Home - Carl Williams - Day Two; Races 3 & 4

Day Two; Races 3 & 4

Posted 3 months, 9 days ago

Day Two; Races 3 & 4
10am Start! meant an early breke and off the dock at 845am, plenty early enough for this place, half the gear you wear is just for the tow out!Race 1Positions: Top Mark (1) 5th; Bottom Mark 3rd; Top Mark (2) 3rd; FINISH 1stCould get used to starting the day this way! A much lighter breeze today saw a few more light air sails going up for the first time amongst the fleet. The Start got away with us at the Pin end of the line. The nice thing about starting down there is you can pin your ears back and sail as fast as you can.There was always the potential of the sea breeze coming in from the left and the fleet were very weary of this. The first beat was a matter of Hot and Cold as the wind shifted back and forth. lighter than yesterday it was another awesome opportunity to see this boat in "China" conditions. Pepsi did some nice work towards the top of the beat and we rounded in 5th. Concentrating on good feel and boat speed we pushed hard to bridge across the the lead group, and by the bottom we had picked up two boats and rounded in 3rd, the second beat was a little more straight forward once we had a jump on the fleet and it was a matter of staying in phase as the left was yet to "kick in" from the sea breeze.Rounding the top mark hot on the heels of GBR and 2008 World Champions POL we had a long starboard gybe before some tactical gybing started. POL were not keen on letting us go uncovered gybing simultaneously. We had a good lane of pressure and got back outside POL to overtake them and at the same time hold of the charge of BRA.Race 2Positions: Top Mark (1) 7th; Bottom Mark 8th; Top Mark (2) 7th; FINISH 8thA tough race were we had to work really hard to limit losses!Again we started at the pin and for the first 5 minutes on starboard it was paying off, unfortunately the boats inside us lifted off and the pressure never really made it down to us. Tacking back into the fleet finding a clean lane became the priority. Rounding the top mark in 7th wasn't as bad as it could have been due to the radical shifts that were in all corners of the course. The first down wind leg was going well but we were pushed too far down into the corner and the good work we had been doing was undone slightly by a few boats (this race was shaping up to fight us all the way!). Another tough beat but some good work from Pepsi saw us get to the top mark at the right end of the fleet, by now it was very light. The top half of the run felt pretty good but for whatever reason the bottom half felt slow, a tough situation but not one to over analyze, we dropped 1 boat on the last run finishing in 8th. These sorts of Races are a huge part of preparation for the Olympics as it becomes about fighting hard to limit your losses, because the difference between an 8th and 10th or worse in the same race could cost you a medal.Again, a good day to come off the water from. Lying in Second overall 2 points behind the SUI. And with 10 Olympic Reps here this regatta is becoming a very important bench mark for both NZL 8358 and Hamish and l. Full Story »

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