Weak Wednesday

Big Wednesday, was not as big as promised. You better call it Weak Wednesday. What supposed to be a big day of wind, was a big day of waiting, wind shifting, course changes and a lot marks where pulled up and down.

A big day for Jon Newman as well, he finished two times in the first position and is confirming his grip on the title.

This morning at the breakfast table, I saw a few scared sailors. When I asked what’s going on, they said “Big Wednesday”. The forecast the sailors had was wind from 25 increasing to 30 knots. And their minds went back to the Australian nationals last weekend, where almost everybody was capsizing.

Out on the water it was a somewhat different experience for the sixth race of the regatta. In the first race after some false promise the wind gods allowed the race to start after some delay. The race resembled a game of snakes and ladders with the leaders at the top mark being relegated to the lower orders and Tim Hill (AUS) coming through into the lead at the bottom mark from fourth last. After some brief periods of calm and running conditions on the next beat Hill relinquished his lead to the chasing pack. On the last run there was a further reshuffle of the pack with John Newman (AUS) and Marcus Hamilton (AUS) coming to the fore with John Reekie (GBR) snatching the last podium position and the rest of the fleet feeling robbed at some point during the two laps.

Race 7 started after loads of sailors were topped up with water from the patrol boats, in a building Southerly. After the inconsistent wind in race 6 and the fickle nature of the wind, it was a tough decision as to go left or right up the first work. Richie Robertson (AUS), Hamilton and Newman played the middle and Robertson came up trumps at the top mark for the first time with Newman and Hamilton in tow.

The breeze filled in nicely for the first run with the port gybe paying with Hamilton first, Newman second and Robertson third to the gate where there was a course change to the left at around 45 degrees. Newman and Robertson took the right gate and Hamilton took the left. Newman spotted the new mark early and stayed hard left while Hamilton was covering Robertson up the center. Newman rounded the top mark 200 meters ahead of Robertson and Hamilton third. Newman’s downwind speed meant he was untouchable. Hamilton rolled Robertson half way down with huge left pressure and Robertson crossed the line for the third place.

Results