Hi All,
Well what a week. After an incredibly long 6 days of racing and many hours waiting for wind, we are pleased to report that Will and I finished 6th at the 4th World Cup in Hyeres – enough to maintain our current lead in the ISAF Sailing World Cup.
The qualifying series which typically goes for 3 days had to be extended another day as we had only completed 3 races. An unpopular decision, the committee decided to only compete the minimum number of qualifying races (4 races) to advance the fleets into Gold/Silver groups on the 4th day. Thus once the 4th race was sailed on day 4 the fleets sailed back to ashore to get re-seeding then after protest time limit expired, the fleets were sent out for the final series.
With only one final day before the medal race the committee went for 3 races, in which the puffs came to 5 knots the racing was mixed to say the least. Some teams posted some pretty big scores, including ourselves. We managed to scrape through into the medal race in 8th position after a 36, 25 and 1st. We managed to finish the medal race in 4th position which was enough to move us up to 6th overall. Given the extremely light and shifty conditions we are pleased with this result and happy with our performances.
After the finish of the medal race, in true James Bond style, stripping from my wetsuit and running from the boat after coming ashore I managed to catch the flight to fly to London, then to New York, then to Miami and then to Montego Bay, Jamaica, only to arrive a few hours before my brother Daniel got married.
A big thank you must be said to Sam Kivell and Will Ryan for their support in letting me borrow Will for the month and for packing up our gear so I could make it to Jamaica in time. Thanks also to Ben Gunther who flew over especially from Australia to sail with Sam.
In what might seem dull after our busy last month we are looking forward to now bringing things back to normal and preparing for ISAF World Cup event #5 in Medemblik, Netherlands, starting in late May.
Latest press release from Nicole Brown http://www.australiansailingteam.com.au/?Page=47395
Latest ISAF World Cup Standings http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/standings/470-men.php
Take care,
Mat and Mal
Mathew Belcher & Malcolm Page
470 Men – AUS 11
Australian Sailing Team
