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Day 3 race report

We have an aewsome breakfast here everyday. Reminds me of the Big Fat Greek Wedding movie!!

The cones are made by hand right in this store. Sweet treats!!

Some of the crew at the supper club waiting for the band to play. Barney Huckye from Neil Pryde is kneeling beside the Pirate.

Day 3: We awoke to trees swaying and leaves whistling. A sure sign of good winds ahead for the day...well, at least that's what we thought.

Arriving at the event area after another awesome breakfast at our Greek family run eatery, everyone was moving around with great anticipation for what looked to be another great day racing on the water. During the skippers meeting a vote was taken to do slalom or more course racing. We had voted to do course until lunch or around 1 or 2, then slalom after that. The next hour and 1/2 went by just waiting! The wind was building up, but at the same time it was also clocking around almost 45 degrees. The RC had to wait for steady wind direction before they could set the course as it is so long. So after the postponed flag came down we were on the water heading for the start (which is a long way down the lake). I was on my 9.8/Prodigy, Paul was on his 8.5/Equipe, and the Pirate was on Paul's 7.4/superlite. As we headed to the start line I could just feel the wind slowly losing its strength, I had knew at this point I should have taken out my superlite. I caught up with Wellsy at the committee boat and told him not to get too comfy just yet on the superlite as I was going to switch him boards. I asked the RC if I could do a board switch on the water, and to my dismay they said no. So with our 5 minute start sequence going and the winds still dropping, I was on the Prodigy like it or not. I had a good start and was going to the windward mark pretty good in second behind a french girl named Edithe(100lbs) on a RSX. I eventually rounded the winward mark in 3rd place and with a long straight downwind leg with rolling waves, and light winds it was hard to pump and stay on the board at the same time. I rounded the leward mark in 4th place and back around for another lap. The wind at this point is around 8km/hr, so my next long upwind leg was brutal!! Crashing into every wave with my body weight on the baord seemed to almost stop me at times! I couldn't keep up with the RSX guys at this point going upwind so I made a fatal decision to head to the right and look for wind....bad move!! I rounded the winward mark in 8th place and then pumped like hell till my forearms were cramping to eventually finish in 7th. I was so bummed about the wind and my poor race strategy. It's amazing what even 5km/hr more in wind speed will do for board speed in light winds. With my body weight, my board just couldn't get released from the water with the waves and wind speed I had to work with to be competitive. If I had the ol' superlite, I would have finished 10 minutes ahead of the fleet....oh well. When we sailed back in after no wind cancelled racing, I was uplifted to see Guin, Al and Cary waiting onshore for me!! We visited with each other the rest of the day and went together for a pig roast held at the CORK (Canadian Olympic Regatta Kingston) building. Saying our good byes to one another after supper we headed back to our dorm to clean up, as part of the windsurf group were heading to town for some icecream and to watch Down Child Blues Band play at this club called Joy Supper Club later at night. Band was great fun and we retired around 1 am to bed.

Wind is howling already this morning, so slalom is probably gonna be on for today. I hope they have some more course racing for me to redeem myself in the standings, but I doubt they will with the wind going already for what looks to be great slalom conditions. Racing probably til 3, then packing the trailer, then awards, then on the road for as long as we can drive...

Wish us luck for today's racing!!

Stay Cool

Posted by Brad at August 27, 2006 7:28 AM

Comments

Hey guys, good job with the race reporting, sounds like you guys are having a great time. Keep up the good work...
- Uffe

Posted by: Uffe at August 27, 2006 1:00 PM

Keep your head up Woody! Go Team!

Posted by: Shan/Surfy at August 27, 2006 3:24 PM

Go out and kick some ass.

Posted by: Big Al at August 27, 2006 6:39 PM