Race 1
The guys had been sent out and not managed to get a race in due to the wind being a little too light. So they sent the girls out to try again. The wind felt quite good on the way to the start with some fair strength gusts around 10 knots coming through. Just before the start the wind dropped, and it was a big problem to get off the start line planing! I was lucky the I managed to tack immediately and only just got over the rope on the start boat, my fin got caught for a bit, but it freed off and I was away to the right hand side of the course. When I tacked I saw Lucy and Dorota coming from the left hand side of the course, and also Cindy. It looked like I would cross them by miles but I got headed as I approached them and only crossed them by a little. At the top mark Dorota managed to get around in first, Lucy underlaid and had to tack twice, so I got around in second and then Cindy in third. I was pushing hard to catch Dorota on the downwind, as we got towards the bottom of the course I realised a little too late that Dorota was heading for mark 3 and not mark 2. So I lost ground, with Cindy just passing inside me to mark 2, and Dorota lost a lot of ground. I managed to stay in the wind on the second upwind, going pretty much up the middle, but pushing further left than Lucy and Cindy who got in a bit of a hole in the middle of the course. Dorota caught back up to second place quite far behind me, but then was pushing really hard on the last downwind and made quite a lot of distance back. It was cool to cross the finish line because I could hear everyone cheering from the beach! I had a big smile on my face for race 1!
Race 2
The committee had shorterned the first upwind a little, and also moved mark 1 to the left. I thought it would be really important to get a good start (not like the first race!). I wanted to stay on starboard tack, and then hope that a band of pressure came down the left. I got a pretty good start in this race, although again there were quite a few girls not accelerating until late so it was hard to find a way through into clear air. I punched out to the left hand side of the course. I could see Verena below me, and a couple of girls had good height above me. I went further than anyone and tacked. I was over the lay line quite a lot, but there was really good pressure so I had good speed to the mark. Cindy had very good speed and went up the middle more to round in front of me. It seemed like quite a few girls got stuck on the middle or right of the course with a lot less wind. I just managed to squeeze past Cindy on the downwind. Since I did well even though I had overlaid on the first upwind I figured it had to pay to go left again. I tacked to cover Cindy who tacked first at the beginning of the upwind. Cindy tacked back in the middle, but I kept going left because I was confident there was more wind over there. In the end I think a lot of girls got stuck in the middle and right in less wind. I found myself a long way ahead at the upwind mark, and then I could relax on the downwind and just try to stay in the gusts. I had an even bigger smile on my face for this race!
I’m really happy with today, but there is a long way to go yet!
