Sunday 22 July 2012

ISAF Day 6 and 7

Last two days of competition weren't really successful for me. In Day 6 I finished really badly in 29th and 27th positions as the winds were marginal and I continued making mistakes. Although the gap from me to other sailors is getting smaller and smaller. I can feel that I sail faster and smarter than in the beginning of the regatta.
On the last day of the race the wind was very light around 3-6 knots. Thus the speed of sailor depended more on pumping than on sailors weight. After an abandoned race and a general recall we started racing. I had the best start of race in non-planing conditions and sailed well all the race finishing in 16th position as I counted. I was very happy of my performance. Unfortunately when I came back in yacht club I saw that I got BFD - fallstart under black flag. So during the last two days I dropped down to 23rd place in overall.


Anyway I am really happy that I got chance to participate in this competition. I learned so many things here. Starting with how to plane with RSX and ending up with tactical and strategic knowledge provided by Hugh Styles.
But of course the most important are the people that I met and got to know here - BIG THANKS for them


Blanca Alabau, Tomas Vieito, Hugh Styles, all Lithuanian Team, Valentina Serigos, Jeanne Dantes, Kiran Badloe, Dimosthenis Papaleonardos, JS Fugere, Lucas Gozalez, son and dad Tugaryev's and all other people that I met and communicated with all week. This was one of the best weeks in my life. :)

Thursday 19 July 2012

ISAF Day 5

Anoter day of typical Irish weather. Rain and sun, wind and no wind.
It is getting a routine that we have planning conditions until the starting sequence but as soob as starting procedure begins the wind drops. And the best scenario is to half of the race planning and half standing.
So today the first race semi - planning and the second race was pumping all the time. In the first race I finished 20th and in the second I was 29th.
Anyway I am really happy to be here. I have learned a lot of things - especialy in tactics and strategy - which are going to help me in Formula as well. I have also met lots of very talented people who love windsurfing or sailing.

Tuesday 17 July 2012

ISAF Day 4

Today we had one race as always in marginal conditions and at the other race the wind kicked in.
In the first race I funished 17th in 7-12 knots of wind.
My problem in non planning conditions is the start I still get stuck in the middle of it. But I think that I am getting better and better at techinique and light wind strategy.

The second race was done in the winds from 12 to 22 knots. I was planning full power almost all the time. Even I have done some mistakes I finished 10th. But I could have been better for sure.

Tomorow is the rest day. But together with Lithuanian team I will.do match racing in some kind of boat.
See you!

ISAF Day 2&3

The internet is very bad here so I can not to write as much as I want to.
Yesterday was first competition day.
Wind was about 8 knots gusting up to 12. In Both heats the conditions were marginal - it means that sometimes you are planning sometimes not. If you start planning you have to put in the dagerboard and move the mastfoot back - a lot of work, which requires skills and practise. Very hard conditions for a heavy and unexperienced guy like me. Nevertheless I finished 13th out of 30 sailors - because 10 or 12 guys got falstarted. In the second race I planned for 30 seconds and finished the last.  Well lets hope for more wind tomorow.
Unfortunately but today the wind wasn't much stronger. In all races I was planning but just for half of them or less. Race officers executed 3 races today. My places were 24, 20 and 18. It is really hard to learn all the tricks and techniques in not planning mode. Usually I am gaining places when I am planning and loosing them while standing.

Saturday 14 July 2012

ISAF Youth worlds

ISAF youth worlds is like sailing olympics for youth. For the first time I will compete on RS:X with 8,5 meter sail and 60cm fin.
Although I haven't trained much on it, I hope I will do OK.

We are living in a very nice 4 star hotel. And it is just 500 meters away from the Yacht club.

Today we got our equipment. After 2 hours of rigging up (It's not that easy) I went to the water. The wind was about 6m/s strong.
Surprisingly I was planning all the time.
I was even more surprised when I realised that others aren't going much faster than. Actually I was even overtaking some guys while going upwind. Unfortunately there wasn't enough wind for me to go fast downwind. I guess it's because of my amazing weight - 78 kg. I am too heavy for the 8,5 sails.
Thats why I hope for more wind.
See you tomorow.

ISAF worlds Day 2

Today the rain didn't stoped until the evening and the temperature wasn't higher than 13 degrees.

Anyway we had a practise race in which I learned starting sequence, race course and realised that I am not the slowest one. At the top mark I was somewhere in the middle of the fleet. However nobody finished the race.

In the evening we had the opening ceremony

Thursday 12 July 2012

New vision Cup, Nida

Aloha!

So, as you may know we had a fantastic weekend in Nida where New Vision cup was held by VÄ—jas Galvoje! Not only we had a superb time on the shore by chilling, chatting and admiring the perfect nature of Nida we also had a chance to hear some extremely valuable advices about tactics, how to and other important factors of competition sailing from our Lithuania's first olympic windsurfer Juozas Bernotas LTU 14!


First two days were like sauna with a light breeze reaching up to 6-7 knots and, unfortunately, not a single race was done. In fact, on the second day late evening we were surprisingly pleased by 6m/s wind for a very short time and we even managed to get our slalom boards wet and planning for about 10 minutes! Anyway, there are good times and there are bad times. After ten minutes the wind completely died off and everything we could do was to enjoy the royal sauna in the Nida Campsite with a first-class swimming pool, delicious snacks and unique company of other windsurfers.



The third and the last day was like a present. Quite stable offshore wind reaching up to 7m/s in gusts and 5m/s in average were more than enough to show how real men are sailing! 5 harsh and thrilling races were completed successfully and the winner was unknown until the very end. To my disappointment, I was making weak starts and sailing to the wrong side of the course and that let me hit only 8th place in overall.



Anyway, Rytis Jasiunas LTU 799 was on fire! By winning the first race he clearly showed who is the boss and was a strong rival for other top sailors. Unfortunately as the races were passing he didn't manage to keep it and dropped to the second place in overall. Anyway, Paulius Voverys LTU 718 was also the one who showed how the magic works! By having a Z F 0- fin under his board he was pretty unstoppable and took 3 place in overall! All races demanded a lot of concentration and focus as the wind was shifty and sometimes unstable.

All in all, I can't be more happy and satisfied of the results when 2 youth sailors are in the top 3! That is fantastic and it shows that the youngsters level is constantly rising and I really hope to see some breath-results in the near future in the bigger events like Baltic, Euro cup or even FW Worlds!

See you soon guys,
Take care!

Arnas Busmanas LTU 191


Sunday 1 July 2012

Baltic Cup Tallin Day 3

Now the wind is about 3 knots - thus everyone is on hold. There is a slight hope that the wind will come later.
So now a bit more about yesterday.
Everyone was left surprised when after 2 races there were no estonians in TOP 5. After the break Molder EST 44 switched gears and stormed the podium by taking two bullets, but other estonian stars ( Martin Ervin and John Kaju ) were still strugling at the back of TOP 10.
Personally I thought that thy should know all the shifts and stuff,  but they didn't.
Now about lithuanians.
After first two races Mantas LTU 13 was in 3rd place - nice result, huh?? But during the break he switched from sail 10,7 to 12 and his results started falling down. After 5 races he is sitting in 8th position.
Karolis is 14th, Giedrius - 20th, Arvydas LTU 789 - 21, Arnas LTU 191 - 25, Mindaugas LTU 646 - 26, Paulius LTU 718 - 27.