Today marked the start of my next big adventure, but a bit closer to home this time - Melbourne! I've been here for a week already for some training with the Australian coach Max Wojcik. Its been an awesome week and I made lots of valuable steps forward in terms of technique and speed. We had conditions ranging from 4 - 40 knots (not even joking, we were out in 40 knots on 9.5m sails with 220L boards with a 66cm fin) so we were able to cover lots of different conditions and learn in all of them.
Today though, was the start of Sail Melbourne - which is part of the olympic sailing world cup. We have 7 entries for this event, 3 from Australia (myself, Sam Treharne, and another tassie boy Hugh Jones, who hasn't really ever sailed the RSX, but is here just for some fun), 3 from Russia (all are ranked inside the top 40 in the world) and 1 from Lithuania (also with a low ranking). The level is really high, and that was represented in todays racing. We had conditions that started as 8-10 knots for the first race, but built through to the third race to be roughly 12-14 knots. We raced two laps around a windward-leeward course.
The first race started at 12, and the fleet got off to a really even start, with me and one of the Russian sailors pulling slighty ahead of the pack. We were both caught up and pushed back down a bit. It was very physical sailing, lots of pumping onto the plane and staying there, although it was a slightly different kind of planing as we had our centreboards down upwind - its called railing. I ended up 5th in this race, after losing the lead pack on the 1st downwind.
The second race was started equally well, everyone showing good speed and power. At this stage, the wind was starting to shift right a bit with the seabreeze as it continued to set in, and I made a massive gain by taking early and getting some extra pressure. I managed to cross the fleet and lead the race, and Hugh got as high as 3rd by using the same tactic. I held the lead up to the first top mark, but lost it on the downwind. I was relegated back to 4th, and stayed there for the remainder of the race.
The third race threw up an interesting decision - try and plane only off the fin, going faster but at a greater angle to the wind, or keep the centreboard down and continue to go close to the wind. It ended up being faster to go off the centreboard, and those who tried to go off the fin (myself included) ended up having bad starts and being put on the back foot. I was able to recover however by immediately putting my centreboard down and tacking off to the right hand side of the course. I was again able to get a great gust and a favourable shift, which put me back in contention for the lead. I was able to sail fast enough to take it, but ended up rounding the top mark second. The downwind yet again proved to be my downfall, and I was put back into 5th place and forced to stay there, although I almost stole 4th right at the finish line.
The Bic Techno 293 class, where there are 3 entries (including my little brother angus), also had some good racing. Angus managed to get three 2nd places, and is still easily within touching distance of the leader.
In conclusion, its been an awesome first day, with the sun shining, the wind blowing and the racing really tight. A very good showing by 3 tassie racers! Tomorrow we start later, so hopefully the seabreeze will have set in and we can have some full planing races. We still have for more four more days with three races, and then one final double points medal race to finish with, so there is plenty more racing to come! Ill do my best to keep the thread updated with what happens each day. Until then, the results can be found at these websites;
RSX men: --------->
http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/results/index.phprgtaid=17240&evntid=32961&view=fleetevent#results__17240 Bic Techno 293: ---->
sailingresults.net/sa/results/overall.aspx?ID=59.43
)
