Tuesday 29 December 2009

Bocconi Regatta 2009

Link to the Event Website

A very late report from what was once again an amazing event. Once again, as much or more from the venue, the food and the parties as from the racing.

The LBS "A" crew saw Rob and Howie back together, hoping to recreate the magic of their winning Athens team. This time, the crew was one of current students: Ben Grosman, Anna Smee, Luc Hardy, Yves Suelze, Joel Shinners and new club president Elena Shinners.

LBS also entered a crew in the "B" - white sails only division, led by our ringer from Insead, Ingrid Van Wees, and comprising Michalia Negri (Left, above, demonstrating the "Human Pole" method for down-wind goose- winging), Vicente Vazquez Bouza, Timur Sulteev, Chris Kempton, Nathaly Carvajal and Phil Poetter.

Racing - wise, the "A" crew got a series of good starts and proceeded to lose serious ground in each beat. As ever, with this regatta, the boats were mis- matched, and our Jeanneau 37's old delivery sails and grubby hull were no match for Benneteau First 36.7s' kevlar racing sails and freshly scrubbed backsides. We did better on the downwind - winning back places with our well- drilled manoeuvres - hoisting, gybing and dropping well - but it became a regatta for working on getting the crew well drilled, and practiced rather than one where we could fight for honours.

Off the race track, we had great fun with a faulty engine: the water pump not working because the belt had become untensioned, and the flow of hot exhaust gases that resulted melting through the exhaust box before we realised and shut the engine off. Rob spent an enjoyable lunch break and post- race trip to Portofino with his head down in the engine compartment getting things as fixed as they could be. And the crew had o brush up on their bailing skills once the engine was working again, but pumping water into the bilges.

The evenings, as ever, were wonderful. Saturday night's event at La Cervara was incredible. The venue was an old monastery converted into incredible gardens overlooking Portofino, and the food was, as ever, close to Italy's finest.

Final Standings:
Hec
Kellogg-Whu
Sauder
Insead
Instituto De Empresa
Warwick
Whu
Columbia Business School
Chicago Booth
Sda Bocconi
London Business School
Rsm Erasmus
Wharton
Duke