Day 1 Formula Windsurfing World Championships, Leba, Poland, 2 – 8 August
Today we started one race in light winds and big swell, it was eventually abandoned when the wind dropped completely under a rain cloud. I had a good race against Dorota, exchanging the lead around the course, in the end she crossed the finish line in first and me second. Karin Jaggi was in third. Since enough women did not finish before the wind dropped off they abandoned the race. So no scores on the score sheet yet for the women. I’m looking forward to
tomorrow and hopefully some good wind and good racing.
Day 2
There was not enough wind to race today. The forecast wind is better for tomorrow, so we could get in a full days racing.
Day 3
The wind looked promising for some racing today by around 12 noon, but because it was slightly cross offshore it was rather unstable and patchy. Later in the afternoon the wind swung sideshore and we were sent out to race. Again I finished a race thinking I would have a counting result, this time to find the race had actually already been abandoned! Still it was good practice, and I had held the lead from start to finish. We started another race and I was leading again, this time the wind was extremely light and flukey, and the race was
abandoned after one upwind and one reach.
Day 4
The wind filled in around 1pm today. It steadily built to around 11-14 knots for the first two races, and slighly more around 12-16 knots for races three and four. I made mistakes on the first upwinds of races one and two. I rounded in fourth and fifth place respectively. Since the outer loop was quite short there was not much changing of positions after the first mark rounding and reach, and I stayed in those positions.We then had a break. I decided to change
down to my new 9.8m Nitro 5 (kindly delivered from Maui by Phil McGain) for races three and four. This sail turned out to be a rocket ship upwind on it’s first outing, and I rounded in second position in both races. I was pushing to catch Dorota on the top reach both times, and managed to reel her in a bit, but not close enough to pass her. She was sailing consistently with few mistakes and will be a tough cookie to pass for the title. I am lying second overall with one more day of racing tomorrow.
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Day 5
Going into the last day of the event I was tied on points for second with Allison Shreeve, and two points clear of Karin Jaggi. With four races scheduled it was still feasible also to catch Dorota.
Race 5
In the first race of the day I was comfortable in third place with Dorota leading, and Allison in second. At one point on the second beat it even looked like I might make the lay line for the top mark in one go, whilst Dorota and Allison had underlaid and would have had to tack twice. Then, not for the first time in this event, and not for the last time either, the wind went all funky.
It dropped right off to hardly anything, like less than 4 knots, close to the top mark, Lucy Horwood who was a comfortable distance behind in fourth was able to catch right up to first, second and third positions. We then all attemped to non plane race to the top mark in no wind for around 2 minutes.
That there is no wind speed monitor at each buoy on the course at a World Championships is unbelievable, because this race surely would not have counted, and this is especially frustrating when races were abandoned earlier in the event when the wind was in my opinion better.
So going onto the final down wind it was close between the top four. Dorota gybed to the left hand side to try to catch the new wind that was coming through, whilst Allison, myself and Lucy kept right. I then made what turned out to be a mistake gybing off and heading down the middle. Allison came out first from the right hand side, then Dorota and Lucy very close in second and third, and me fourth.
Race 6
For this race we were on an ‘inner loop’ closer to the beach for the first time in the championship. I was looking sweet up the first beat to round in the top few, then the wind went all funky again, and filled in much stronger from the left with Geraldine Jambert making the best of this flying in from the left hand side of the course in first position around the top mark. I managed to get back across to the left and cut my losses, still rounding in 5th or 6th
place. At the downwind I was in 5th place. I tacked out straight away to the favoured left hand side of the course, as did Karin Jaggi who was covering me up the beat. We both pulled past Geraldine and Allison on this beat with good tactics, from the left hand side tacking on a shift to head back towards the buoy on the lay line in good wind. So I finished 3rd, and Karin second in this race, with Dorota first.
Race 7
This time last year at the Leba event I was in a similar position, second to fourth places were very close on points. Before the last race I worked out exactly what I needed to do to get second, but I found that this made me too nervous and I wasn’t able to just go out and race normally, and I wound up in fourth. So this year I said to myself I would not look at the points if that happened again, and I would just go and do my best.
I went to congratulate Dorota before the last race for winning the championship, since she was unbeatable now. Dorota said to me on the beach I should work out what I needed to do to get second, and I said I didn’t want to know the points! Then again on the water she said ‘are you sure you don’t want to know what the points are?’ So I said ‘OK, what are they?.’ Although I didn’t have it worked out exactly, I knew that to beat Allison to second overall, I probably had to win the race, and her finish several places behind me. For third place I wasn’t exactly sure but I thought I would have to finish in front of Karin to get third, since she had a better discard. The wind was fairly stable in this race, Dorota, Karin and I rounded in first, second and third. I was pushing to get Karin, but didn’t manage to catch her. I still thought I might have got third, but it was confirmed when I got back to the beach I had tied on points for third with Karin, but finished fourth overall on count back. I was the most disappointed I have ever been not to get on the podium at these Worlds.
However I’m looking forward to some more great racing with all the girls at the four PWA race events that will happen in the rest of this year.
Congratulations and well raced to Dorota for an outstanding performance, and to Allison and
Karin for great performances too!
Please visit my website for event reports and more: www.christinejohnston.net
Christine is sponsored by: Starboard, Executives Online, Neil Pryde wetsuits,
Gaastra, Deboichet, and LA Fitness
