Day 1

Day one of the Puma International Moth Worlds was a light wind affair, but a good race. I didn't get a great start, and was in the teens for the first beat. After a good run I was up near the top ten, and did well out of playing the right hand side up the beat to find myself with not many people in front. I was on the stbd layline with Mike Lennon the final time, but stuck in his dirt, in marginal conditions I lost a fair bit of distance. Si Payne closed up, and soaked inside me a bit on the run. I gybed out, and he dropped off the foils on his gybe. He got up again though and had good pressure down the middle. I came foiling back across but not at a great angle. It was all on at the finish though as I foiled through my final gybe and Simon was coming in lowriding. He pipped me at the line on a beep beep finish. I was happy with my 6th place though, I had no idea on what to expect having done so little sailing since the last Worlds.

I'm pleased with my speed - especially as I'm using a MSL10 in marginal conditions. (Using a 10 in Dubai, and a 13 in the USA might not be the right way round!) A last minute wand change made a world of difference, and suddenly I can gybe and tack again after a week of thinking it was just my lack of sailing time since the last Worlds.

Shirley Robertson is out here with CNN Mainsail, and as they are only here for three days they are trying to squeeze in getting as much coverage as possible for an upcoming feature on speed.
I agreed to help out by putting some cameras on the boat before racing and get some underwater shots of the boat taking off. It was a bit high risk with the camera attached to the gantry and therefore a high speed touchdown was not to be recommended! I eventually got up in the air despite the extra drag. De-misting cameras 30mins before the start and getting some more footage wasn't quite the normal first race of a Worlds prep, but hopefully it'll be good footage. Shirley tried sailing Bora's boat after the finish, but the wind had dropped too much for her to get up. They are now a little nervous today, as shots of Shirley doing 4/5 knots do not make for a good article on speed!

Windward mark rounding. Photo: Suzi Tagg