Princess Sofia Gold
Written by Paul Goodison | 12 April 2011
It’s been a good week for sailing in Palma with a successful regatta. The week started with some really strong off shore shifty winds, peaking at over 30 knots.
As the week progressed the sea breeze became more dominant. On day 2 and 3 we had a race in the morning in a 16 knot decreasing offshore breeze and then a race in 10- 12 knot sea breeze in the afternoon.
Gold fleet racing was dominated by unusually shifty sea breeze conditions. In the strong winds on day one I lead the first race to just miss out on the final beat to take 2nd, after a mistake at the start of race two I had a massive comeback from the late 20s to 7th.
On day 2 and 3 the results settled with a string of 1st despite a bit of a back injury. The team Physio, Flash, did a great job of piecing me back together each day.
Tom Slingsby was all so putting a good set of results together as we seemed to swap yellow and blue jerseys each day. After the gold fleet racing was complete only 2 points separated the top 3, guaranteed a medal it was all down to the medal race to determine the colour.
The sea breeze developed for some nice conditions on the final day. I watched the radials finish their race giving me a clear plan of what I wanted to do. After a good start I lead at the top mark with a good few boats between me and the other medal contenders. After a safe run I split on the second beat from NZL to loosely cover the guys I needed to. I was second around the top and with a comfortable lead it was wrapped up, for a relaxing final run.
To see high lights of the medal race http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzM_TkvRs6A&feature=player_
Its great to have performed well under the pressure of such a tight medal race and come out on top.I’m pretty happy with where I’m at with my sailing right now as I head back to Weymouth to fix my body and get ready for Hyeres which starts in just over a weeks time.
Paul