Tue 16th, the first day of competition and we are greeted with Mistral wind gusting 60 knots dead offshore / slightly biased starboard tack for the course.
The organisers decided to postpone opening the course as to concerns over whether the guard boats could rescue sailors if they got into trouble.
When the course opened we had steady 30 knots, Bjorn Dunkerbeck was on his new Starboard Isonic Speed 54 with 32cm fin (later to change to 30cm) and 5.6m sail. I opted for my new Isonic Speed 58 with 32cm Black Project fin and 6m Hot Sail GPS. The course was like a boiling saucepan chop and 3' waves breaking.
Like with most speed contests and sailors there is always an "if only". I went out without booties thinking that I might have to change down to 5.5m sail on my Isonic 49. I don't know if it was the cold numb feet or just not used to sailing without boots but I was all over the place. The course then had a technical problem which closed it for 15minutes and gave me time to go in and put my boots on. When the course opened again it was like sailing in slippers, I quickly put in 2 good runs and my ranking shot up finishing 14th.
My speed history has always shown that tight course aren't the best for me but with the problems I had to come back to 14th was great. It puts me in a fantastic position for the world championship but I won't start shouting from the roof tops just yet.
We have two days with no wind and another forecast for tomorrow. Saturday is forecast for onshore winds, high surf and rain but the organisers have said that they intend to run another leg.
Time will tell.
Regards
Martyn
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment