the medal race write-up

It’s good to be in a place with stable (and free) Internet! I’m currently holidaying with my parents in Adelaide, while Siobhan is still in Melbourne with her sister.

Anyway, now that I can upload pictures, we have a pictorial story of our medal race, courtesy of Siobhan’s sister Shanna, to tell.

The medal race is worth double points and it’s non-discardable. We went into it third, with number 4 trailing us by 5 points. So doing the math, we only needed to keep within 2 boats of number 4 to keep our place.

Well, we got off to a good start and were heading out with four boats to the left. We rounded all right, in 3rd or 4th position (I don’t remember exactly, as all the boats were quite close at that stage) but the next loop didn’t go quite so well, and by the last bit down, we were sixth.

And the other boat was third. There was one boat too many between us and it wasn’t looking good as the two boats were 100m or so ahead of us.

This sequence below is what happened during the last quarter of the final downwind before the final reach to finish. (We are the red and white spinnaker.)

And so, all I can say is – never, ever, ever give up. The race isn’t over until it’s over.

Medal race day

Quick update before our medal race. First time racing in one! Pretty overcast today and it’s cold.

The past few days we had all sorts of conditions from strong to very light. From cold to very hot. There was one day, it was 15 knots and 40 deg, and I only wore a lycra and it was still warm. Yesterday it was 5 knots and I was freezing in a lycra and spray top. Melbourne.. .. ..

We’re packing up our boats and loading up the trailers after racing today. The most.. unenjoyable part of sailing. Haha. We’re all getting better at it. One time in Kiel, 2004 I think, (and Mark won’t ever let us forget it), the 420s took 6 hours to pack up.

Anyway, for those who don’t know what the medal race is about, here’s a quick intro. The top 10 in each fleet gets to take part in the medal race, the final race of the series. The interesting thing is, the scores are doubled. For example, 1st place gets 2 points, 2nd place gets 4 points and so on. So, even if the leader has like a 6-7 point lead, they’re not exactly that safe (unless you’re Matt Belcher and you’re probably going to win the medal race anyway). So, it’s gonna be pretty exciting. Wish us luck!