Grrrrrrr

Andy Beadsworth reports on the warm-up for the Star's North West hemisphere championships in Nassau

A busy day. For the first time ever we were the last boat to arrive, register and be measured. It was full on and then three races this afternoon.

We have made some small changes to our set up this week following some cogitating since Miami. Small but significant. We also looked at our North Heavy air mainsail which till now has never come out of its bag. As it is now sold we decided we should at least look at it and the conditions were suitable 12-18 Knots.

The committee ran three practice races close to shore. They formed a series that a separate cup will be presented.

Race 1 we had a great start but failed to capitalise on it, struggling a little for speed especially in the lulls. We also made some big tactical errors and our boat handling was scrappy, very scrappy. By the end of the race we redeemed ourselves up to 10th.

Race 2. Another great start. Better speed after adjusting our rig set up and much better tactics lead to us rounding the first mark 5th. We passed a couple of boats and rounded the leeward mark right with the leaders. However we chose the left hand mark as those ahead took the right. Sailing in phase on the next few shifts almost gave us the lead but eventually we rounded third behind Ross McDonald and Cayard.

Race 3 A poor start. What a mess!! Z flag penalty too which coped us a six point penalty on top of having to return and restart. However we made good gains and got back to 10th .

Overall we finished 10th.
Without the Z flag penalty we would have been 6th. Without being over the line we would have been ????? Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Both David and I felt we sailed particularly badly today. Suffering a bit from travelling and too much to do in a short period. The top boats have all been here for between three and 8 days practicing. That would make a difference. It's amazing how rusty we are each time we get back in the boat.

It is clear if we are to achieve a medal position at the Europeans in August we will have to find a way of putting some proper hours training out of competition with a coach beforehand. Presently we take two steps forward and one step back every event. Maybe we should cut our competition schedule in favour of some decent training opportunities?

Two races tomorrow. Forecast for plenty of wind. Maybe 30 Knots.


Andy