We had an earlier start this weekend, to fit all the racing in before the tide turned and the sea disappeared. The day started off sunny, but a brisk wind made the sea a bit choppy and not as warm as the other weekends have been.
We had a good day’s racing. We got very good positions in the heats, including two 1st places and had a grid position of third for the final.
The tide was well on its way out by the time the finals took place and the course had to be moved before the race could begin. The marker buoys closest to the beach were in quite shallow water.
The final race was a bit of a struggle, as we were holding our position in third place going into the third lap, with the other teams closely following behind, we still had a pit lap to do and didn’t think we would come out in third. Unfortunately, a freak wave caught us and flipped the boat over, tossing us into the sea. I was floating around in the sea waiting for the rescue crews to come and pick us up and turn the boat back over, when Chris shouted to me that the sea was shallow enough to stand up in. So we righted the boat and were towed back to shore and spent the next hour or so clearing the water from the engine. Finally, she cranked over and roared back to life. We were disappointed not to have finished the final, but ready to try again on Sunday.
Sunday 17th August 2008
The day started brighter and warmer than yesterday, but the wind was stronger and the water was choppier.
It was a hard day racing and this was Chris’ first real experience of choppy conditions. We were coming in the top four places in the heats, until the last race when going round a buoy, Chris lost his grip and took another swim in the sea. Unfortunately, this meant we just missed out on a place in the final.
We are extremely pleased with the way the boat is performing and thrilled that we are able to keep up with the top three boats, which includes the champions from 2007. Unfortunately, we seem to have difficulties in keeping hold of everything into the final races.
We will be ready to race again at Bournemouth on 30th and 31st August 2008 and will be pushing even harder for those elusive medals.
