Today was the practice race followed by the parade and opening ceremony. I had hoped that we would be able to get out to Bunratty Castle which is about an hours drive away. But there was a 12 briefing that put pays to that.
As the race approached the rain came down more and more. In the end they delayed for about an hour to let a thunderstorm pass an the wind settle. It had swung around 180° twice. When we're were finally let out we were first on the water. We wanted to learn how to use the spinnaker with the pole launching system. Timothy seemed to manage well enough although we did drop the guy out of the spinnaker pole hook a few times.
The start line was west quite a long way from the club. The first start was abandoned at the last minute which was a shame because we were well positioned. The second start had as general recall which was good because we we way too far back. The third start used the black flag (if your over the line in the last minute its instant disqualification). We got a pretty good start towards the pin end and were in the top quarter of the fleet for a while. This swapped to the back quarter with a big wind shift and then back again when strong wind came in with a 180° wind shift. We rounded about 15th but the race was abandoned soon after and we ended up getting towed home.
After packing up and showering we got our new Australian uniforms and got ready for the parade. This was led by a pipe band followed by each country in order of distance away. Therefore the. Australian were in front. The parade around the village went much better than I expected with spectators dotted all around the route. This was followed by opening ceremony speeches and a supper.
Not a bad day but everything is wet or damp.
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