Practice Race Day

There is nothing better than waking up to be told that your sails which were left in Heathrow, have finally arrived, and that Graham Walis had been down in the bowels of  Heathrow's baggage handling and found  Ollies foils.
So it was a quick breakfast and then carry the tubes down to the club. The  spars tube had been trashed, but luckily the spars werre still inside.
We managed to get in and get measured thanks to Curly Morris and Nuno, and everything was ok.
Then we rigged which took quite a while and then a quick monsoon of rain appeared, so we hid on a balcony overloooking the fleet of boats.
The parents [ Wallis's, Vollers, and Ann Whitfield]  arrived just in time to bolt on Ollies tiller, did we look that tired after we arrived- ug.

Packed lunches were apparently 'lush' or 'sweet', individually boxed and wrapped rolls and a banana, bar and a tube of chilly sauce- a bit too hot for us.

It was the practice race today, which was to start at 1300.  The wiund was from a new direction 55 degrees offshore from a hill and a valley and shifty, by the time we got afloat the monsoon stopped and it brightened up. 

There were 2 official starts odd numbers and even numbers, both starts were well over the line. So we always have a 3rd start run by the coaches for selected teams, which is much better and we get a better feel for what is going on. Arran turned up late because they ordered a taxi from their accommodation but it didn't turn up, he just made the start.
The only thing is that there were about 80 of the best sailors in the world in the race. Scott and Arran were like 4th and 5th at the windward mark and joint 3rd at mark 2, the wind was 5-7 knots. Josh was about 25, Matt was pushed back from the start by a coach boat and Ollie was half a sleep at the back, but he made good progress back up the fleet.
The wind then died and became very unstable with 30 degree shifts, so we went home.
Well we would have do.ne, but the steering broke on our lush white RIB, so we were towed home by the jury.
We are now back at the accommodation, the boys are swimming and  we are going for a long opening ceremony at Eagle Square- where there is a 40 foot eagle statue.

More news soon

Ps the Chineese team arrived and Ollie and Matt  were about twice the height of most of them.