SIRS DAY 3 and Final day, ‘Holding it together and striking for podium’

Hi all,

Been a busy 2 days with some 6 races and packing boats and so forth so apologies for late reports.

Day 3 was an early morning start (10am) with a light to medium nor easterly breeze beginning from the gradient north. We sailed right down off Rushcutters bay and the harbor was flat and quiet compared to the weekend.

We sailed three races and I was ranked 7th after day 2. I wanted to hold my rank if possible as the lighter conditions I consider tougher then the heavier. I was pleased to hold ground all day and did not get worse then 10th. My results were a 7th, 9th and 10th.

I considered my position before day 3 and went into the starts trying to break out into clear air and sail my own race. I was conservative and started up or away from the bunch and waited for the shifts to play their part. Sydney harbor is a place of patience, all you have to do is wait. If it started as a left hander you can be sure a right hander will occur before the top mark and all you have to do is wait and position yourself to use it to cross.

This mentality kept me in the game and I was very pleased with my results. I ran deep and almost always made big gains downwind. The key was keeping an eye on the pressure behind and buying depth when I could. If I was too deep a broad reach would always save the day when cross a pressure line.

Anyway day 3 I finished up 7th again but only 3 points from 4th and 10 points from 3rd. I knew I was in a position to try for the podium but could not catch 1st or 2nd without a disaster on their behalf.

Day 4 began with a steadily increasing north easter. I watched seabreeze.com.au in the morning and smiled with glee. This was going to be a day to remember.

I went out an hour early as I had every day and engaged in prestart preparations. I found that unlike many of the internationals who believed that the left would be favored as the channel had more pressure I knew that the right and getting a geographical lift off the Nielsen Park Head was more valuable in the long term. Also the right being shielded by the head was flatter and little right handers popped out if you went in close enough. The top mark was right off Nielsen so I prepared for a boat end start.

The gun went and I was on the boat in prime position. I rolled over the fleet below me in a right hand phase and rolled out to the middle where the left would take me into the head off nielsen park. I looked to windward and leeward I had a comfortable lead !!! I kept an eye on the fleet and hiked flat out to take a 100m lead to the top mark and a comfortable race from then on following the same game plan. 1st !!! what a great result !!!

The second race I followed the game plan again but this time the left was a little stronger. I tacked in phase with the fleet and got around the top mark in about 9th. The downwind run I found that going low and following the pressure down past Nielsen was beneficial and I made a massive gain and took back some 3 places. On the next beat I took the left side and scraped into 5th at the top mark. The final run I made gains but couldn’t catch 4th but was again happy with a solid result.

Funnily enough for the 3rd race the breeze dropped back into a right phase and a few of the good guys caught on that starting at the boat was a good idea. I wanted to slow up the Croatian who was in 3rd running into the final race so I started below him with intention to squeeze and force a tack early to the right. Directly below me was Karol from Poland and Mike Leigh CAN. We burned off the line and cut a swathe out to the left with Mikey tacking out early. The Croatian fell into my lee and was forced to tack !!! Karol and I footed back from the left and because I went a little earlier he got a little more left !!! I rounded in 4th after Karol, Simon Morgan and a kiwi.

The downwind I really got in the groove and passed straight by Simon and the Kiwi to chase after Karol. The waves and wind seemed to come together and it felt great. I rounded the bottom mark in 2nd and went for Karol, I looked back and saw the Croatian had caught up to 7th !!! I needed to keep about 6 points between us and I was screaming inside for the other guys to go faster !!!

Up the second beat my legs began to wear down. I was getting tired and the wind was getting stronger. Karol started to pull away from me and Simon Morgan was powering upwind and seeming to work too hard ?!?! I lost out and fell back into 4th after Josh Junior came from the far left and was on a mission to make it back on the downwind !!! I got in the groove again and went past the kiwi and caught upto simon who was just infront near the finish. I went for second and broad reached at the boat and saw at the last moment a bow sticking out from behind the committee boat !!! Karol had gone to pick up his gear and my boat was torn asunder and a 1m long gash appeared just under the gunwale. Total write off and what a way to finish SIRS !!! disaster !!!

Anyway, I am sorting that out but the boat will be sent to the factory and I had to send my younger brothers boat to Melbourne.

I ended up finishing the regatta in 4th some 6 points behind the Croatian. I won the final day on points but could not grasp 3rd !!! Still am very happy with my results and more so on my fitness. Not till the final beat was I cramping and I felt my endurance fitness has gone up rapidly after cycling alot more and doing alot of sailing specific gym work.

Big thanks and congratulations to Mike Leigh (he won!)  for being my training partner the last few weeks and also the ASDS camp with all the starting we did was invaluable. Thanks to Adrian Finglas, Erik Stibbe and BB for all their support and kind words. Also to the boys from Queensland (Ryan, Klaude and Jared) who came for a ride and are keen to train together into the future.

Thanks to the race committee and volunteers for a great regatta at my home club and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves !!! The harbor can get a bit of everything as many found out so I hope to see everyone and more next year !!! See you in Melbourne for Sail Melbourne on the 16th and keep an eye on the blog till then !!!

Laser Full Rig Qualifying

Home | RS:X | Laser | Radial M | Radial W | 4.7 | Finn | Moth | 420 | 470 | 29er | 49er | Yngling Pl Name Sail Num Bow Num Club /Cty 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Points Net Points 1 LEIGH, Michael 8818 CAN 1 5 4 2 5 3 (15) 2 6 5 48 33 2 HERNANDEZ CEBRIAN, Javier 9 ESP 6 4 14 1 2 1 1 6 8 (17) 60 43 3 MIHELIC, Daniel 2594 CRO 2 (45) OCS 1 9 12 15 5 4 2 7 102 57 4 BRUNNING, Ashley 3100 AUS 16 7 5 (19) 10 7 9 1 5 3 82 63 5 COUTTS, Matt 71 NZL 3 15 11 16 3 (24) 11 8 1 4 96 72 6 MALONEY, Andy 1961 NZL 10 2 13 13 8 5 (28) 3 11 13 106 78 Youth 7 POROZYNSKI, KAROL 4937 POL 4 (20) 16 4 14 18 3 12 7 1 99 79 8 DEL SOLAR, Matias 7 CHI 12 9 17 8 13 (22) 2 13 4 10 110 88 9 TARITAŠ, IVAN 1944 CRO 11 8 10 (20) 6 17 6 5 15 19 117 97 10 VUJASINOVIC, Milan 3012 CRO 14 (45) DNC 2 15 1 6 14 16 9 22 144 99