juergkaufmann.com

Photo (c) Roberto Ghidoni

Hi allFriday almost 10 pm and still sitting in the office and trying to get done as much as possible in my real job before flying to the next regatta.
The last few weeks have been very intense even from a sailing point point of view but very beautiful.
The big chunk was the Laser Europacup, as Race Officer. This year we had “only” 100 Laser, but I’m sure next year we will get bigger numbers.
Why 4 days sailing 7 races in excellent conditions a lot of sun and lot’s of good pictures and one cool video.

Then we got again 100 boats, or better kids, coaches and parents from the Optimist class.
Our club the Circolo Velico Lago di Lugano confirmed that we will run the Swiss Nationals next year so they all came down to the south to take a look at the race course.
And what happened: sun, lot’s of wind and five races in one weekend…. curious too see how many will be at the nationals next year.

During one finish our vessel drifted close to the external pontoon leaving a 15 meter gap in between. (FYI: We have about 300 m of ground) You can’t imagine how much cheering Optimist parents can do when they are close to the finishing line.
Maybe the Opti class should consider a new experimental rule: “Short finishing line in perpendicular with the pontoon where all the parents shall be located”.
Maybe this one is a bit more spectacular as the medal races going on in these days.

This week and last week I had a very special job: Explain sailing, match racing and America’s cup to the top client advisors from UBS.
Personally I believe we should do more of this sessions. First we help to promote sailing in the offices of potential sponsors and secondly imagine to be a client advisor sitting in front of client who may own a big boat somewhere and talking about pre-starts, dialup and maybe a bit of VMG.
Banker’s leave the golf course, the polo horses and come sailing !!!!

So what’s next: Sailing Games in Austria in the Jury. Would be nice, to do some umpiring in the team races. In Cadiz 2003 I was on the Star class panel, but there is no Star class at the Sailing Games.

But now it’s time to go home and enjoy one weekend without sailing.

CU

Juerg