Day 1 (or 6)
Racing started today, after 5 days of waiting ashore. As expected the fleet was damn close, mistakes were very costly.
It was still fresh, and I was quick uphill, but fairly slow or out of control or both downwind. The broad reaches at the bottom of the triangle were killing me, costing me 8 or so places in Race 3. I figured I had too much lift after ditching a bunch of times, so I went down to -1 and wound in a bunch of lift. Much more manageable downwind (losing 1 place downwind in that race instead of 2 every leg in the other races), but then didn’t have enough lift to fly fast uphill… which hurt. The breeze dying off when I backed everything off probably didn’t help my cause. But that’s what you get. I’ve made another change to the wand to try and stop the maystick bottoming out on the topside flare, so that might help me… or might not.
Don’t you love those setup issues 
Anyway, I finished with a 3,4,12 (or something like that), 6. John is killing it with 2,2,2,2 (like my Garda scorecard). Amac is super fast, and right on the border of control, scoring a 8,1,4,1 to be leading after the first drop is factored in. Belcher is also doing well, winning the windiest race 3, even though he’s fighting it out at midget weight. Arnoud is also there with 1,2,4 and about 8. Plenty of other fast boats in there that I’ve missed. I might be around 5th if I’m lucky.
Swede Martin Gravare was super quick downwind in Race 3, and Sten-Mark from Estonia ran me down on the line in Race 4. Every place counts and I didn’t do such of good job of holding onto them.
We need 1 more race before we have a series, so it’s on again for tomorrow. They’ll probably get 3 races in before the 3pm time limit. Forecast is for 18-22, so more of the same.
Official results aren’t out yet… but they will be soon. Check www.moth-sailing.org or www.wpnsa.org.uk. Plenty of photographers out so sure to be some impressive shots on the way.
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Unfortunately they put me down for a 65th in Race 1, instead of 3rd. Which sort of hurts in the overall score as it stands… but that will be all sorted in the morning.
