Croatia Yacht Rally 2004
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Biograd is where a fleet of 24 charter cruising yachts come together for 7 races over 2 weeks, our destination Dubrovnik 120 miles down the coast. The rally (it soon becomes the Americas Cup ) is run by Trevor Joyce's Mariner
Boating Holidays and has 134 people here from Australia to have the adventure of sailing as a fleet, meeting in the evenings for dinner and on lay day's time to explore on there own the beautiful Islands..
Day 1 is a race to the Kornati Islands, an 18 miler tacking in and out between the baron cone shaped islands, to the ACI Marina on the island of Piskera. The line up of yachts at the start is spectacular against the old town and blue skyline. The fleet comprises the blue yachts, the Grand Soleil's and Comets from 56 foot to 40foot and the white yachts Beneteau's and Jeanneau's from 52.2 foot to 37 foot. We in our Beneteau 473 have 4 other identical yachts to rate ourselves against. 
On board we have Judy Van Geldren and Natalie Walton from Sydney.
Perfect race conditions and we are 3rd over the line and win on handicap. Cadiz has never raced before and considering we have a lot of stuff on board we are very surprised how well she went. If Ian wrote this he would tell you its skill but I will tell you it's the all girl crew. Cocktails and dinner overlooking the yachts in the marina at sunset, it doesn't get much better.
Day 2, Lay Day and a 30 mile sail to Primosten, our next race start line. Calling into two beautiful bays for a swim we drop anchor with Bob and Sue Fraser and Trevor and Maggie Joyce's yachts rafting along side. Its all great fun till we all start to drift back on to the rocks, but with all that skill on board, we are on our way again. Finally our spinnaker gets an airing, now a little smaller, but it holds together.
Race 2 and not a lot of wind around, we head for Trogir. It's a close shave past a couple of islands, with a bit of rock watching in the bow. We are 7th over the line and 2nd on handicap. After an amazing dinner of cured ham, mussel and squid ink risottos, platters of meats and then fish, its prize giving time again and the cellar is filling up with Croatian wine as prizes.
Day 4, Lay day and walk the narrow stone lanes of Trogir.The view from the old Venetian Fort of this wonderful town covering a small island was spectacular, with all our fleet tied up to the town dock. In the afternoon we find the bay of Krknjas on the island of Veli Drvenik and spend the evening surrounded by crystal clear green water and our buddy party yachts, Trevor and Bob. Rebecca Hayter, editor of Boating New Zealand and Brian Watson join us for the rest of the Rally.
Race 3 and a bigger handicap, its find some wind. A very slow start but we find a breeze near the land and get 1st over the line, 4th on handicap. ACI Marina on the island of Saint Klement is fabulous amongst the pine trees and another great dinner overlooking the bay.
Day 6 Lay day, we cross to Hvar with the Saalfeld family (from RSYS) and Bob Fraser's crew on board. Some climb to the castle and others just need to sit in the sun and watch the passing parade and eat more food and drink more wine. The afternoon is spent in the bay of Soline and we are stern to in the clearest water to date. We can see quite clearly the weed like grass 12 meters below us.
Race 4 is to Korcula and it's on the nose with a 12 mile beat in 12 knots of breeze, the strongest to date. We all have to work hard and Ian is getting very serious now. I am in trouble as I would like some photos but we are in trouble at the start line and there is no one else to take it out on. We recover well and finish 3rd and 1st on handicap. We are having very close racing with Bobs Team on a Grand Soleil 46.3 and Bill Whiskers Team on an identical yacht to ours, a Beneteau 473.
It is great to catch up with so many sailing colleagues from Sydney and drink many a wine at the great functions after each race day and resailing the days event a 100 times.
We need the lay days to recover from both activities.
Stay tuned for the next week of racing.