ESS Act 2 Qingdao

Well Qingdao was a lot more pleasant place to sail than i remembered from being out there in the summer ahead of the Olympic Games. Despite a couple of days of Fog, the air was generally clear and similar temperatures to back home. We started Racing well with a 1st and two 2nds, in the open water racing, ending the day though with a 8th we held 3rd over night. Day two at the previous event in Oman had ruined the event for us so we were very keen not to make the same mistakes again as we switched to the "stadium racing". We certainly did a better job than the previous regatta ending the day in 5th overall, but very close on points to 2nd overall. We started on a reach all day long and were slow to pick up on the advantage of the boat end start... Day 3 went well, we sailed well around the track, but the main improvement was our starting which saw us consistently in the top 5 and allowed our good boathandling and boatspeed to pull us forward. we finished the day in 3rd 2 points off second. The day started well for me winning the model boat competition with two firsts and a fourth!

The final Day came with a light wind coming off the city again, but with strong storm predictions for later in the day... Our starting remained our Achilles heal, but we did a great job of recovering back towards the front with good speed and decisions made around the race track. The final double points race came and the committee called out the points prior to the finale, we held second but with just 2 points separating fourth and only 6 back to 5th. The start again proved our undoing getting rolled off the line, the reaching start being so hard to get the balance right between hitting the line at pace and not getting there to early! We were surprised that a few boats were not called back though... We caught a few boats up but with both the french and Red bull in the front few we had to settle for covering Oman air to the finish to guarantee a solid but disappointing 4th overall. A good debrief of the event has left us feeling confident that the elusive podium finish is not too far away, and that there is nothing stopping us standing on the top of it next time!