Pic from today, thanks ISAF !!!
Hi all,
Bit of an emotional day for me as I finally achieved some of my long standing goals in the last few years. I was super anxious to get started today and slept poorly and was shaking with anticipation this morning. Still managing injury throughout the event and a fleet of the worlds top laser sailors was hard on my nervous mind !!! As you may know from prior posts, I had a consistent series until I missed a large shift yesterday and posted a 4th and a 30th.
Today I had to keep consistent and had only a 10 point gap to 10th overall. Despite starting the day in 4th I had the biggest drop and knew it would be tough for if I made a big error I would be out of the top 10. I went through all my normal processes, ate well and kept on top of my body.
When I got to the club I thought I could feel a building seabreeze as I rode down from North Cottesloe. As we sailed out however and jumped on the tow there was just a very light sea breeze. It would be a tough first race and not predictable at all.
We started in around 5 knots and a little chop and it was hard to get going. I started near the boat as I felt I wanted to go right to the closest pressure I could see up the course. I tacked onto port after a while and held my lane above Tom Burton (AUS). After a while though a more windward boat started to gas me so I tacked back and found another lane behind Johan Wigforss (SWE). I stayed on Port tack all the way to the starboard layline and more importantly the PRESSURE. I rounded the top in a close 20th in a big bunch.
For the rest of the race I moved up and down. Maybe a little too big for the downwinds in the soft stuff I generally just managed to hold on or lose a few. Upwind it didnt matter as much so I often made a gain of one or two. In the end I managed to hold on to 17th. I was pretty chuffed as there was some big scores from some of the other top guys.
In race 2 it was a building seabreeze but never really got above 8 – 10 knots. I started again on the left a bit up from the pin and held my lane quite well. I tacked on a persistent header and found another lane back left. I tacked back onto port and rounded the top in a BIG bunch in around 14th !!!
On the first run I lost a few and on the second beat I lost 2 more because I went left beliving the seabreeze was filling and clocking … On the third beat however I made some solid gains by just sailing good angles and rounded the top in 12th.
The keynote point of this race was my final downwind. I managed to really get into a groove with the waves and just pass a big bunch of some really good guys including Goodison, Tom Burton, Thompson, Dave Wright and Julio Alsograray. I managed to finish in 8th as Dave Wright sneaked inside me.
Not knowing if I would make medal race but sure I was in I kept celebrations to a cheeky grin. When I got told to sail to the medal race harbor and that I was 7th a huge grin swept over me and a weight that felt like tons rose off my shoulders.
Today I finshed Gold Fleet in 7th overall and am only 1 point behind Goodison in 6th. In front of me only 10 points away is 2nd position and a podium is in reach in the medal race tomorrow. My top 10 goal at the ISAF Worlds is now complete !!! My other goal was to qualify for the Australian Sailing Team. Which I also completed today !!! It meant a great deal to be accepted into that fraternity and I look very forward to next year.
For now though I can still rise through the ranks tomorrow. More importantly the Medal Race is on LIVE HD TV with channel 10 covering lead up and One HD covering the race closely which is really exciting. I interviewed with them today and my team mates Tom Slingsby and Tom Burton are also in the medal race making Australia the most represented country in the top 10 in the Laser Class today. GREAT WORK BOYS !!!
The medal race starts 415pm Perth time so will be on at 715pm Sydney, Melb time. It is normally quite short and intense so will be really cool to watch. There is about 30 mins of pre-start interviews on channel 10 and hype and I will be interviewed then. For those who are keen to see some of the racing I do first hand please do tune in to ONE HD at around 7pm.
Wish me luck, it’s not over yet !!!
