Final day

Andy Beadsworth reports from the conclusion of the Star's Bacardi Cup

Conditions: 10-16 Knots, southeast, fairly steady

The start was an hour earlier today. And to top that the race committee went straight into a black flag start sequence. We opted for a midline start, unsure of which side might pay.

At start time there was a right shift and the committee boat end had the advantage. However as the time progressed the left started to look better and better. Not sure if it was current, or more wind pressure. There was a group ahead crossing from the left but we looked good on the boats right, We were a little slow, struggling for height against the better boats near us. Probably a bit tight on the lowers for the conditions, it had lightened up a bit. We decided to keep going and set ourselves out to the left.

At the top mark we squeezed in from the left with inches to spare, just inside the top ten.

The run was difficult with a chasing pack but we settled in nicely just to leeward of John Dane. A couple of boats gybed early and looked good but it was high risk gybing under 90 boats early on the run. It's a big wind shadow!!! Approaching lay line we led the gybe back, Dane gybed no more than 30 seconds later. This translated into a gain for him of 10-15 boat lengths putting him fourth at the leeward mark!! We lost a couple of boats but had a great rounding at the leeward mark giving us a clear lane away. We took a little risk out to the right taking the small shifts. Generally, the fleet was heading left. A couple of boats hit hard right.

It was difficult to tell if we had gained or lost until the boats came back together on such a big course. With an increase in wind strength of about two knots, the boat came alive and we seemed to have much better speed. At the top mark we had gained back just into the top 10. Many of our competitors near us overall were placed around us and every point counted.

We had a fantastic run to the finish gybing at just the right leeward. We extended from the pack and caught the boats ahead, passing one to windward and 2 to leeward. We had fantastic speed. The best we had all week. At the extended we were 7th. Was it enough to get top 10, maybe better.

Scheidt was deep, he had 20 points on us going into the day. Kusznierewicz was deep last time we saw him. It was just possible we would/could be 7th or 8th. It transpired that we were 10th overall. Scheidt beat us by a point. Kusznierewicz retired after a collision at the leeward mark which resulted in a hole in his boat. He got redress 11th place, Much mbetter than he was fairing in the race at the halfway stage when he retired.

Although there are no published results yet, I think it was pretty close from 5th to 10th.

Those 10 points lost on the last beat of race 4 and the 4 dropped on the final run race 5 will surely tell a tale!!! Anyway we can't get them back.

John Dane was a worthy winner sailing smart and FAST all week in all conditions.

Andy Beadsworth