F16 Europeans - Day 4

Day 4 started of with no wind, a very quiet sunny day. The locals didn't really know what to expect. Would the wind kick in at 13h? Or would it be a no wind day? If the locals don't have a clue, it is really hard to decide what to do! So we set the boat up for a very light day, mast and jib were all rigged for little wind. At 12h everyone started to drift away to the course side, daring to hope for some more wind to race.

At 13h we crossed the start line and so did the wind! There she was, blowing in all force, probably 20 knots. Haha that wind can fool you. So there we were, all rigged up for light wind and it was blowing. We were heavily overpowered. Gill had to put in all his effort just to steer (we had a very heavy helm due to the wrong mast setting) and he was beat just after race 1. We finished 10th, and were not happy about that.

In between race 1 and 2 we adjusted the settings for the heavier wind (jib and mast settings). We hit the starting line for the 2nd time that day and where was the wind??? Hmmm okay so now the wind was gone, well not gone, but still a fair bit lesser than race 1. Cracks you up heh? So we were not overpowered, and luckily we managed to sail well and we ended up 6th, before Paul & Ann but behind Cris Sproat.

Our goal of today was to stay before Paul and Chris, so we could keep our place 7. In race 1 we didn't manage to defend our place, and in race 2 we could keep Paul behind us, but not Chris. Ooooh how exciting, very very bad for the nerves...

Race 3 had almost the same wind as race 2, but a bit more shifty. We played it well and managed to get an 8th for the last race, in a tight duel at the gate with the Viper Dutch Boys Thijs Visser. We finished just before Paul did, but after Chris again (he really found his groove on day 4!).

Back to shore in a nice one on one race with Paul and Ann. For the fun of it we even double trapped with the kite up and Gill's dad filmed this. So stay tuned for some cool footage later on :-)

This day ended perfectly with a barbeque with some of the sailors at their appartment. To make it perfect we even had a T-Storm and some rain, but luckily their terrace had a covered top so we could stay outside to enjoy the lightning over the mountains.

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