Day 1
I have been i lake garda training on and off for a month prior to theEuropean Championships with my training partner Gonzalo. so i was feelingpretty prepared and confident in my equipment for the upcoming racing myWindWing sails with Gulftech Masts and booms were going very fast on my F2Board with Deboichet fins.
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Day one brought warm and sunny conditions with the wind starting to comein in the late morning. by noon the wind had filled in and they sent us outto the race course. i took my 12.5. after waiting around for a little whilethe wind came in quite strong around 15knots. because of so many men(146) we were racing in split fleets. i was in theyellow fleet starting second. it looked best to start on port and gostraight to the mountain and then tack for the mark. so i started on port atthe pin end with Cucchi, Arnon and Steve. arnon was showing some excellentspeed and he took off to lead the whole race with a comfortable victory.around the first downwind mark steve was second with cucchi in third and mein fourth. on the upwind steve got unlucky with either a header or some weedon his fin and dropped to fourth. and i managed to pass cucchi in the lastjibe to finish in second with cuchi 3rd, steve 4th and gonzalo coming in5th. i raced back to the beach to get me 11.7 but the wind died off so theysent the racers back to the beach. the wind came back about an hour later and we headed back out for two moreraces back to back. i chose to take my 11.7 which was going very well. for race 2 i started on port again with the most perfect start of my liferight at the pin end. and from there i led the whole race to get my firstbullet of the year. cucchi finished in second with arnon in 3rd and gonzalocoming back to 4th after a crash on the startline. for race 3 i started on port again with gonzalo, cucchi, arnon, steve andphil. i got a pretty bad start underneathe everyone. but managed to pull outof it to get 4th to windward. steve chose to go to the right on the downwindwhich didnt work out to well. i had good speed downwind and passed cucchiand then phil to take the lead at the leeward mark. then i led for the restof the race to get my second bullet in a row with cucchi once again rightbehind me in second, steve in 3rd, arnon in 4th and phil rounding out thetop 5.
So after a good day of racing im really excited to be leading the EuropeanChampionships with a 2nd and two firsts.
Day 2
I was feeling pretty confident with my racing and also a bit nervousleading the competion. but i was hoping for some great racing.
The wind filled in around 12.30 and we headed out to the course with somenew split fleets off of yesterdays results. today i had Antoine, Gonzalo,Arnon, Jesper, Micah and fellow WindWing teamate Jamie. so it was going tobe some exciting racing. we started second and just like the day before iwent for a port tack start with all of the top guys. i started at the pinend and when i got through the fleet i could see Antoine and Jesper well outin front after starting on port at the boat. they both had really good speedand pretty much sailed their own race out in front. i was coming up to thetop mark in 5th behind Jamie and Dijkstra Wilko who was sailing quite fast.but then we got headed really bad and i had to double tack the windwarddropping to 7th. on the downwind i made it to 4th passing jamie right beforethe mark. i held 4th to windward with Micah chasing right behind me. then imade the mistake of jibing off on the downwind. Micah passed me in the jibeand jamie came from the other side to pass both of us right before thefinish. Dijkstra Wilko didnt make the leeward mark so Antoine 1st, Jesper2nd, Jamie 3rd, Micah 4th and me in 5th.
Then we started race 5 with the wind getting a little lighter around12knots. i went for port again but in the middle of the line which turnedout to be really good cause i just got on the lift and rode it all the wayup to lead comfortably at the top mark. Gonzalo had an excellent port at theboat end but didnt get the lift like me and dropped down a bit. i had acomfortable lead for the rest of the race as the wind started to die but iwas still going very well on my 11.7 which is working in a very large range.but unfortunatley for me the wind died before i could make it to the finishand they had to abandon the race cause of no wind at all.
So i was very unhappy to not get my third first but im still tied withequal points for first with Antoine and Woijtek who had been in the otherfleet from me for both days. so i hope for some better wind tomorrow so wecan get some good races.
