Broken Tiller Costs Medal
Written by Paul Goodison | 03 June 2010
After some serious training in Weymouth it was off to Medemblik in Holland for the latest round of the ISAF World Cup Series. There were 97 Laser entrants so the fleet was split into two for the qualifying series.
Day 1 didn't start well with a penalty at the start of race one. After completing the penalty spins it was a game of catch up to force my way back to finish in 6th position. In the freshening breeze I went on to win race two before disaster struck in the next race. A Spanish boat above me at the start drifted down into the side of me, hooked my tiller under his gunwhale and snapping it which meant I was unable to complete the race. I spent the next two hours in and out of the protest room but the jury denied my redress claim. This set back obviously made the rest of the week much harder for me.
On Day 2 we had to wait around until 6pm to begin racing, we managed to get just one race in before heading home for the day. The first day of finals was sailed in a strong offshore breeze with shifts of up to 30 degrees, because of the conditions the day was tricky and the scores were up and down.
Onto the final day the breeze was again very shifty and tricky with two more races sailed it was all poised for the medal race. Unfortunately because of my failed protest I was only in with a small chance of a medal and it was all pretty much out of my hands.
However after a tricky start to the race and a penalty turn at the first mark I took the lead and went on to win the race, leaving me in 5th place overall. It was disappointing not to get redress after the incident in race three as this would have put me on the podium. So with a few lessons learnt it's now on to Estonia for the European Championships to try and make it 6 in a row!
Paul