Day 5 – Arriving at the beach, the results were on display to confirm my position. Suddenly my perspective of the event changed massively. I had arrived to test and learn, but now I was within touching distance of the podium. Conditions were the same again, so I made sure the 7.8 and 7.0 were rigged and ready 5 minutes before the start. The wind was looking light with people struggling to get down the course with power. I opted for the 7.8, but the wind picked up very quickly. I had a couple of good speeds with the 7.8, but I was getting pulled around too much and changed to the 7.0. The speeds were OK, but I never found the flow of the previous day. I couldn’t get a clean run, people kept getting in the way and in the slightly stronger winds, I couldn’t quite stay locked down. Maybe it was the after effect of the JC beers, but coming off the water it was clear that there had been a couple of really quick runs from the other guys. When the evening results were posted I had finished 4th, with an average speed of 35.4kts but having seen how close it was to 2nd I was a bit gutted. The 2 guys ahead of me had both had 1 killer run each, but their second best run was actually slower than both of mine, meaning I was only 0.35kts too slow on the average of the 2 runs, which is nothing. I was still lying 3rd overall though, but that result would turn out to be crucial!
Day 6 – More of the same on Day 6, with light and gusty winds on the course. This time I made the correct decision and started on the magic 7.0/90/30 combo first, clocking a few 35kt+ times on the 10secs average. After 20 minutes though I couldn’t seem to go faster and lacking power I came in for the 7.8.
Interestingly despite having more power through the course, the speeds were very similar, proving to me what Zara had said about the smaller sails. At the end of the day I finished 2nd again, with an average speed of 35.0 kts, which consolidated my 3rd place and actually brought me level in points with second. The tie break goes to whoever has the fastest speed of the week, so with his one killer run the day before of 36.2kts, Dylan De Jong had the edge. Still however there was one day to go and literally everything to play for.
Day 7 – Unfortunately that turned out to be all the weather gods had planned for us. Day 7 looked really good at first and we even started a round, but after just 10 minutes the wind switched off and left us swimming back to shore. At 2pm the Race director called it off and put an end to this fantastic event. I had to settle for 3rd, with Dylan De Jong in 2nd and Bjorn miles ahead in 1st.