thrown. Well, then again, you can break a much more valuable thing. On the whole, there were no serious problems with these boats during all the regattas.
Though again it is necessary to note - Firstbyfirst tries to correspond to its name by all. In other words, Firstbyfirst gets the yachts right after the winter check-up and necessary repairs: not a single fly has managed to settle down yet. However, it is necessary to pay for it a little bit more severe weather conditions - this year participants of the regatta have experienced meteorological quirks in full.
Already on the first day in Cashtel, there were no hints that the weather would be bad this year. From the mountains crawled down unpleasant clouds that spilled shallow rain, it was time to try a new neprom, bought at the exhibition in Dusseldorf. This time the regatta was attended by a whole live meteorologist (and photographer) Leonid Dubeykovsky (who, by the way, serves as a meteorologist for our Olympic team as well). However, that a live weather forecaster, that weather sites - all gave for tomorrow«'s storm» (strong north wind blowing from the mountains).

The first day of the regatta was a little crumpled. The plan was to hold two races - a short loop race followed by a long route to the Milna Marina. Just at the beginning of the marina and expected the notorious drill. As a result, everything began with calm and the start of the first race the chief referee postponed 20 seconds before its start. The weather was windy as desired (however, for this bay it is okay), but with a sin in half the first race still managed to hold.
Before the start of the second all went somehow wrong and almost all of it I had to watch from the boat buoy - the chief judge did not have enough hands to put the upper sign for the second race. Then the referee's yacht didn't make it to the finish line and your humble servant had to accept the finish of the first few yachts. The best part of all was that the buoy repositioning took place in the pouring rain with almost zero visibility. The new tricky one, fortunately, didn't let down, but with the feet that spent several hours on the ankle in icy water, it was worse... And memories came to mind that last year the referee's team did without sending journalists to help the installer (and yes, last year at the regatta there was no separate boat installer with a local employee - but somehow they coped), and strong words, joined by themselves in the «great bend of Peter the Great».
(And I must tell you that this year everything was serious. If last year the regatta was a friendly event (from the formal point of view), now everything has changed. The competition was included in the calendar of Sailing Federation of Moscow region - and even more so: in the calendar of Sailing Federation of Croatia. Oh, how cool! Not as if it was an official regatta)

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Well, luckily it was pouring rain with gusty wind and everything was limited. The promised 50 knot storm never happened - and the yachts were moored in Milna alive and well.
The second day started again with minor troubles: the yacht went into the sea, leaving two crew members on the shore, saying someone would bring them later. I don't even want to comment on this event - but in fact, leaving the crew in a foreign port is not approved or encouraged. In general, the day began to be somewhat ridiculous and hectic - so the collision of two yachts at the start (even if it happened almost without a move, and therefore did not leave any noticeable traces on their boards) was quite a natural conclusion of this nervous morning. Fortunately, the trouble of the second racing day was almost over.
The race itself (on the route to Marina Vrboska) proved to be very beautiful and tactically difficult. After entering the strait between the islands of Brač and Hvar, the yachts lifted the spinnaker. Sun-piermeated colored sails looked exceptionally spectacular, but those who got into brooches (and there were a lot of them), I think, it was not until the beauty of this sunny day. The fleet was divided into three groups: «brothers» (who went along the coast of Bracha), «stilts» (those who went closer to Hvar) and «center», who took a course to the middle of the strait.
The wind played with yachtsmen like a cat with a mouse - only one group got the advantage, as in half an hour one could give preference to another group. At the end of the race, the yachts were caught in the calm zone separating the two winds - the passing west and the passing east, blowing from the opposite end of the strait. Yachtsmen with experience of sailing in skerries are familiar with such weather phenomena and fluctuations. As a result, the yachts that started sailing under the spinnakers completed the race in the same compass course. Not a bad experience for further analysis, I must say.

Marina Vrboska met the participants in a warm evening, with a well-closed parking lot and beautiful surroundings. By that time the photo group of the regatta had already accumulated some decent shots, which were shown to the participants on the joint evening for all the yachts. A very important question was also decided here: whether to give or not to give tomorrow a 70-mile route race around the island of Brach, designed for about 20 hours of sailing. The forecast was disappointing - by three o'clock the next night it promised to warm up a steady breeze to 35 knots and further strengthening by morning. The debate was long, but in the end, common sense won: they decided to give a short race at Vrboska, followed by a move to the familiar Old Town. With cheerful mood all the yachtsmen went to the short distance of the third day, but...
But the wind was not racing this morning. It was almost silent, so all the excitement melted away. The race was still given and the people fought funny with extinguishing spinnakers, untangling «bras» and «muzzles».

The transition to Old Castle, which took place in pleasant sunny weather, initially raised doubts about the advisability of cancelling the night race. But already on the way to the harbour cirrostrates crawled across the sky - in other words, pinnately layered clouds, usually predicting a worsening of the weather in 8-12 hours. And this weather sign did not let down - already at night on the yachts moored at the quay of Old Town, there was a steady blow of wind. In the morning gusts of wind and rain charges quite clearly explained to those who rushed into the night race yesterday, to what extent they were wrong. It was decided to stand for another day.

Personally, I am more than confident that the proposal to hold a nearly non-stop day race at the «kettle»race, many of whom have seen the yacht almost for the first time, in general a little adventurous.

I suppose there should be at least two people on yachts participating in such a race who know how to drive a boat, who can drive a boat (or at least understand how to handle a card plotter) and know what to do on command «Man overboard!»But this is a question that requires, among other things, discussion with the organizers.
April 12 - Day of Cosmonautics - yachtsmen, as last year, met in the hospitable marina of Palmezhan. Taking into account the fact that there were many people at the regatta who were somehow involved in our space affairs and successes, we can say that the celebration of the holiday was universal. In any case, I have never heard Vizborovskoye: «the rocket is filled - of course, not with water ...» performed by two dozen people at once.
The extreme race of the regatta - from Palmezhana to Castelo - was, perhaps, the quintessence of everything we love sailing for. A great start - the start in the fresh wind, the transition, adjusted by periodically coming charges with rain and - unexpectedly! - A quiet finish when the yachts are almost up and ready to be assembled into a single fleet a few cables to the finish line. And then... and then suddenly there's a sneak. Careful and steady. The dense group of boats finished one after another, gliding on absolutely smooth water - at that some of them went on a sharp course under stacks, and one cunning crew by some miracle broke through to the finish line under spinch (and - from the wind)! And then let some helmers said in Kashtel: «It's necessary - all week chase, and at the finish line was not enough several meters!»

But it was Beautiful. Beautiful in all senses of the word - that's why we go to the regattas. I think there are no dissatisfied people left - someone won, someone lost, but ... But «in the sea all the first» - this is the official motto of the competition. And it's true...