Grey Day in Belmont

This morning you will be pleased to know I have woken up to rain and grey skies in Belmont. The only difference with England is about 15 deg C in temperature.

I went sailing for the first time yesterday and I was pleased that the boat was behaving as it did the last time I sailed it in England which was reassuring. I did not race yesterday which was always the intention as I knew that the 6 days of the Worlds would be more than enough racing for me. However, I enjoyed sailing up and down the course (keeping out of the way) in the breeze that varied from 6 - 12 knots. They ran 3 races in these patchy conditions and as you will have seen from the results, we are no where near the pace of the Australians. Highlights were Mike Lennon getting a peachy start in Race 3 on the foils and was leading the 80 boat fleet by 50 yards having tacked across the fleet. However, local knowledge meant the Aussie Moth team sailed further into a corner and by the top mark he was 5th. Simon is managing to hang in there with his 9th and 10ths but when you see people like Arnaud in the 20s you know the standard went up a gear.

Last night we sat down to a roast in the club ($9.90 bargain) and mulled over where the Australians are getting their pace from. The conclusion we came to was youth, quality (two Aussie Olympians in the squad) and sheer time on the water. Unlike any of us, the Aussie team has been sailing virtually every day which would be impossible for us given the winter conditions in England and the fact that most of us are weekend warriors. In technical terms there are no particular differences in their boats that we can see apart their foils are beautifully prepared. They have sikaflexed the the hinges so that they are perfectly smooth and they are polished to perfection. The other thing Mike noticed is that they are sailing with virtually no gearing. However, he did notice a lot of pitch poling going on when it is windy as a consequence. Lake Macquarie is pretty shallow and it does not take much wind to kick it up. It reminded me of Mar Menor. I am very glad that I have Phil's adjustable wand which I think is going to pay dividends here as most Mach2s (including the Aussie Team) here have fixed wands.

I capsized a couple of times yesterday and was reminded of Phil's blog on each occasion. You don't spend long in the water here despite the fact that the sharks have reputedly gone south. I have not seen any jelly fish either but there is a lot of stringy weed. One thing the Aussie's are very adept at is capsizing to clear the foils. I watched Scott Babbage yesterday capsize deliberately whilst in a leadng position but was up again in seconds. It reminded me of pit stops in Fomula 1 and realised that there is a real tactical aspect to when you decide to do this.

There are a lot of spectator boats surrounding the course but I could not see many rescue boats present. Of those there are only one or two ribs, the rest being high sided motorboats, not particularly suited for Moth rescue over long distances (we are over a mile from the club). It is due to blow 25 knots on Saturday and I hope that there will be adequate cover for the 115 boat fleet.

More tomorrow.