1st, Race day 0ne, the wind was coming in slowly and shifty.
The start line was very pin end favored with more than half the fleet starting on Port tack, so I opted for a starboard tack start at the pin end and lucked out big time with a big wind shift just before the start making it impossible to cross the start line on Starboard tack. So this put me in almost last position off the start line along with my team mate Ben van der Steen. My other team mate Arnon Dagon had excellent port tack start with Kevin Pritchard rounding the top mark together in first and second. I used the wind shifts very good on the first upwind to come back to round the top mark in 3rd and moved immediately into second after Arnon hit a plastic bag just after rounding the first mark sending over the front crashing out. Kevin however was too far gone for me to catch him after my terrible start leaving me in 2nd place for this first race.
2nd Race, This time I had a much better start although not the best and rounded the first mark closely behind Ramses Landman and pasted him on the first down wind with better speed and angle. Then on the second up wind I sailed perfectly to pull out a much larger lead, just to loose it all by forgetting to round the last mark 100m before the finish. After they told me on the finish boat that I should round this mark I sailed back to round it dropping me back to 2nd feeling like a complete idiot, but I was very lucky to have such a big lead not to loose any more positions.
3rd Race, Most definitely the gustiest and shifty wind race that I have ever done and could not believe this race would count.
I started on Starboard tack on top of everyone giving me the best start from the whole fleet; Kevin had gone off on Port tack sailing well behind me off the start. So after a little I tacked to cover him and I went into a huge hole of about 2 knots so I tacked again to try and get out of this whole and finally got going again after loosing the lead I had off the start and much more. Then I sailed into another huge hole so I tacked for the mark when the wind sent me in a full 360 degree spin around my board like a helicopter just hit me. When I finally got out of this spinning wind I was far behind, and then sailed quite fast down wind to catch a little ground. Then on the next up I tried to pick the shifts and made a huge come back, but I can’t say it was good sailing picking these shifts as it was like flipping a coin, so I managed to come back to 3rd on the top mark of the 2nd lap. I then sailed good down wind and got a little lucky with the wind to come back and finish right on the tail of Arnon and Kevin, but I was just not quite good enough to gain another position leaving me in 3rd for this race.
End of day one, leaving me 0.6 of a point behind Kevin for 2nd position.
Best Regards,
Steve
