Delta 26 Regatta
21/05/08 15:02 Filed in: May
Lago Paranoa, Brasilia, 17th and 18th May 2008
Perfect weather prevailed over the weekend for the regatta, temperatures in the mid twenties, a lovely 10-knot breeze and the sun not so burning. I arrived a little late to get on a yacht on Saturday, but not a worry. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the “Comodoro’s” table, red wine (a little Cachaca, a car could run on that stuff), cheese, salami, bread, and some slices of very well prepared beefsteaks cooked to the point of perfection. The company too, some sailors, some social members, a lot of Portuguese and a little English spoken (they could have spoken Italian and Japanese too), it all added to the atmosphere on shore.
A NZ designed launch was moored at the wharf; a Brazilian had spent some years in Auckland in the boat building industry before returning and building boats in Brazil. This launch was used by a family for cruising the lake, over night stays in a most relaxing environment. An invitation aboard was eagerly taken up.
Sunday morning, I made sure I arrived early so not to miss getting on board a yacht, racing started a little before 10.00am. The club staff put the fleet of patrol boats in the water and set the course for the sailors to enjoy the day. A windward-leeward course with the startfinish line about a quarter the way up the leg was completed twice in each race. A short broad reach followed a port rounding at the top mark; spinnakers were hoisted before heading down wind gibing several times before rounding the bottom mark and heading back up wind. Three races, back to back, each taking about an hour and a half were sailed.
So how did we do? We made 4th place in the first race (after being 6th for most of the race), a good feeling at the finish. We suffered from some bad shifts in the next two races (I am sticking to that) and finished three or four places further back despite our polished crew work! Still a good weekends sailing, a tropical fresh water paradise with the city of Brasilia as the backdrop. Twelve yachts competed each with a crew of up to six; I spotted an all female crew who would have been delighted in winning the final race. The sailors eagerly downed a few ice cold drinks at days end in the shade of the clubhouse while the staff pulled the yachts from the water and parked them orderly on the hard. A hard days fun!
There’s a lot of alcohol (alcool) in Brazil. It is produced by the fermentation of sugar cane grown in large areas wherever there is a refnery (the nearest one to us is about 50kms away). It’s cheaper than petrol and the power loss is minimal. Brazil is certainly doing its bit in saving on petrol; it’s nations fleets of small cars (most being in the 1 to 1.5 litre range) mostly are fuelled by alcohol. Brazil has many thousands on kms of motorways all helping with fuel economy. Unfortunately traffic accidents are all too common, some road surfaces are poor (some secondary roads don’t have much of a developed surface at all), traffic drives very fast especially for the size of the cars and driver skills appear not so high. Over the weekend I saw two traffic accidents on the open roads, pretty typical. Still imagine that Brazil does better than countries that have many big gas sucking autos!
PS. The yachts motor was not started at all during the weekend.
Ross Wrenn
Brazil
Perfect weather prevailed over the weekend for the regatta, temperatures in the mid twenties, a lovely 10-knot breeze and the sun not so burning. I arrived a little late to get on a yacht on Saturday, but not a worry. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the “Comodoro’s” table, red wine (a little Cachaca, a car could run on that stuff), cheese, salami, bread, and some slices of very well prepared beefsteaks cooked to the point of perfection. The company too, some sailors, some social members, a lot of Portuguese and a little English spoken (they could have spoken Italian and Japanese too), it all added to the atmosphere on shore.
A NZ designed launch was moored at the wharf; a Brazilian had spent some years in Auckland in the boat building industry before returning and building boats in Brazil. This launch was used by a family for cruising the lake, over night stays in a most relaxing environment. An invitation aboard was eagerly taken up.
Sunday morning, I made sure I arrived early so not to miss getting on board a yacht, racing started a little before 10.00am. The club staff put the fleet of patrol boats in the water and set the course for the sailors to enjoy the day. A windward-leeward course with the startfinish line about a quarter the way up the leg was completed twice in each race. A short broad reach followed a port rounding at the top mark; spinnakers were hoisted before heading down wind gibing several times before rounding the bottom mark and heading back up wind. Three races, back to back, each taking about an hour and a half were sailed.
So how did we do? We made 4th place in the first race (after being 6th for most of the race), a good feeling at the finish. We suffered from some bad shifts in the next two races (I am sticking to that) and finished three or four places further back despite our polished crew work! Still a good weekends sailing, a tropical fresh water paradise with the city of Brasilia as the backdrop. Twelve yachts competed each with a crew of up to six; I spotted an all female crew who would have been delighted in winning the final race. The sailors eagerly downed a few ice cold drinks at days end in the shade of the clubhouse while the staff pulled the yachts from the water and parked them orderly on the hard. A hard days fun!
There’s a lot of alcohol (alcool) in Brazil. It is produced by the fermentation of sugar cane grown in large areas wherever there is a refnery (the nearest one to us is about 50kms away). It’s cheaper than petrol and the power loss is minimal. Brazil is certainly doing its bit in saving on petrol; it’s nations fleets of small cars (most being in the 1 to 1.5 litre range) mostly are fuelled by alcohol. Brazil has many thousands on kms of motorways all helping with fuel economy. Unfortunately traffic accidents are all too common, some road surfaces are poor (some secondary roads don’t have much of a developed surface at all), traffic drives very fast especially for the size of the cars and driver skills appear not so high. Over the weekend I saw two traffic accidents on the open roads, pretty typical. Still imagine that Brazil does better than countries that have many big gas sucking autos!
PS. The yachts motor was not started at all during the weekend.
Ross Wrenn
Brazil