Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

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Hi all hope you are all enjoying the news from down under as much as I am. Here is the round up report from Dan Henderson on the pre-worlds.

Pre Worlds
Saturday: We were due to start racing at 11oclock, however there was a steady 25 knots, gusting 32 from the north. The PRO decided to postpone any racing til 4 oclock where he would make a further decision if we were going to race. When arriving down the club at around 3 oclock, the breeze had done a 180 and come in harder, and due to the direction, 2-3 meter waves. The decision was to start racing at 9 oclock on sunday.
Sunday: Somehow i managed to get my self out of bed and be out on the water for the scheduled 9 oclock start. We had a steady 14-18 knots and short sharp chop. Throughout my training over here, it has payed to go left upwind in the breeze direction we had, so i started down at the pin end, which was favoured. I had a reasonable start, however started underneath one of the GBR boats who weighs about 20kg more than me. Once he had footed over me, i was stuck in my lane, with bad air, heading to the left which was the favoured side, but i rounded the windward mark in around 20th position. Everyone of the top 20 just straight set and followed eachother like sheep out to the layline. I took the decision to gybe set, and gained 9 places downwind. I carried this position to the finish and ended up 11th.I wasn’t too happy with my 1st race but just looked on to the next.
Race 2: I had been watching the breeze between the races and it was clocking right, ony about 10 degrees at this point, so i chose to start at the committee boat end. I ended up being the closest to the committee boat and held a good lane off the start. The breeze continued to clock right upwind, and i started to look pretty nice out on the right. I was 4th around the windward mark, and the leeward mark, but i managed to take a boat up the next beat staying slightly further right than him, and got into 3rd which i held to the finish. Later did i find out the 2 boats ahead of me were OCS and i had won the race.
Race 3: Once again, i started at the boat end and held my lane well off the line. the right still looked favoured, but most of the fleet was going out to the left so i took a short stint out to the right and when i came back, i was leading by about 5 boat lengths from the boats from the left. I held this lead for the next 2 laps, until the finish line when i pulled off what can only be described as the worst gybe ever, and managed to wineglass my kite. this allowed Ian renilson (ex contender world champion) to over take me meters from the finish line, and i ended up 2nd.
Race 4: The race was held in simular conditions to the last, however the waves were larger. Once again i started at the boat end of the line and had a good lane upwind. As we were going upwind, there was a slight knock on starboard, and the boats from the left looked back in contention. 3 boats crossed me from the left, and i rounded the windward mark in 4th. I carried this position round the course, however i managed to take 1 place on the final downwind to get a 3rd.
This left me 2nd overall at the preworlds counting a 1,2,3 with a large gap behind. Im really happy with 2nd place, and hope to go 1 better in the worlds which start on tuesday.

Dan Henderson

Good Luck to both Dan & Ronny for Tuesday where the action begins !!!
 

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