Weymouth, Days 3 and 4

Scheduling for racing is a bit tight. Since there are two courses in the harbor, the race committee is running a windward - leeward slalom course rather than the usual trapezoid. This means that the fleets of boards are raced individually and called out one at a time.

We raced last yesterday, and started after 3 pm. Conditions yesterday were classic sea breeze, and the sun made an appearance. I worked on getting good starts, which I accomplished, and marginal planing daggerboard-down technique. The wind died before the start of the second race, and the committee shortened the course. Pumping in light wind was not a bad change after the 25 knots of the previous day.

Today, the wind was from an unusual direction, northerly right from the Weymouth land mass. Clouds formed over the land, and the wind went right throughout the morning. Because of the shifting wind, we had several general recalls and the committee reset the course once. The key tactic of the day was to hit the right side of the course and then play the shifts up the remainder of the beat. The gusts and lulls were very significant and often we had to switch gears from planing to daggerboard down. I am getting a lot better at switching gears, and one of the best aspects of my racing today was making independent decisions about when to switch. I also had several good starts and was one of the first girls to attempt planing starts in the gusts. In my best race I rounded the top mark in 15th after the start.

Tomorrow will be my last day of racing and after that one training day, the day of the medal race.