Palamos Optimist Trophy Nations Cup 2015, Spain - Day 5
Kicked off with the same routine, plus another one hour’s postponement. The breeze had filled in from the southwest that was not forecast, but this was mainly due to the sea breeze. The race committee really wanted to get a race in today because then we could have a discard. The first group had a few general recalls before starting but the race committee did a good job of getting them off quite quickly.
I was in green flight today so I was last to start. Quite good as it meant I could look at what was happening up the racetrack whilst others were racing. There was a massive left shift, which was fairly easy to see as most boats coming downwind were on starboard gybe and the red flight which was third start, were all lifting on port. So, I decided I was going to come off the pin end and protect the left hand side but try to lead my group back into the middle nearer the top end of the beat. I stuck to this plan by getting a good start and keeping it simple. I finished 4th. This was the last race of the event as the wind had reduced to almost nothing.
The mad rush then began with getting in, packing up, attending the prize giving and packing the last few bits before our taxi to the airport arrived.
So, overall I was quite pleased as a first event of the season. I came 22nd out of 544 boats. I had a 21, 13, 12 and 4 so the discard meant I could get rid of my worst result, leaving me with a 13, 12 and 4. I felt a good set of consistent results to kick off my last season in my Oppie J Huge thanks must go to our house mum Laura, to Matt for some really great training and the team for lots of fun.
