A strong, hot breeze woke us up on race day 1. By now, we had settled into our morning routines. The charter boat company had kindly allowed us to use their trailer for sail storage. Making a “sail sandwich” each night saved us the hassle of de-rigging and we were quickly ready to sail again.
At the welcome briefing, the Kiwis were given the stage. David Collins, one of our parents represented the team beautifully, delivering a speech and leading our kids in a waiata, which was warmly received by the Australian audience. With temperatures soaring, keeping in the shade and hydrated was key as it took a while before the D flag was raised.
Finally it was time to push them off! With 72 Optis on one start line, it was going to be hectic, especially with the course skewed by the shifty winds. After several general recalls and wind shifts that forced race officials to reset the top mark, the first race didn’t start until nearly two hours after D flag. The wind was fairly steady during the first race but then dropped almost completely, leading to yet another reset — a shortened course for the final two races.
Team NZ fought hard the whole day, and was still securing some impressive top-10 finishes. However, it was evident many of Australia’s top sailors were added to the mix today. Overall, the results reflected the tricky, and very shifty conditions. “After the topmark we had to sail another upwind again! It was so weird!” the kids shared.
Many commented it was some of the trickiest racing they had ever experienced, and after nearly five-and-a-half hours on the water, we could certainly sympathize. A quick raid of the local supermarket by a flock of over 20 kiwi’s got our team fed and off to bed as soon as possible.
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