To win any championship you need to be consistently good. Today we got a 25th, a 1st, a 34th and a 60th. No consistency at all.
We woke to drizzle and had breakfast huddled in the tent. It rained on and off until late afternoon. I left the boys in the tent while I fixed the problems of yesterday. When I had finished Michael came and found me with a teary story of how Timothy was being mean and had spilt Michael's breakfast in the tent and put grass in it. So I took him to the cafe where he had pancakes with maple syrup and some toast and I had a cup of coffee. When we finished it was time to get dressed in wetsuits and get going.
The wind was light and we were late to the starting line but need not have worried as it took at least 30 minutes before the first attempted start and then there were probably two postponements and a couple of general recalls. During this time the wind strength built to around 18 knots. The first race went much as we might expect. We got an okay start but couldn't get away from the pack. We didn't make too many errors and ended up 25th which is perhaps a little better than I might expect to place.
The wind was a little lighter in the second race I decided to start at the left side of the line. Surprisingly there were only a couple of us really aiming for the pin. A UK boat was a little closer than us but we pointed higher and were soon ahead. We stayed on the left side almost to the lay line and then tacked. There was only one boat we were not clearly ahead of and I chose to go below him rather than risk a penalty. We rounded the first mark in second but it wasn't long before another boat overtook us. We rounded the leeward mark in third with several boats just behind. I though several if them would slip by. Thankfully the boat in first place decided to cover the other, his real competition for the series. This let us get to the windward mark ahead by about 8 boat lengths. With the scent of victory around there was no hesitation or lack of concentration with the spinnaker and we increased our lead for the first two buoys of the trapezoid. By the leeward buoy were had lost a bit partly because I wasn't taking any chances and dropped the spinnaker early. They were catching us all the way up the short beat to the finish but we held off by a couple of boat lengths to win. We were very very happy.
The third race was back to reality. We got an okay start and rounded the windward buoy in the mid twenties. We were doing okay with me trimming the spinnaker because Timothy was too tire and slow. Then a jury boat came over and whistled saying I was pumping the spinnaker. I think that is nonsense as I was only pulling it in to stop the luff from flapping and with the gusty wind and direction changes over waves that needs to be done constantly. But there is no point in arguing with the jury, I just wish they had enough experience in small dingies to know that you can't sail them in a straight line and watch the top third slowly collapse before sheeting in a bit. Anyway we did our 720° turn penalty and kept on to finish 34th.
The wind was by now quite strong and we were keen to get home. However, were we told the committee wanted to run a four to race. We were able to start at the left side of the line again with few boats around us. We were just behind my WA rivals Simon and Sidonia Barwoord. Over the first windward leg we lost about 25 boat lengths to Simon but that space was filled with around 20 boats. Simon rounded in the lead but they had broken their spinnaker pole in the third race and could keep up with the top guys. We didn't fly the spinnaker either but didn't lose out because of it. About 250m to the leeward buoy we needed to gybe onto port. I did it in a lull but somehow got the balance wrong and we capsized. Timothy was stuck above the centreboard and slow to get out so the boat tipped completely upside down. It took a little while to get it up and then it blew over again while I was trying to get in. We must have been back in the flurries by now. About three quarters of the way to the windward mark the pin in the gooseneck fitting, that holds the boom onto the mast, came out. I got Timothy to steer while I dropped the sail a bit, let the foot tension off and got the pin half back in. This was working but in no time the sail pulled out of the mast track and wasn't held forward. So Timothy took the helm again an I tied the clew to the mast using the loose end of the foot tensioning rope. It didn't look good but sailed better than I expected. We caught two or three boats on the trapezoid, mostly who had capsized or lost control, to finish 60th.
Once back on land we packed up and had a shower. There was a supper and ceile with a local Irish dancing school on at the club. It was great but I was too tired and left for bed at 9:45PM. The boys followed shortly after.
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