While the snow pilled up in the Netherlands we were on our way to Monaco. The transport was however not without incidents. After two blown tires of the trailer and a visit to the local IVECO dealer near Lyon, we arrived six hours late on Wednesday evening in Monaco. Early Thursday morning the boat was lifted in the water, and we spend the day preparing the boat, measuring the sails and weighing the crew.

Friday morning we went out and did a quick practice run, and returned to the harbour for lunch. At one o'clock the first start for our 19 boat mumm30 fleet was scheduled. We had a reasonable start but struggled with our boat speed. At the end we still managed to finish 13^th. The second start required a general recall and at the restart we were too early, so we were disqualified (black flag).

Saturday started quite dreadful; we changed our jib and went for a rapid test run, to find out on return that the committee had changed the starting sequence and our class had just started. We went in pursuit, and with really good boat speed and solid tactics we managed to pass six boats and finish 13^th. The second and third race we sailed very well and finished 9^th and 5^th.

After an hour of postponement on Sunday due to a lack of wind a light breeze finally made it possible to race. We had a good start, but went to the left when the wind was turning to the right, resulting in a last place at the upwind mark. Again we went in pursuit and passed five boats downwind. Sadly the race was shortened at the downwind mark, limiting our pursuit to a 14^th place. The second race we fortunately played the wind right and we were third at the upwind mark. We lost downwind by picking the wrong site, but we regained most of our loss at the second downwind leg by choosing the right site, which resulted in a 6^th place.

We ended 11^th overall, which is quite satisfactorily in a fleet dominated by professionals. The boat is now back in Scheveningen where we will compete in the next IJspegel regatta.

Photo by: Jeroen van Catz