Anti Climax In Perth
Written by Saskia Clark | 22 November 2010
So after a great training week of sun and 20kts the Perth International Regatta began and it all turned out to be a bit of an anti climax.
Two shifts of start times meant that with a 9am start you would get your 2 races in the offshore morning breeze and with a 1pm start be sailing in the afternoon Freemantle Doctor. The 470 fleet got stitched...... 4 races and a medal race over 5 days, lots of sitting round on shore, occasional thunderstorms and no sign of the famous Doctor, that we had enjoyed during the training week.
Anyway our own performance was less than stellar, not helped by overeagerness on the first race and getting an OCS. Without enough races in the series for a discard we were left trailing the pack. Despite results though the good news is that we are sailing the boat well, with a definite improvement in our downwind technique which was something that cost us last season. Its been great to spend some time in Freemantle, our 2011 World Championship venue.
The organisers have great plans for the 2011 event in terms of bringing sailing alive for the spectators. Most of the course areas are tucked into the shore so you can watch from the beach. Alongside the GPS tracking units there is talk of heart rate monitors being worn by sailors and onboard cameras.
This year we were obviously unlucky with the weather, next year we are back in December which should be much more reliable in terms of breeze. So lots to work on, as always, but it was great to see where we had got to after a few months away from the fleet training hard.
We are now back to the UK to tough out two weeks training in Weymouth and load our container for Miami where we are heading for January.