My first race...

[Giulietta]

Originally Posted by Joel73

What is the difference between speaking European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese ? Is it more about pronunciation than actual spelling difference?

The Brasilians "murdered" Portuguese language, just like Americans or Australians "murdered" English Language or the Canadians did to French.

Its written the same way with subtle spelling changes, where silent letters and non-influencial letters in words were, omited or removed thru out the times, without afecting to much the sound of the word. (like Colour in English and Color in America, or Tire in US Tyre in UK, center, centre, etc.)

Some say that Portuguese of Brasil has more archaic words, but its not proven.

We all understand each other. Brasilsians almos sing the Portuguese, making their Portuguese easier for an american to learn, whereas Portuguese from Portugal is more "sh" "xxs" "ch", as Marc said, it sounded like half the country was telling the other half to shut up...and is more "gutural".

Both are different from Spanish (which by the way is not an official language, as the language's real name is Castellano, but everyone calls it Spanish), French and Italian, that has more dialects than hair in CD's crack....

[Sabre66]

Originally Posted by Joel73

That's interesting... so in a way, you can basically say "no" and that's legal? That would have been to our benefit because we did have another boat to our starboard and we were being pushed from our port side. We could have just held our ground (ahem... water) and probably not have crossed the line early.

We were racing a Catalina 27 so we were in a cruising class with 5 other boats. Not that many in our class but i'm still happy with 3rd for my first time. The captain on the otherhand was a little pissed because of the start but he acknowledged that it was his mismanagement of the start that caused it. I forget what our handicap, or rather rating, was. 215 maybe? can't remember.

213 in the our area. The Cat 27 is a very well established PHRF boat...I think the rating is fair, although they tend to do better in fairly light conditions.
I over-simplified the start....It's very easy to get stuck in that position, we've been there many times. EDIT: If someone is trying to take you up and you have a boat above you that wont/can't head up after you hail for room, then you can tell the leeward" no room" You still have to keep clear as best you can.
Eventually you develope a 6th sense for where you want to be at the start
It's all a matter of timeing.

[tenuki]

Originally Posted by Joel73

The wind was about 5-10mph so we were baking in the sun... slow race!

man, those kinda races suck, less time for beer afterwards.

[Joel73]

Originally Posted by tenuki

man, those kinda races suck, less time for beer afterwards.

Haha... well i don't drink beer (exchange tequila for that.)

This photo gives you an idea of how hot is was by the haze and the lack of wind on the water. It also tells you approx how many of us (all classes) were out there although i couldn't quite get everyone in the frame.