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Today we had lighter winds for the first race and part of the
2nd race. In the Radial Apprentice Fleet Mark Page did not have it all his
own way and rounded the top mark 4th in the first race. He battled well
though and managed to get the lead and win but with about 25 boats finishing
within 50m of him. His main rival finished outside the top ten taking some
pressure off. In the 2nd race the wind got a bit stronger and Mark managed
to win a little easier. His rival finishing about 10 places back so Mark
can sleep a little easier. The 2 Mikes were battling in the pack which
with the lighter conditions meant that there were a lot of boats that had not
been previously been in contention fighting for the top places.
The same was true
in Radial Masters with
the lighter conditions making this
fleet very competitive as well, Mike Keeton did well to get a
15th and 18th after swimming in the 2nd race.
In the Radial Great
Grand Masters fleet Mike Shields had a good first race and a
great 2nd race crossing ahead of the legend from USA Peter Seidenberg and finishing 4th
on the water but a number of boats were OCS
and so this could possibly improve to 3rd. Sandy Grigg and Tony
Park had their drop for the first race and did better in the 2nd but Sandy
was OCS so he hopefully had both his drops today. Tom Speed
crossed the line 4th in the first race but is
currently scored last without any explanation at this stage and finished 9th
in the 2nd race. Mark Miller had some good parts of racing today with one race
with 5 Kiwis in the Top Ten at the first mark including Jim Quinn
who had a drop for the 1st race but had his best result yet a 10th in
the 2nd. Steven Phillips continued to enjoy himself and made another 100% improvement on yesterday
today as he got 2 results beating an Austrian who didn't put his bung in and
sank.
In the
Standard Masters fleet the conditions of light winds and chop did not
suit Wayne Ferguson (above) and he has just
bought a new Rooster 8.1 Rig to be more competitive in these conditions. As
the racing progressed he did have fun sailing with the Grand Masters fleet which started
5 minutes later and Wayne is now the only sailor to enjoy
sailing with three different age groups. Wayne had a good
innings today with 94 points but unfortunately this is not cricket. Colin
Caldwell had his best result so far in the 2nd race
with a 18th and this may have taken him above
the cut line for the Gold Fleet after starting the day 59th. 4 places short of the
cut. Barry Cutfield starred today enjoying the conditions being exceptional quick downwind and scored
a 16th and 11th.
In the Grand Masters fleet Bob Blakey has decided to throw away
his fancy new laser clew slide. Enough said. Jack Hanson did well
with a good first race and a discard for the 2nd race.
Yesterday while
leaving the beach Steven Phillips, had his head down playing with his lines
and managed to ram into an already capsized boat and capsized
himself ending up in a water. After he and French Female skipper finally
untangled the boats and parted the French female sailor called Steven
back to help her as her boat was blowing away faster than she could swim
after it. Steven being a gallant gentleman promptly tacked back
and rammed her boat again, capsized and ended up
in the water again. When he finally got his boat untangled
and back onboard, the French Female sailor, who still had not managed
to get to her boat, asked Steven very politely to sail away. Its
great at these events that Steven was able to understand her request
even with the language barrier! Tomorrow is a rest day and the sailors and the
event organisers & volunteers will be glad of the rest. Everyday free lunches and refreshments are provided
as well as heaps of assistance for launching and retrieving
(below).
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