The Gosford Sailing club put on a great mid regatta party Tuesday night. Lots of Australian food and a country band. Wednesday, I took the opportunity to rent a board and do a little surfing.

Wow! What a great 3 days of Laser Racing after the rest day.

Thursday the sun came out and it warmed up to where I didn’t need to wear a spray top. Started race one in 8 to 10 building to 10 to 12. Sailed the race between 1st and 5th at every mark and finished up 4th! The 2nd race the wind built to 12 to 15. I sailed most of the race between 8th and 10th, but faded to 12 at the finish. Not a lot of opportunity to pass in the top 10. I got a little frustrated when I got passed downwind today, but felt better about it when I realized it was the guy winning the regatta. There are so many Australians racing, and they are all so good. The first race I was the only non Australian in the first 12. It felt a lot like Wrightsville Beach today.

Friday our fleet was split into gold and silver fleets. The Australian seebreeze finally showed up. 12 to 15 building to 15 to 18, with a huge 2.5m swell. The swell was rolling thru so fast that even with the breeze it was hard to ride downwind and you needed to concentrate on catching the wind waves. Upwind the bigger swells would throw your apparent wind around 20 degrees and then sometimes leave you kind of wallowing around between swells. Really difficult conditions. Now that I am in the gold fleet, there is absolutely no slack. I really got a Australian whipping today! The raci ng was good and I was fast downwind but really slow upwind.

A front went thru over night and Saturday started out with a big blow and big swells. It was gusting over 20 before the start, but settled down to 15 to 18 for the racing. The race committee had a hard time getting off the racing as the wind was backing left all day. Today was the best wave riding of the regatta. I kind of survived the first race and then finished up the regatta right with a 5th in the last race. (I guess I can’t blame my performance in races 6,7,8 on my weight.) It was a great way to finish up the regatta. I literally felt like I was the fastest guy out there downwind. I rounded the windward mark in the upper teens and was in the top ten at the leeward gate. Rounded the next windward mark in 8th and rolled into 5th on the reach, then closed at least 100 yards on the leaders downwind. I might have been down under, but I was definitely on top of the world!

They went all out on the awards party. Sushi and appetizers and then a huge buffet. My friend James Liebel won the Apprentice Radial class. Way to go James!

Thanks for all the encouragement. I hope to see you all soon.

Martin

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Today is a rest day after 3 days of scheduled racing. The key word is scheduled, because we haven’t done a lot of racing yet.
There was a welcome party Saturday night. 367 competitors from at least 17 countries are here to sail. They had native Australian music and dance before the dinner.
Sunday we had showers off and on till about 1pm and the wind swirled around at less than 5mph from all directions, then finally settled down enough to set a race course around 3pm. Wind 8 to 10 out of SE. All starts are under a black flag for the whole regatta. This means a automatic DSQ if you are over the start early, no chance for a restart. I think I let that get to me a little, because I had a terrible start. There was a big hole at the weather mark and then the wind filled about 30 degrees to the left. I was passing boats and having a good time surfing the big swell when the Race Officials abandoned the race due to the windshift and sent us in for the day. A easy way to start the regatta, kind of like a practice race.
Monday was a perfect day for racing Lasers.Wind 10 to 15 with a 2m swell to surf downwind. I got really good starts today but my upwind speed is not what I hoped for. Both races I got to the windward (first) mark in the mid to upper 20’s, then start passing boats downwind. Downwind no one has passed me yet! I was close enough to see the leaders and feel like I was in the same rece with them both races, but the fleet is really tight and a small distance can mean a lot of boats in between. The only dissapointment was fliping in the 2nd race trying to remove some seaweed from my centerboard. Races took almost exactly 1 hour for the leaders and were some of the best, most fun Laser racing I have ever done.
Tuesday looked to be a repeat of Sunday, but then settled down a little earlier with a light 5 to 8 SE wind. The wind gradually died the whole race and the Race Officials shortened the race and finished us after the 2nd downwind. The race took a hour and 35m!
Some random observations. My compass doesn’t work here. It’s all cockeyed from being in the souther hemisphere. The seabreeze clocks left instead of right. The course marks are all 1 to 1.2 meters tall and the swell has been 1.5 to 2.5 meters. Hard to find the marks. There is a offshore current that has eddies that swirl into the inshore racing area from different directions daily. Hard to figure that one out. So far my fleet has only sailed qualifing races which means the fleet is split randomly. After one more day we will get split into gold and silver fleets. Since each race is only against half the fleet, in the big picture results are roughly double each finishing position.
My friend James Lieble from Florida, is winning the Apprentice Radial division!
We had a mid regatta dinner last night.
Many thanks for all the encouragement!
Martin 2/19/08

Weather doesn’t seem to be cooperating as the Standard fleet has only gotten off 3 races, and the Radial fleet has managed 4 races. James Liebl (D13) leads the Radial fleet, while Martin has cracked the top 20 in the Standard fleet! Way to go! http://aus08.laserinternational.org/media_press_release.html

2-17-08 Some of the fleets got a race in, but not the Standard masters group.However James Liebl of FL is in 3rd for his Radial division, and Peter Seidenberg leads the Great Grand Masters in their fleet.2-15-08 Greetings from down under!

We arrived in Terrigal Tuesday afternoon after traveling 40 hours. Managed to get about 4 hours sleep on the plane. Watched the Standard Worlds finish up racing in 20 knots of wind. This place is the best setup I have ever seen for sailing Lasers in the ocean.

Wednesday was stormy, rain and gale force winds. The last day of racing for the Standard worlds was canceled. Based on the first 5 days, Australian Tom Slingsby is the new world champion. Top American was Brad Funk in 9th. Went for a run on the beach and tried to recover from the trip.

Thursday we got to check out our charter boats, and spent most of the day personalizing the boat with my rigging and getting registered and getting the boat measured in. This is a windy place. It’s been blowing over 20 three days now.

Friday finally got to go sailing. What a great place to sail, and what a great day. You launch on a sandy beach in a protected cove, sail about 400 yards, turn right and you are in the Pacific Ocean. Next stop New Zealand! The wind dropped overnight to a nice 10 to 12 knots with some higher gusts. The water is about 120 feet deep in the racing area, so there is a big ocean swell with long faces. Very different from Wrightsville Beach, but a blast to sail and surf on. I feel like I’m about over the jet lag. Have not decided if I will sail tommorow or conserve energy for the races starting Sunday.Martin 2-13-08 Tom Slingsby is the new World Champion, a local there in Terragal and a previous world champ I believe. I was partially right about Brad, he got to drop the two bad scores only to have them replaced with a 33 and a 17 in races 9 and 10. This brought him up to 9th overall. He was sitting in 2nd figuratively, if only he had kept his scores consistent. Our boy Andy remained in 29th throughout the remainder of the regatta. I hope the “ever positive” Brad can rub off on Andy before the Quetipdong Olympics this summer. The Masters Worlds Start TOMMORROW 2/14/08. Remember D-12 is being well represented down there by Martin Willard 182806, Eddie Nowel and Jerry Callahan. Follow the link below to follow along. Be sure to go to the photo page as their are some cool shots!GW187327

2-11-08In other news, Toby Schadewaldt (GER), Marc Schmit (LUX) and Christoph Bottoni (SUI) were the first three casualties of the day, disqualified by the international jury. “I was sent home by the jury,” said Schmit. “One of the German boats caused an incident with about 20 of us at the start. I tried to get out and I pumped twice to make some space between us - I made a mistake and got disqualified,” said the disappointed 22 year-old who is trying to qualify Luxembourg for the Beijing Games. Schadewaldt was yellow flagged twice. “I got my first flag for body pumping just before the finish in Race 1. In the second race, I heeled my boat over to see if there was weed under my boat; I pumped to right the boat and the jury disqualified me.

http://aus08.laserinternational.org/

Brad and Andy have had better regattas, but Brad is not out of the hunt yet, with a couple more through outs and his consistent sailing he’ll be in contention ! Andy must be dragging a brick for practice or something, as whatever he is doing is not working.