Finished 14th at Melbourne World Cup - moved up in world ranking

A 14th place finish is enough to move me up in the World rankings to 26th!

I was psyched to watch Ali Young from GBR win the regatta in Melbourne with a big margin.

Regatta end - Melbourne

So my regatta ended in an anticlimactic way. No racing on the last day - so I stay in my finish position of 14th place. Despite all the shoulda' coulda' woula's  about how I could have saved points here and there to finish higher,  I am pleased with improvements to a couple key parts of my game: namely starting. My awareness of the fleet positioning upwind is also improving. My upwind speed in flat water and chop was good, but now I know that I really need to work on technique upwind in big waves, and as always I need more work on downwind speed. I am also going to do more research on how to identify a persistent shift, so that I can be more confident deciding whether to take sterns to get to a side or be patient knowing that the wind will oscillate.

All in all a great experience. The Laser Standard Medal race is about to start, and the Radial Medal race is after that. A great crowd up here on the race deck overlooking the stadium course. Wind is about 8 knots out of the south with some clouds.

Melbourne day 5 medal races

Everyone is out to watch the '9er medal races. So cool.

A new direction - Day 5 Melbourne

The last two days have been windy out of the South - today is windy out of the North. The forecast is for the sea breeze to mess with gradient, so who knows what we will have at 3pm when we sail on the South course - a deeper course area than the last two we have sailed on. 49ers should be heading out soon for their medal race.

Day 4 - Melbourne

My best day yet, 11th and 7th. The breeze started around 7 knots and built to the high teens I think. The waves never got as big as yesterday, and I discovered that I was very fast upwind. That helps me narrow down my diagnosis of mediocre upwind speed yesterday to wave technique. Here's what I think: I tend towards a bow down speed mode of upwind sailing. I think that it is well suited to a day like today with small chop and oscillating shifts. The low fast mode works well on a shifty day. Yesterday was shifty too - but the waves were big. I suspect that the low and flat mode is not as effective in big waves. I'm not totally sure why - maybe the low mode gets way too low if the waves are pushing you sideways. Isabella was fast in the waves yesterday and told me she was focused on keeping the boat balanced, and a constant angle of 'happy' heel. 

Anyway today was good - I had two good starts at a crowded end - one where I bailed out at 30 seconds and gybed around to find a spot last minute - and one where I held my spot and pulled the trigger just right to be really punched out. That race I maintained 3rd place all the way around the course until I choked at the end of the last run and let a pack of 4 boats pass me. I panicked that they were gaining and I was on the right of them, so I sailed left to be on the inside, and in doing so I think  I went sideways too much and gave up vmg. Then I went slow because I was worried about them instead of just doing my thing.

Despite that frustrating end to the race, it was really cool to do most of a race very well - particularly the starts!

Day 3 recap

Okay, so I'm not as fast upwind in 25 knots and big waves as I thought, but regardless, today was awesome! The upwinds were grueling, I have some more work to do on the wave technique and fitness. The reaches were just as hard, since they were tight enough that it was hard to decide when to surf a wave down, you could only surf a few, most of them you would have to let roll under you so you could stay high enough. The down winds were amazing. Sort of in between big Santa Cruz waves and steep San Fran or Gorge waves. The wave surfing was really really fun.

I can't wait to do it again tomorrow! The forecast is similar, although starting later in the afternoon. We are back on the Green Point course with an early start. I'm anticipating a tamer version of today, which should be just as fun.

Oh - results - I moved up into 14th place. It might take a miracle to get in to the top ten for the medal race, but I am trying.

Dinner:

World Champion Heiner from NED and BEL dueling at the front of the men's fleet:

A new day - day 3 Melbourne World Cup

So this was yesterday:

 We waited on shore and on the water until a late afternoon breeze filled in under overcast skies. Our two races were tricky, and I think I overcomplicated my thinking. It's hard not to be discouraged and get down after a day of poor decisions that cost you many positions in the regatta.

Today is a new day - I am psyched to be here competing regardless of the conditions or having a bad day on the water. I walked down to the boat park to find this:

I am sitting on the yacht club deck overlooking the stadium course. The mens laser fleet is about to start. Can't wait to race after them! Reminds me of San Francisco.

Today's mantra: Dominate the start and keep it simple. There is nothing better than racing on a day like today, getting good results would just be icing on the cake.