So now its all over,
On one hand I feel a little relived that we can now have a bit of a rest, but on the other I am desperate to get the next campaign up and running.
The end of the regatta, was a mixture of good and bad. Some snippets of brilliance balanced out by some school boy errors.
Day 4,
Finally after the rebuild of the front beam, we were back on the water. And finally we could get a better idea on how the boat stacked up against the rest of the fleet. In race 1 we quickly learned that the boat was performing well upwind, but try as we may, we could not get the boat going down wind. That combined with some tricky shifts, saw us drop from 2nd at the first windward mark to 7th by the end of the race.
In Race 2 we had chatted with the coaches and were ready to try a different downwind technique, It seemed to work, we weren't the fasted boat but were doing a lot better than the previous race. That and our good upwind speed, saw us racing around at the front of the fleet, we ended up finishing in 3rd. A great result for the team
Day 5
The breeze was up and the weather was in. And unfortunately that was the way it stayed and racing was cancelled.
Day 6 (Final Day)
The breeze was still up, and based on the fact the the match racing between the 2 top boats would take priority, it was unlikely that the fleet racers would make it to the track. And that is unfortunately what happened. The fleet racers did go out but it was really windy and before race 1 was even over, Hydros team capsized and broke all the ribs in the wing flap, and that was that. Event over.
We had a great prize giving that evening, where it really did become apparent how much of a privilege it is to be involved with the C Class Catamarans. Over the week I honestly have learned more than I can remember, Huge thanks from me must go to all of tean Invictus, and Paul Larson and Helena Darvelid from sail rocket. Their efforts got the boat there in the first place and kept it running once it was there.
I am excited now for the next ICCCC, and to progress towards foiling!
Keep checking to see how this and the Olympic campaign progresses.
Cheers
TP