Sunday 12 June 2011

FireBowl 2011 - day 2

Hang on, status review...

Aching muscles - check
Unexplained bruises - check
Mild sunburn - check
Vague feeling of euphoria - check

Yep, got all those, so it must be the Monday morning after a good day on the water. And what a day - good tactical beats, long edgy do-we-don't-we 3 sail reaches, big lumps of wind arriving at regular intervals and some very close racing. Copious thanks to Jan and the rest of the OD team for getting everything absolutely spot-on yesterday, no mean feat and much appreciated.

And well done to Gordon and Richard for winning the Firebowl - whilst their handicap might have been a bit on the lenient side, there's no doubt that they worked hard and sailed well to win the event. Speaking as one who very nearly capsized, just keeping the boat upright was distinctly tricky in some of those gusts. And whilst I don't know who got second place overall, I'm guessing that Colin and Karen or Pete and Serena must be in line for it, and well done to them too. There was some distinctly good sailing going on out there yesterday.

Highlight of the day for me was the end of race 2, when four Fireballs crossed the finish line in the space of about 10 seconds. This close quarters boat-on-boat racing gets the adrenaline pumping like no other form of racing that I know, and is conducted in a delightfully gentlemanly manner too.

An excellent day's racing. This is definitely what we are here for.

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