Heat 5,6,7 update

Light non foiling conditions once again dominated for the morning heat 5. I was off to a good start, but lost out on the left hand side of the course along with Dave as others foiled in more pressure on the right.

I reckon this was the most frustrating race so far. The breeze seemed to be coming from every direction in gusts that would last 15seconds making picking the right spot to be in more good luck than anything else. I fell from 7th to 2oth in one work and came back to about12th before falling out of pressure while foiling and alowing lowriders to sneak past to finish 22nd. Aghh..

The winner of the race was Simon.

So with 2 afternoon races to be sailed, I hoped for my 15kn and flat water. Well, I finally got it! I had a good start on port and rounded the top mark in 5th. Downwind I gained and was now in touch with the leaders. This is more like it, I should have been here all regatta…. Up the last work i picked up a nice lift on the left side androunded the top mark in 1st. Dave chased hard on the downwind leg, but I came 1st by 20 seconds.

Heat 7 was another good one. I spent most of the race in 5th untill I hooked a lump of weed on my rudder. Most people managed to get some on their foils that afternoon, and if you did you were out of it. I slipped to 7th up the last work, but gained on Scott once the weed fell off and crossed the line in 6th. Simon won again with Nathan in 2nd and Dave in 3rd.

So with a good day yesterday I’m now in 10th. The 22nd and 19th are really hurting my standings, but I’m happy to have won a race at least.

Lay-day update

With 4 races finished the fleet is resting as a 35kn Northerly blasts accross the bay.

As you might have noticed I’ve had a pretty average regatta so far. Fair share of mistakes and lack of pace in the big breeze are probably to blame.

We seem to either get 5kn or 25kn. Nothing in between. Water is flat so control in big breeze hasn’t been an issue though.

I still think I can make a bit of a come back if we get a few 15kn races in. The boat is fast enough to win a race, however mistakes are costly with lots of fast boats around.

I’m currently sitting in 12th, which is way lower than my expectations and after coming 2nd and 3rd in the last two Nationals it’s something new to get used to. The game is getting tougher.

Anyway, I’m still confident and feel that I can perform better in the next few races.

Geelong tune up

So after the 16 hour drive, we finally made it to Geelong.

I got my boat together this morning and went out for the Zhik photo shoot at around 2.30. I was about to go in when Rohan pulled up in his RIB and offered to set some marks for a few sprint races.

Bora, Rob (from Hobart) Lockie and Andrew Brown sailed in most of the races with a light to medium seabreeze blowing.

It was good to line up and check my boat speed. I seemed to be right on the pace in that stuff. Actually I thought I was a little quicker downwind but didn’t win any races after a few poor starts and other mistakes.

So all in all, I’m happy. The water is perfectly flat here, but it’s gusty and shifty. I think the tactics will play a big part in deciding the overall winner.

Tomorrow should be fairly light again, and I’ll probably go for a quick sail before my afternoon rest. The real fun starts on Tuesday….

Week to go…

Just under a week to go before we head to Geelong…

I have most of the boat changes completed and I can finally concentrate on putting in a full week of sailing.

Saturday was good with Phil, Lea, Dave Clive, Donosan, Kylie and I all out training in 12-15kn NE. The trailer is also welded up thanks to Paul Donovan who did me a massive favour. I also recorded the January show of Mothcast with Bruce which is all about Nationals and should be on line this week.

With my form guide featuring in the show, there is no need to have one on my blog as well. This year is all about doing my best and seeing what happens without worrying about the competition too much.

Nats Prep

Not much time for blogging lately as all of my time has been consumed getting myself and the boat ready for the Nationals.

I sailed most days last week, however this week is alocated to boat work.

I am starting to burn out a little though, as I haven’t spent a single day over the last 4 weeks not doing some sort moth related chore. Hopefully it will be all worth it? It wasn’t last year but that’s another story.

I’ll be glad when it’s all over and I am back to more laid back club racing.