blu26 - International Class Association

In the early Wednesday afternoon, the first crews arrived at the Lake Garda and prepared their blu26s for the training. The Lake Garda welcomed the sailors with warm but foggy weather.

The first meeting with the coaches and the group took place at the Hotel Rely where we were stationed. Along with seven Teams from Switzerland and Germany the class welcomed sailors from Montenegro for the very first time who completed the eighth crew. Due to the international composition we agreed to English as the teaching language. Therefore the german-speaking people had the possibility to learn the specific, nautical terms in English.

On Thursday we started the training by getting to know the boat and to prepare it for sailing. Due to the missing wind the coaches Christian “Blumi” Scherrer and Stephan Eder explained the rig and the trim of the blu26. After an early lunch the expected south wind Ora kicked in and we had a first training session doing line-up-starts in order to find, compare and improve the boat speed and the height. In the 10kn breeze the blu26 was already at full speed and demanded the sailors not only mentally. On Friday we mainly did starting practice. The competition for the most jump starts has been closely won by Team blunote/blustar with Absolute Sailing in second place. Through the practice the crews came to a better understanding for distance and timing and they had time to practice first short races. Friday night was occupied by the culinary highlight at Umberto’s where Luca welcomed the companionship with fish, salami and a lot of show.

After the individual training in groups on Saturday the ambitious sailors were eager to compete in a small practice regatta. But sadly Blumi‘s “light breeze form the north” never kicked in.

On Sunday morning for the very first time we had the northern thermic wind Vento, which allowed three races. Team VoodooChild won after difficult but interesting races in shifty conditions. Immediately after the last race the boats have been taken out of the water and the sailors ate their last meal at the Yacht Club Acquafresca. With the blu26 behind the car and the trunk filled with panettone the sailing community drove back home. Like every year the training event was a very instructive and successful start for the bluboats cup 2016.

Lukas und Tobias Looser