Again only three races today due to the fact that being a Friday, they had to come in for prayer.   Markus got an 18th, 24th, and a 9th (he was coming 5th but was penalised by judges and had to do a 720 - rule 42). They had a tropical storm - real downpour for 1/2 an hour with thunder and lightening! The only good thing about the storm was that the wind picked up a little after - to about 10 knots but slowly died off again.  The race of the day goes to Kiwi Michael Hayton who got a 2nd in one of his races!

Day 8 - rest day

Day 7 - Teams Racing

The kiwis got through about 4 rounds of teams racing. I think the kids did well with teams racing considering they've really only had one - two days to even practice teams racing. The other countries have regular, proper training sessions, and they have a lot of financial support and coaching supplied by their yachting federations.

Day 6 - 2nd race day

Racing underway at 11am with 4 races scheduled, as we only had two yesterday. Race one was in about 8-9kts. Markus got another good start out to the right, looking good he rounded the top mark in 4th pozzy. Straight away going high around the mark to gain speed and roll two more to hang onto 2nd until about a third of the way until the finish line he got passed by the female star poonpat to take home a strong third place.    2nd race the breeze was already softened to about 4kts Markus finished in 17th. Race three was started in about 2-3kts and Markus was in the first flight and headed out to the right in a good spot before the wind died out on the right to about 1kt and rounded the top mark in about 40th. There was no and I mean NO wind and from there on it was painful to watch. The leaders just finished before the time limit some how - I don't know. Liam Closey finished with a 19th and Markus ended 27th but half of the flight got a DNF (including Jamie & Mike) as they couldn't finish in time. Just as Markus was finishing the second flight was half way up the last beat to the finish line when they abandoned their race. We all headed to shore wondering what the hell happened and what a day!!!
We were on the shore about 1/2 hour when they said the last flight had to get back out there and race the race again. We had Ellie William and Liam Banks in that flight. The breeze had built from the sea, on shore and a lot better for them. Ellie finished 31st, William 29th, and Liam 52nd. By the end of that race it was about 630 and half an hour before dark! William was not feeling well by the time he returned. Vomiting etc and has gone to bed. He is not sailing tomorrow in the teams racing either due to the sickness. Teams tomorrow starting at 930am. We have Markus, Ellie, Mike, Liam Closey - Liam Banks reserve for the team. We are hoping for a good day and win it!!

Day 5 - 1st day of racing

Very light, huge shifts and patchy on the course. Average wind was about 4kts ranging from 2-8. 20 deg shifts about every 20 minutes. One start was in about 2kts!!! So we had some good and bad results from the team. Some happy and some not so happy. We had three races scheduled. The last race Markus just went through the gate ready for the last leg in 6th place when the 180 deg wind shift came in with about 15kts and they abandoned the race. Oh well that's yacht racing. It was 4:30 so all over for the day. Until tomorrow...

Day 4

Practice race today, followed by the opening ceremony.

All of the kids got medals, and so did the officials! Ceremony didn't finish until 10pm so left before the dinner was served.

Day 3 - Sat 12 Dec

Measurement at 9am as first team up. We stripped the boats and lined up for what seemed to take no time at all. Very windy in the morning too which made it  a little hard with the sails de rigging and rigging again. And not a lot of soft surfaces around like grass! All went well. I think miss copeland had to move a sail number and thats about it. So a good result.   After a KFC burger (main regatta sponser) we headed out on the water for a good long session. Learning every day out there as the tides play a big part in what is going on in the bay. Kids a little tired from the day before so wanted to keep it short. Tomorrow is the opening and the practice race.

Day 2 - Fri 11 Dec

Two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Very lucky with the weather as it was 10-12 gusting 15kts. This they said was a great weather day and strong!!!! Quote from Dolly (mum on Singapore team). Anyway we were the only large team training yesterday as the others that sailed the Malaysian nats took the break and the others were arriving etc. We had one boy from Slovenia line up with us. A small kid who apparently came 11th in the world. Very fast and smooth up wind. He had some good pace on our team upwind and down wind not so much. (Still very shifty as was the first day, seems to be better left had side early on and the right hand side at the top with huge holes in the middle.

After lunch we pretty much did the same thing. We lined up with the Slovenian again first and let him join up for a while and then we lined up with the Aussie team. We headed back in at about 3. Really hot at this time and hard on the chase boat in the heat. Trying to drink all the time and stopping the kids between line ups to drink all the time.

After sailing headed back to the hotel for a quick swim, then headed out via taxi to one of the main beaches. The kids all went street shopping all coming back with new bits and pieces. Fake Oakley/Adidas glasses etc. We stayed at the beach had the kids on a huge Banana & had ice creams. They seemed to enjoy themselves. We stayed to see the sunset and had dinner at one of the beach restaurants before heading home at about 9pm. This we figured would be the only day for this, and everyone loved it, including the adults.

Arrival Day
Today we had breakfast and headed to the club (10mins away) with all the tubes and bags we needed to setup the boats etc. Arms were a little tired by the time we got there. It's the end of the Malaysian nats so everything was busy busy at the club when we turned up. So after a while I got to see who we needed to and got the paperwork filled in. We have a mix of Extreme and far East boats. 4 and 3. Everything wrapped in plastic and like xmas for the kids. Markus is the only one using almost everything his.

weather is best in the mornings and dies out during the day so by the time we were out there it was very very light. The kids learnt a lot from today about the conditions etc. The water is far less salty than home so less buoyant so have to be careful when kiting and tacking.

The breeze and shifts when they hit you have far less affect as the density is less due to the temperature of the air.  The wind is very shifty. 45 deg on way and then back lasting for about 5 min each way and not knowing when they will come back but they do. After this we had a quick pack up, back to the hotel for swimming and dinner.