Day 2: four races in strong winds

The wind wasn't quite as bad as forecast, but it was pretty strong, about 16-25 knots in the morning, dropping to 11- 17 in the afternoon. The wind was more cross-shore than expected so it wasn't as gusty and shifty as yesterday.

In the morning, after much deliberation, I chose to take my 8.5 Lightning and 46cm fin, and it was a good choice. I felt in control enough in the gusts to concentrate in going fast. I got good starts, and whilst I felt a bit slow upwind, I caught up some places downwind and finished 4th and 3rd.

The wind dropped in the afternoon, and I took my 9.5 XR Race and 52cm fin. This worked out well, and again, I got good starts, fairly decent upwind speed, and good downwind speed and angle to get a 3rd and a 2nd, which puts me in 4th overall after 4 races, which I'm very pleased with.

Paying the price for using a small sail: lots of pumping downwind!

Paul Wright decided it was too windy in the morning for him, but completed one of the afternoon races, to find that he received a 5 point penalty for forgetting to sign out onto the water! Mark Roberts regretted having only a 9.5, and raced only in the afternoon.

Jana Slivova from the Czech Republic currently leads the womens fleet, and Patrik Pollak from Slovakia leads the mens. Patrik dominated the blue fleet, winning all but one of the races. Max Wojcik is in 2nd, and also won 3 of his races in the yellow fleet. There was some pretty close racing in my part of the fleet, I spent a lot of time fighting it out with Curro Manchon from Spain, who is an absolute machine downwind. Peter Cucera from the Czech Republic also had some impressive speed, and was hot on Patriks heels, winning one of the races.

Patrik Pollak leading the fleet off the start with me in there somewhere.

There was quite a mixture of sail sizes chosen, but most of the top guys have registered two 9.5's (strong wind and light wind), so were on their strong wind 9.5's all day. I thought that the 8.5 was a good choice for me in the morning.

The forecast for the rest of the week isn't great, with 3-4 knots tomorrow and Thursday, maybe up to 7 knots on Friday and Saturday, looks like it could be a waiting game! Stay tuned. More photos and event news on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wcr2013

Results summary men:
1. Patrik Pollak SVK 1
2. Makzymilian Wojcik POL7
3. Petr Kucera CZE 15
4. Louis Morris GBR 730
5. Andres Anderson ARG 119
Women:
1. Jana Slivova CZE 26
2. Martina Hruba CZE 251
3. Ingard Borgel GER 640