My 1st event since my Surgery on my foot. The 1st day showed my lack of time on the water with a fifth place. Day 2 was a different story with a solid 3rd and a top speed of 32.57 in the very brutal conditions here in Fuerta.

Unfortunately with a broken boom on day 3 round 3 gave me 6th place with 3rd to 6th place's split by 0.05 of a knot! I managed 4th in the 4th round but after discards I have slipped to 5th overall but only one point off the tied 3rd place.

Click this pic to see how tough the course was for me!

The most impressive sailor of the event has to be Antoine who is making the very rough conditions look flat . My new F2 team mates Karin is tied on 1st place with Valerie in the women's fleet and Patrik is in a solid 2nd place.

Day 4 brought a welcome rest with the wind being too light for the 140 deg course.

Day 5 was another day of rest, with the wind not coming up enough for competition.

Day 6 the wind came back with a vengeance. 25 knots with gusts over 40 and 1.5 metre breaking waves on the course! I competed in the 1st round of the day but after numerous crashes my foot finally said no more an I had to retire. I am obviously very disappointed but the conditions really took there toll on my foot so soon after the two recent operations. Karin and Patrik did well in the tough conditions with Patrik winning the 1st round with a run's over 40 knots and Karin pulled well into the lead with two bullets and a top speed of 35.8 knots securing their 2nd and 1st places respectively. Antoine continued to dominate with only a slight hiccup in the 1st round of the morning with a third place the only round over the whole event he has not won.

Amazingly this is Patrik on a 38 knot run!

Day 6 was forecast to be the windiest with over 40 knots predicted but it barely got above 20 all day and resulted in no racing.

With a 26 knot wind average, the final round of the final day started at 11.30 with just enough time to get a round in before the end of the course flooded. The day was dominated again by Antoine in first place with a 40.5 knot run and Patrirk not far behind with two runs just under 40 knots which in the rising tide and big breaking waves was a fantastic achievement. The ladies was again a battle between Karin and Valerie with Valerie coming out on top but not altering the final result of Karin's 1st place overall. With me not able to compete I slipped another place to 6th which was disappointing for me after coming 3rd here last year. But I live to fight another day and have to console myself with the 3rd fastest time at this event at 32.57 knots.

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