Auckland, NZ
February 18, 2007

The first two days of the Singapore Airlines Sail Auckland 2008 regatta offered us a taste of the winds we can expect from the southwest quadrant when we compete in the Tornado World Championship later this month.

Rigging up

We’re now eighth overall. Our 14-5-12 results today don’t show it but we had a pretty decent time of it as we dealt with the same difficult weather pattern. The breeze was a little more southerly but still off the beach, with the weather mark pretty close to the Takapuna Boating Club. The range was bigger, from 10 to 16 knots. But the pattern of big shifts and big velocity changes had everyone constantly on and off the trapezes. There were a lot of crazy things happening.

All three of our starts today were excellent. We were consistently in the top group off the line and really pleased about it. It’s good to demonstrate that ability in advance of the upcoming worlds. This week has shown that, despite all the development work we’ve done, our speed is still a couple of clicks off that of top five boats here. We’ve got some speed optimizing work to do after this event is over.

After placing fifth in the second race of the day we were within grasp of fourth or better in the last race of the day. We were actually in fourth but had a bad last run, missing a couple of opportunities to stay in contention. As a result, we lost seven boats with the finish line in sight and crossed in 12th place. It was a frustrating way to end the day but at least we know where we went wrong.

Tomorrow, we have one fleet race in the morning. After that the top ten boats sail over to the Kohimarama Yacht Club for the double points Medal Race. The breeze is forecast to switch east and lighten with occasional rain showers. There are no guarantees but it looks as if we’re in pretty good shape to go to the medal round. With a couple of good performances, sixth place for this event looks as if it’s achievable. The breeze forecast to switch east and lighten with occasional rain showers.

Powering up