Volvo City Sailing

  Malmö, Sweden
Saturday, June 14, 2008

Volvo C66

This Saturday Staffan, Leo, & Alex entered to compete in the Volvo City Sailing race in Malmö. The race took place at the America's Cup Dock in close to the Turning Torso and around the Dockan marina. It was an interesting event to watch. The race consisted of teams of three persons racing CB66 racers. The boats were provided for the race and each team was to use the boat assigned to them . We were assigned the team call name of Lomma 1, because we came from the Lomma Buktens Seglingklubb (LBS) and I guess the first team from there to enter. The funny thing was that neither Staffan, Leo, or Alex have ever sailed this CB66 boat, but they were confident they could handle it all right even without any prior experience.

Trying to Figure out the Boat

Which led me to reason I should not be participating given my lack of sailing any other boat except a big 35ft xyacht. So I left the sailing to them. Races from all over the south of Sweden came to this race. About 20 teams were entered to compete. And a race center with varying sponsor booths was setup so I wasn't bored out of my mind on shore. The great thing about this event was that it was short races of about 15 to 20min and everything could be viewed from the shore, hence City Sailing. So I was able to take a great many pictures of all the action.

Lomma 1 was assigned to the 3rd of the 4 heats. During their preliminary heat they were allowed two races to qualify into the semifinal. For the preliminary races they raced in the boat sponsored by Folk Spel,

Folk Spel

a Swedish lottery bingo sort of company. They placed 2nd in both of those so advanced because the top 3 of each of those heats went on to the two semifinal heats. Then in the semifinal again the top 3 would advance to the final. After the growing pains of learning the new boat they were able to take first in both of their semifinal qualifier while racing in the Pro Marina boat. Which was pretty sweet to watch happen. It was funny in a sense because some teams were matching down to their socks in outfits and had practice before on this boat prior to race day and Lomma 1 was one rag tag squad wearing an assortment of gear and just having fun. Because they were the last group in the semifinals they kept the same boat for the finals and raced in the semifinal boat. The finals was a packed race with many penalties being handed out for illegal turns and maneuvers. They came in second overall, but because of a rule that they weren't aware of at the time they were disqualified at the end, without a chance to protest because of the rules. But all in all they had a good time and it was a great event for the sailors at least. Race area itself that was visited by almost 7000 people in Stockholm when the event was held there was only about 200 in attendance in Malmö. I think the far off location away from the city center hampered the coordinators efforts to getting a huge crowd. All in all a good day of spectating even with my face looking like a raccoon the rest of the evening.