ISAF has been quick to post the first of the 2009 World Cup Standings. We sit 2nd as we have only completed 1 event. But 2nd is 2nd!

Standings

The final day of Sail Melb called for a nice offshore breeze. It was a bit inconsistent and shifty, gusting 8-20+ knots with 40 degree shifts, but we went out.

Learning from a race during the worlds last year, left/offshore was the only option. We took the pin late and forced the Matt/Malc over so they had to restart. We sailed all the way out to the port layline with the fleet pointing at our transom the whole way. We took an early lead and never looked back. Until the next beat. It continued to be extremely variable and we were always pressured from behind. The big shifts and gusty conditions meant some stressful racing in the lead! We defended our position well and took the final race win at the end which is always nice to secure our 2nd place finish overall.

Also a big congrats to Anna for taking the Radial win! A nice result for US Sailing Team Alphagraphics down under.

With time to reflect on the plane, im sure we’ll have some good thoughts on what we can take away and how to apply it to our next training/racing. A big thanks to US Sailing for helping us get down here on some plane tickets!

Next up on the sailing calendar is a nice pre OCR training camp to re-familiarize ourselves with our own gear in Miami Jan 3-8. Over and out, time to fly.

As promised day 5 of Sail Melbourne turned out to be a beautiful day. A nice sea breeze filled in at the high teens just in time for our racing.

Race 1 was going great, leading at the first two weather marks. But our downwind speed continues to be a problem, and by the end lost 2 boats to come 3rd.

Race 2 went a little better finally settling into a groove on the downwind. We had a close battle with the 3rd place team but got the best of them on a early set on the top reach to gain inside on the run. We took 2nd at the finish.

With 1 race remaining in the series we’re standing 9 points from first, and retain a 6 point lead from 3rd. Tomorrows forecast is a bit unsure, we’ve heard both 30 knots and 5. Wish us luck anyways as we try to wrap up the series and gain some valuable World Cup points and our first podium finish for 2008/2009!

As the forecast said, strong breeze and big waves are what we woke up to. Melbourne showed its epic/classic conditions today and we were ready.

We were postponed ashore until 14:15 until we were finally sent out. The conditions were beautiful. Off the first start we found our speed to be quite good for what seems like forever, and so we settled into the race. Unfortunately we missed the big left shear, tacking just lengths shy, and were a little behind at the top mark from the leaders. We put together a nice run, and by the second beat we were right back in it. Unfortunately our downwind speed still seems to be holding us back, but we’re making strides. Perfect timing to figure out one hull just to get back in our other in 2 weeks. We finished the first race in 2nd.

Race 2 the breeze came on a bit more, touching 20-22 knots. We got a decent start again and showed brilliant boat speed. However, a massive righty came in and we found ourselves in 6th. We caught 2 on the downwind and set our sights on the lead pack. A lap later we were 5 lengths from 2nd when we capsized on the last run. We still havent been able to identify the cause, we seemed to agree that it was a combination of losing pressure in the kite and getting washed out by a wave at the same time. We finished that one in 5th, which was a little disappointing considering how well we sailed the rest of the race.

All in all we were still quite happy with our performance. We were going faster upwind than we ever have before with unfamiliar equipment which is always a plus. With 3 races to go we’re 7 points from first and 6 points ahead of 3rd. Tomorrow promises lighter conditions so we’ll see what we can do.

Day 3’s conditions were about as expected with winds reaching the low teens.

We found our groove early and were one of the fastest upwind. We took an early lead in race 1, and led for the majority of the race, until we got suckered into a tacking duel. We held it out to the top mark but then got passed on the downwind. An epic battle, and next time we’ll get them.

Race 2 again we had great pace upwind and caught a few nice shifts to round 3rd at the top mark. Unfortunately we had some boat issues and the trapeze bungee came untied, so i had to spend a significant amount of time repairing it on the run. After sorting that out we pressed hard again to round just outside of 2nd place. We caught 2 very nice shifts and cut our distance to the leaders in half. We were closing in on them, but couldnt find the waves downwind in our Zieg. We kept pressing but couldnt find the shifts we needed and finished 2nd again.

So, half way through the regatta we’re quite happy with where we’re at. After 6 races and 1 drop we stand only 3 points from the lead. Tomorrows forecast was for 30 knots, but we’ve heard that the storm will pass tonight so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Moths will also join in on our course tomorrow which will be a treat to watch. Biggest news is that new designer/builder Amac of the Mach 2 doesnt yet have a new boat. I would have expected him to be testing his latest creation, but maybe hes saving it for the AUS Nationals in a few weeks. Over and out!

Day 2 of Sail Melbourne brought heavy rain in the morning followed by lots of sun in the afternoon. Our first 2 races were sailed in 6-8 knots, with small chop.

We raced well today, improving on things from where we left off yesterday. With only a few small race course errors, we sailed pretty well and managed to take a race win in race 3!

The coolest part of the event we’ve seen is that the top 3 of every fleet gets to wear their respective bibs for standings! So 1st has yellow, 2nd has blue, and 3rd has red. Pretty cool! So we’re standing 2nd overall in the fleet 3 points from the lead having completed 4 races in the 12 race series.

Tomorrows breeze looks promising, and picking up later on in the week. Should be some good 470 conditions!

With the passing cold front, things were a little tricky as expected. There were small rain showers and puffy conditions tuning up before the first race of the 2009 World Cup Series.

Our research indicated left, so we took the pin end. We had a decent beat, looking 2nd most the way, until a massive left pressure filled in and 2 boats got over the top of us at the mark, so we rounded 4th. We battled downwind to catch 3rd and then set our sights on the leaders upwind. We played the shifts well and soon found ourselves controlling the group and forcing them to the port layline. We had a comfortable lead and extended on the next downwind. However on our last beat we underplayed the left shift and got passed to weather by one boat, and to leward by another. So we sat back in 3rd all the way to the finish. A decent first race to kick things off.

The weather turned worse with the breeze drying. We sat around for about 2 hours before they finally called it. Looks like we’ll have an earlier start tomorrow to make up for the missed race today. Stay tuned!

After almost 24 hours of travel or so we finally found our way to our nice little hotel in Sandringham. The best part of the whole trip was that somehow i managed to sleep 9-10 hours on the plane from LA to Sydney. No joke. I barely remember taking off and next thing when i woke up we only had about 4-5 hours travel, stoked.

Upon arriving in Melbourne, we found it to be cold, raining and f’ing windy. It had been a steady 30+ all day so the waves outside were massive. Figuring it was gonna be hard to get anything accomplished we cruised around the city and then finally found dinner back at the hotel. We both passed out watching “Be Cool” and got a decent nights sleep. I got up in the morning to find breakfast and stumbled into a nice little cafe, and found an old coach of mine, Adrian Finglas, from when i was here in Melb for the very first time. Great to see him which made for a very enjoyable breakfast.

The whole night it was howling and heard there were sustained winds of 47 knots! We headed down to the boatpark after a huge downpour, and pulled up behind a building to get some shelter. We spent a few hours rigging and then got psyched for our first sail together since the Olympics in 20+ with massive waves. No easy task now thats for sure. I even stuck my new waterproof video camera on the transom to capture our capsize and rescue attempt. All in all we had a nice hour long sail and feel like we could manage alright even after just getting the boat. Tomorrow we’ve got another training day and the the regatta the day after.

Stay tuned for more updates from down undah!

Seemed to be my quote for the weekend for almost everything. I had a very long weekend attending a coaches seminar run by Jim Saltonstall from Team GBR. He is regarded as one of the worlds top youth coaches and it was great to work with him and get some better insight into coaching the “ferrets” as he calls them. 20 or so of the top youth sailing coaches assembled in Long Beach for this, and many of them were good friends i havent seen for a while, so it was great to catch up. The astonishing thing about the weekend is that I feel as if ive not only gained insight into coaching, but also acquired a wealth of information for my own sailing on how the British approach things and how to prioritize both on the race course and in your planning. Really good stuff.

On top of the long weekend SDYC had their annual Junior Awards Banquet. I attended as the photographer having to stand up and sit down about every 30 seconds to snap another picture of our “ferrets” receiving their well deserved recognition from the year. The big surprise came in the end when i was awarded with the Commodore J Harvey Chambers Award. Completely in shock as they called my name the entire room stood up and clapped for me, it was totally unexpected and at least i was well dressed! I received the award for being a sailor between ages 17-23 for bringing the most recognition to the club by way of sportsmanship and competition. Really a great honor to have with the club given the names that were already on the trophy.

Today was spent sorta in a daze as i seemed to be lacking probably 24 hours of real sleep over the past week because of everything thats been going on. I tried to get as much stuff done as i possibly could to prepare for our trip down under Thursday, but soon i found myself in bed taking care of the necessities on the computer, and catching up on some sleep before class this evening.

Well over and out, im exhausted and tomorrow will be a lot of running around and packing. Next transmission from Melbourne, Australia at World Cup stop #1, Sail Melbourne.

Finally after what seems like forever, my moth has finally left England. It was on hold another week for class vet Adam May to put some final tuning adjustments into my centerboard case for me, so i should be looking pretty good when i get out the first time.

Now the question remains, will i get it in time? I will be leaving for Sail Melbourne Dec 11 for the first world cup event, and with a super busy week and weekend, i may not have time to even unbox the thing before i leave. Maybe i can get my parents to wrap a big bed bow around the box as i get back on Dec 22. Looks like i could be doing some inaugural sailing on christmas. Not a bad time to launch a boat in So Cal.

So, we’ll see! Cant wait to get it going and start my training program for The Gorge.