La Grand Motte
Outremer Cup Day 1
In order to better my skills at sailing Amaris, I decided to participate in this year's Outremer Cup - a competition of Outremer boats hosted by the factory in La Grand Motte, France.
Today was a day of great learning. The weather for the first race was - well, anything but windy. True to French form however, we made a race out of it. True to Outremer form, it was quite a race. I sailed on a 45' Outremer roughly 15 years old. She was a screamer and I hate to say a bit faster than many of the 49's on the field (boats of the same vintage and length of Amaris). Sadly, we were quite often in last place (though fortunately one is only issued a placing when they cross the finish line). I will have to say that i think you learn more when you are in last place than when you are in first place.
My first lesson - know where the marks are when you start a race. Sure the race instructions were all in French (a language which i do not speak). Our skipper however spoke perfect French - and English! We had a great run along the shore humming along just behind Outremer's new flagship the 5X. As we watched the boats tack off one by one behind us we wondered what fools they were. Turns out they were all sailing towards the first mark. We were not. We spend the rest of the race catching (and passing some) of the fleet. The 5X however had a stunning down wind leg and lurched forward in the standings.
My second lesson - everyone needs a genoa. Amaris comes with her stock sails of Main, solent (small headsail), and code zero (very large headsail). The boat i raced on was performing extremely well to weather with her large genoa. I gotta get me one of those! There is no way we should have caught up with the other boats in the fleet after our horrible mistake making the first mark. But we did! And we did so quickly. The genoa continued to perform well as the day progressed and the winds climbed to nearly 20 knots. She honestly seemed to be the secret weapon of the boat.
My third lesson - everyone had fun. The Outremer cup doesn't really start until tomorrow. Today was a special race (with a French name i cannot pronounce) for boat owners and those that built the yachts. I was only invited last minute as I didn't bring Amaris - i had nothing to offer the builders! HA! There is not way to adequately explain how it was explained to me without sounding like Tim the tool man Taylor after getting a lesson from Wilson. I will however try. There is a part of the pig which is quite favorable in France - and is saved for the butcher/butcher's family. So the butcher and his family get the first day of racing - strictly owners of Outremers and crew from the manufacturer. I am not sure that they have done a lot of racing (the builders) and most were quite terrified to take the helm. To my skipper's credit, he challenged them to. I think they all had a blast in the end. More importantly, i believe they were given an incredible gift of understanding the product that they build. Of course, as evidenced by the photograph, the crew thoroughly enjoyed a day off from sanding, gluing, wiring, engineering, selling, or whatever they do for Outremer.
I am very much looking forward to the next three days of racing. Between looking at the rigging and customization of other boats, talking with the builders of Amaris, and sailing with great fellow sailors I will be going home with a lot of new knowledge. If i can pry Shawn's eyes off the checkbook, I may also be coming home with a new genoa. (Don't worry Shawn - i did't put down the deposit for the 5X... yet)
Hi Steven, sounds like you are having a great time. ..what is the difference between the solent and the genoa. I did assume (clearly wrong) that it was a genoa. If you have a genoa would it replace the one you have or have to be raised each time you need it like the code zero?
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