Home - Sail Search RSA - Race Day 3 and 4 - Olympic ...

Race Day 3 and 4 - Olympic Games

Posted 3 months, 11 days ago

Race Day 3 and 4 - Olympic Games
www.Sail-Search.com: Team Isigungu, South Africa's Olympic Entrants in the Yngling class sent this report through: All is still open, 11 points separate 3rd and 13th ! Hello all, I am sure by now most of you have studied the website and results on: http://www.sailing.org/olympics/resultscentre.php If not, you will see that it’s not over by a long shot! Race day 3 was hot and humid as usual with not much breeze on shore and not much predicted for the day. We were again on course E, about 40 minute tow for most coaches, but that’s no match for coach Dayne who gets it done in under 20minutes! (who needs a pep talk when you get enough of an adrenalin rush from the white water wake that starts at the bow and ends at the rudder!). I wasn’t thinking when I packed my bag and got caught out with no hiking pants, we had 12knots of good breeze, Yeah!! But that was just the morning breeze and by 12h30, things were back to normal. 4 – 6knots and heaps of chop! We followed 10 minutes after the Finns again, the committee seems to rotate which fleet starts first (I think I forgot to mention that we are sharing our race course with the Finns (single men’s heavyweight class). We didn’t have the best start in race one, and were forced to tack away. This was against our prestart plan of going left but we also wanted to protect the right, so we used this opportunity to get a bit of leverage on the fleet and some clear air. We came around the top mark in about mid fleet, but right on the heels of the leaders. We separated from the fleet downwind, and knowing that it was the wrong thing made it even worse. We got blocked out by the Greeks.... And and and, ended 11th. Race 2 was slightly better, but with the single recall flag going up at the start, things were a bit nerve-wracking up the first beat. As it turned out, we were safe but Greece and Finland were called OCS (on course side) for the start and therefore had to leave the field of play immediately. We hung in around 5 – 8th most of the race and had a very close finish with 5 boats crossing the line seconds apart. We held our position from the top mark, which is a real relief since we had been struggling downwind terribly. Today, we had a rest day (AKA Shopping day!!). after a short gym session, breakfast and team chat we all headed our separate ways to spend our pocket money! Decathlon (massive sports store), tailor, supermarket, Starbucks, foot massage, dinner and now finally home to watch another episode of Grey’s Anatomy our new favourite series! Tomorrow is predicted to be light breeze, but whatever we get, it is going to be our day. I can feel it in my bones! Thanks to everyone who has been emailing us, it is truly awesome to know that we have so much support all around the world. PS: have a look at www.sailing.org and see picture 3 on the home page nog al!! Thank you for your support, Dominique Provoyeur Full Story »

Comments are currently disabled