back from gosford

hey... back from gosford... i can safely conclude that it was a windless weekend, besides the odd gusts that blew up to 12 knots on saturday, we were sitting in our boats most of the time. i went up to hornsby by train in the morning where i met kevin, he gave me a lift to gosford which was a 45 min drive. there, we registered, rigged and waited for the race to start. there were three races on day 1, the first race started lightly at about 5-7 knots and was shifty, the wind picked up later to 12 knots on the reach. i started averagely and tacked after the start to cross the starboard end starters, i then played the shifts well until 3/4 up the upwind where i was 4th... i then took a risk by going right when the top 3 went left, it payed off as i got a gust and crossed by quite a distance, i rounded the top mark 1st, the rest of the singaporeans were close behind, siobhan, 4th, victoria, 5th and manyi, 15th.. the wind got very gusty and i just managed to maintain my lead, second was zac skulander and siobhan finished third. in the second race, the wind was 8-10 knots the whole race until the last upwind to finish where it dropped to 3-5 knots. i started badly in the middle and was not playing the shifts properly, at the top mark i rounded 17th, victoria 18th, siobhan 25th and manyi 26th... the rest of the race was practically catch up and at the second upwind top mark, i was 5th, siobhan 9th, manyi 11th and victoria 14th. i caught up with 2 more boats on the final short upwind taking advantage of the lighter winds. there was alot of weed stuck under the rudder and daggerboard and it was a case of the less the weed, the faster your speed, the third race, all the singaporeans started at the pin and got a large advantage as the wind persistently shifted left. we rounded the top mark, victoria 1st, siobhan 3rd, me 7th and manyi 9th. we all improved throughout the race, i finished 1st, victoria 2nd, siobhan 7th and manyi 8th. there were no races on the second day due to the lack of wind. that was all... well what an awfully long post. results and pics can be accessed thru the link above.