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Alfie is caught by a “Strange Little Girl”…
Good Morning Campers on another sunny day in Cascais… Yesterday we had two more races of the Juan Carlos Trophy in much lighter winds. The first start at 11.00am had to be abandoned at the top mark after a substantial wind-shift came in from the left. Pity as this time we (GBR 767) were in a good position.. But, it was not a fair race, so quite rightly the PRO called it off.
We then waited until a southerly wind settled in and the first race got away. There was a very strong cross tide, so you could just about lee-bow the tide on port tack, whilst you fell away on starboard as the tide swept you sideways. In both races the lead boats came from the right. I’m still not sure why the right paid, but it did. So congratulations to the two race winners who were GER 1079 Klaus Hunger and in the second race GER 1087 Dirk Pramann (again!).
The other podium places went to DEN 406 Jorgen Schonherr who has moved up to third place overall with two 3rd places, whilst GBR 758 Klaus Diederichs has improved to fourth overall after a fine 2nd place in the first race of the day. However, the biggest smile was on the helm of RUS 76 Dmitry Samohkin helming his “Strange Little Girl” who with his 2nd place in the final race has now moved ahead of favourite Lawrie Smith. Lawrie helming “Alfie” and his team had a difficult day recording a 9th and 12th mainly due to getting too far left, which simply did not work…
One thing I must mention is that the line in race two was 15 degree’s biased at the committee boat, so after a general recall, we expect the pin to move up… It did not! So 20% of the fleet were Black Flagged… (including us), now that simply is not correct… Lars Henriksen told me ” We need 5 degrees pin end favour and a long line to get a clean start. 10 boats were BFD yesterday so something is not right”.. However, I’m not ever going to criticize a PRO again,(well not during a regatta anyway 🙂 I learnt my lesson yesterday..
Today is another day. Two more races and a good strong wind forecast. But the only thing we need to focus on today is England to beat Wales in Cardiff.. If England lose that rugby match, I think my Father will commit suicide, the English team will be shot at dawn and Will Willett my Dragon Sailing Welsh friend will remind me of the score for the rest of the year.. Come on England!
Higher, Faster, Longer……….. Stavros. GBR 767…..