Olympic Victory 60 years on...
The winning boat today, beautifully restored F498, raced in the Torquay Olympics in 1948. How appropriate is that?
Knackered after the first race - what we gonna be like by the end of the week???? We chose to get away early across the gate-start, which did us well since we could begin sailing the shifts straight away, and earlier than the boats starting further along the gate. 5th around the windward mark – but we had to keep our cool because there was a hungry pack chasing us down the reaches - and Liz just might fall out the boat yet! Time for a rhyming game - the word to match was "fifth".
4th at the leward mark - we cant quite believe it. A difficult beat; we went up the middle and closed the gap on those to the left but those behind on the right came right back to us. Windward mark 7th.
The run - yikes it almost all goes very wrong - Im losing control in the difficult chop - the rudder feels very heavy - and we nearly go over on a jibe. The rudder pin has come out and the rudder has raised a bit - it makes an alarming difference. Thankfully we sort it and get to the final leward mark in 9th. A good short beat to the finnish to see us 6th over the line and first Restonguet Boat. Hurrah - but don't forget this is a team effort.
The reach home. Check out the boat behind nose-diving!!If only this race counted! Hope we havent peaked too early!
Check out the results at http://www.royaltorbayyc.org.uk/Catcha tomorrow,
Ben and Liz
ps - bigup to my gorjus better half and part time crew Nikki.
Team Kernow in Devon
