Sunday, August 2, 2009
Day 13
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Day 12
In the meantime we just chat with other teams, waiting for the executive decision. After one hour they postpone it for another hour. Some teams start to de-rig their boats either assuming they won’t sail anymore or knowing that the final decision will really be a no. We decided to stay on the safe side and wait the extra hour. Finally they announce the decision: they are abandoned. We were fairly disappointed because we sailed best in these winds.
We quickly de-rig the boat to the state that we received it in. The family that brought it up to Pwllheli once again took it back. That was one huge thing off our minds! But now we had to fill our program with our own things!
We decided to visit “Hell’s Mouth” and “Abersoch”. Hell’s Mouth (or also known as Port Neigwl Site) is a large beach which has enormous waves. It is found at one of the most western points of Wales. It is a wide beach with huge dunes. Then we went to the small town called “Abersoch”. This seems like a sailor’s town because of the high population of yachts on the beach. It’s not the biggest town there but it has its own type of secrecy.
We then drove back to the Sailing Club for the Awards Night. There were so many different prizes! There were prizes for top three in Juniors, top three in Oceanair championships, top ten overall and each tenth place. We placed 80th overall in the Worlds and therefore won a spinnaker pole. (Later on we decided that we would donate it to the South African team).
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Day 11
As always we wake up and somehow end up in ASDA. We quickly went to the Sailing Club and rigged our boat. It was finally sunny and fairly warm. The sea was really calm in the morning but it was windy. We changed our mast rake a bit but the Australians and South Africans told us to change it back (and it was for the best). We did a few extra changes to help us during the races.
We’re old salts now. The windier it is the better for us. We had four races today and managed to be 59th in the fourth one. The score did not exactly help us move up many places in overall ranking because of yesterdays lose.
Generally it was the best day for everybody since we arrived here. To get a better understanding of our day you can look at all the pictures.
- The bouy above will test your knowledge of Welsh!
At the end of the day we had a raffle for Mirror 70600. The lucky winner was world director from Australia 2011.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Day 10
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Day 9
We went to make ourselves lunch. They announced there would be a brief meeting at "quarter past ten" so in the meantime we went to see the wind gauge. As in the picture above the wind is approximately 22.6 knots. We then went to the big tent to find out what would happen with the races. They announced that out on the water the wind gusted to 30 knots and therefore they would scrap it.
We have almost decided to go to Abersoch and visit the town but a huge rainstorm came in so we stayed in the Marquee. We spent the time uploading all our pictures and finishing up previous days of the blog. As well we replied to dozens of e-mails. The Peterson family helped us rig our boat so therefore we allowed them to use our laptop. It wasn’t the most appealing day of our trip, especially if our second option besides sailing is travelling. Anyhow, we finally bought our first dinner at the Sailing Club; it was expensive.
In the meantime, the organizers were preparing the Welsh night and harpist. Gwenan Gibbard is one of Welsh music’s most exciting new talents. As well, reporters were going around and filming each nation. They also filmed crews hard at work during the rain.
Later on in the evening everyone gathered in the Marquee and the harpist came. In addition, they were filming this live. They also showed the reporting done earlier in TV and luckily we appeared in two of the shots.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Day 8
The first day for the Worlds has finally begun! We woke up at the normal time, quickly made lunch and left to the Sailing Club. Once we arrived we started setting up our Mirror Dinghy. Anthony (an organizer for Australia 2011 MW) and an organizer from South Africa helped us check our rigging. This included the rake of the mast and the tension of the shrouds. As well they checked our jib and mainsail placement.
The weather has improved a lot. It was still blowing hard but at least it stopped raining. We set out to the course like usual and began plaining across the start line. The race course for the Worlds is exactly the same as for the UK Nationals. Today approximately 100 Mirror’s started. With the new rig setting we felt the huge difference. When we crossed the start line we were able to keep up with all the other boats. We were actually in the middle of the fleet once we passed the first mark! We finished the first race in the middle of the fleet, a great accomplishment.
The second race got a bit harder. Once we were past the second mark we ran into some trouble. Another boat luffed upwind really quickly catching us off guard. The ending result was a hole at the top of our bow. It was nothing that we couldn’t handle. Later on we called a protest against them. This race did not go so well because we were extremely close to tipping with our spinnaker and we spent a lot of time bailing water. The third race was another good one. We had a great start and were at almost all the marks in the middle of the fleet. We have a competition with one crew from Great Britain because we’re always sailing beside each other.
There were many "retirements" during the races today because of the extreme conditions. In the above picture are the teams that retired. The second picture below shows the boats that retired. After the race we sailed in and quickly went to the protest room to fill out a form on time. There is a 90 minute time limit after the race. We then went to de-rig the boat and checked the jury room every so often to see if someone was there. We also had to tell the other boat that they were to meet us at the protest. During the protest we basically stated what happened, but it was dismissed because “the hole is too small and did not affect us in finishing the race”. We now have to find out what we will do about it.
Currently we are relaxing and saw a presentation about the up-coming European championships and 2011 Worlds.