10 July 2005

Today was the official arrival day and in total the organisors are expecting 235 competitors from 41 countries including 10 non-Europen countries like ourselves. We were one of the first to arrive and go through measurement, Japan has been here practicing since 28 June!!!

I scheduled a later start to the prep-training and was rewarded with more wind as a result. We did our usual pacing and then teamed up for some start drills on a windward leeward course with at least 4 other countries and at one stage 7 putting 60 odd boats onto a 100m line. After that we joined GBR & USA in a cone drill where the sailors are forced into a tighter area as the approach a windward coachboat forcing them to tack often and work the starboard layline in a hectic number of boats. We were on the water for 4 hours and at times the wind peaked around 20kts with a huge swell running. Downwind was hectic but the top guys still manage to hold a radical kite. Ian joined a GBR boat and took a swim; Neil in turn had a spectacular nose dive!

Today we also left our tempory launch spot and moved into the regatta village in a huge parade of boats down the street! It was quite a fun but chaotic affair but achieved, I guess what the organisors wanted, a huge spectacle of boats and the sailors didn’t even know they had just trekked 2kms!!

The sailors are tired but in high spirits, they have already made firm friends and seem to mix easily. The grub in the hotel is good and everyone seems to be eating well. The boys room is now a 5min dig for clean clothes! Otherwise is it wall-to-wall gear. I will schedule an mandatory inspection for 10h00 before brekker!

Rob Walker