Oslofjorden Rundt 2012 regatta

We entered the Oslofjorden Rundt regatta this year as well, with varying and windy conditions. The sailing instructions said the race might be shortened, and this would be posted with a flag at the starting line. We saw the flag, but were certain that it indicated the normal (longer) course. We got off to an okay start and started heading upwind to the windward mark. At the rounding I was not careful enough to protect our position, and a boat got space to turn inside of us (well behind). This became a problem after rounding, because they fell down on us as we were about to set spinnaker, and we had to push them away so as not to collide with us.We should have protested, but anyway we didn't.

Then we sailed further to the port layline to wait for the scheduled west/northerly shift. All the other boats eventually ended up on the starboard layline, which would mean trouble when the shift came. After a loooong time the shift came, and we were able to point the boat directly at the leeward mark while under spinnaker, with a lot more speed than the rest of the field. Woohoo!. Only problem was, we suddenly met boats in our own class that were returning. Oh no! Did we actually get it wrong with the flag during start? Yep. So we had no other alternative but to gybe in to the shorter mark (which we had overstood by a LOT), get in line with the other boats and get to the finish line as fast as possible. 11th out of 14 or so. Yuck.

Next day was a lot better, spinnaker start, and we were one of the first boats to the mark. Waited too long to douse the spinnaker, but did an okay windward beat in the winds (16-17 knots, up to 20+ in the breezes) and ended up 4th that day.

Not a great result, but it was a good practice round!

Here are some pics from the race:

The race has two race days, the first day we sail about 27 miles (or so we thought), the second day about 17.

Navigation lights on beating to windward.

Happy sailor in the Norwegian spring night. :)

Not so happy with the results, though! Hehe!

Boatspeed was pretty decent.

Here we are also using the longer tiller extension I bought for this season. We are now using the 75-120cm version, and not the regular 60-90cm version.

Some of the visiting boats for the race (on the outside of the berths).