Friday, August 1, 2008





Made it through to the championship gold series with some room to to spare today with 2 races in the 20's. Both races were well fought all the way to the finish line.
I was sailing on my north 11.8, 2008 F2 and CRAD 73-3 cut fin.
Generally, downwind, the wider boom helped tremendously going deeper.
Up wind, the fin is holding good angle but the guys hanging form their uphauls- Italians and Germans- have found a few more degrees that I havnt been able to match.
At the leeward mark you had to stay as high as you could, other wise you had to double tack for the finish line set 100m off the beach in sub planning conditions! I just made the pin end in both races, out of the harness and pumping to the finish!

Finally in the 1st race of the gold series, I got off to a stellar start, sailing above the mid line sag and off to the left side. At the top mark I was near 15th, rounding in a decent 9-10k breeze. However, once down at the leeward mark I got passed by POl1 and FRA 99 where the breeze was really lightening up. The guys rounding in front stalled and tack and the only thing to do was tack for the better breeze outside. I sat, parked, as the rest of the 64 board fleet came sailing down the run. Finally I was able to get going to and held a good angle upwind in clear air to the left side of the course. Back up wind, on the 2nd beat, I had to overstand some as I reached the layline with 3 other sailors and plenty more coming up from the middle later in the leg. I held my course well up the port layline until Jesper tacked right on top of me and just buried me. Luckily, I wasnt punished as bad as a few of the guys below me. I rounded well catching a few boards this leg and could see the leaders a few hundred meters ahead.
At that moment, the race was abandoned!
Our class rules leave it up to the race director to decide upon suitable conditions.
Another 5 minutes and the leaders would have finished but the majority of the fleet had stoped planning at the leeward mark.
Thats racing!
Tomorrow's a new day with more pressure and a possible rain squalls in the forecast.
Enjoy the daily video reports:

AllegroCup 2008, Report 3.3 from AllegroCup on Vimeo.
Getting better with each race..cant ask for more!
AllegroCup 2008, Report 3.2 from AllegroCup on Vimeo.


Also check AUS 120's site for interview with Gonzalo about his new Exocet board.
Results after 6 races

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