Would of, could of, should of. We got the Silver. Not bad. Saving some improvement for next year.

The day started out with us in fourth, 5 points out of first. We knew it would be all on today because of the caliber of the competition and the conditions.

It was too light to race at 1300 so we were postponed for 1 hour. Then we started in a 6 knots sea breeze, which build to 10 knots at the end of race one. We had a tough start with GER over early on top of us, and not going back. So we dug right and rounded the first mark 8 th , with all our competitors ahead of us. Nice work down the first run and we were fourth. The training we did yesterday with Ross MacDonnald was paying off as you speed was great. We kept gaining ground and finished second beating all our competitors. We were now tied for first with Grael..

So the set up for the last race was basically, who beat who between us, Grael (BRA) and Bromby (BER). Germany had been OCS (over the start early) so the ate their previously worst race, a 9 th .

We won the committee boat end of the start but just as we came off the line the wind went 10 degrees against us. We tacked immediately. This put us in the right corner with a huge split with our competition, not exactly what we wanted. We were patient and waited for the shift to come back and then we tacked. We ended up about 6 th at the windward mark behind both Bromby and Grael. Down the run we caught some waves and passed both of them. We held our own us the second beat but made a mistake in over standing the mark and that made it very close with the three of us again for the run. Just at the end of the run Grael was able to block us from gybing to round the mark and that was the series. We ended up getting forced the wrong way but hung tough and finished 6 th while Grael got fourth. Bromby had a bad race and ended up losing third to the Germans.

Ian Percy (GBR) won both races today displaying great speed but he was also not challenged by any of us as we ended up doing a lot of covering and tacking on each other. Still, Percy has speed that is not to be ignored.

One race today and we treaded water. Actually we did close in quite a bit on the guys in front of us, finishing 4 points out of 6th but not enough to pass them.

The race got started in 7 knots of wind from 290 at 1430. We had a bad start in that a couple of boats just to windward of us were over the top of us. They must have had a better line sight that we did because I was afraid to go with them and be OCS (over early). We battled to get a clear lane out to the left and survived to round the first mark about 18th.

The whole rest of the race we slowly chewed people up and finished 10th. Interestingly, Ian Percy who was on fire in the 18 knots breeze had trouble again today. He was ahead of us at the first mark but finished 23rd. Both guys who were within a point of us in the standings, Bruni (ITA) and Tracy (IRL), were deep. Bromby (BER) and Neeleman (NED) were also deep and for a while we had the points on them to pass them in the standings. But they were able to pick off some people too and we missed them by 2 and 4 points respectively.

Final standings are:

1-Rohart (FRA),

2-Loof (SWE),

3-Percy (GBR),

4-Presti (FRA),

5-Mansfield (IRL),

6-Bromby (BER),

7-Neeleman (NED),

8-Cayard (USA),

9-Spitzauer(AUT),

10-Kaats (NED).

In hind sight, where we lost a lot of points was two days ago with an OCS when we finished 5th and a 13th when we had been 2nd all race long. We ate about 17 points that day. This was my second worst finish in nine Star World Championships. My worst was a 10th in 1989. Some other notables had a hard time too. Torben Grael (BRA), who won the gold in Athens in August and the European Championship in early September, finished 32nd. He never beat us in one race in Cadiz. Mark Pickle (GER) who got Bronze in Athens finished 19th in Cadiz.

Yet, we are the top Americans again this year. Second American was Mark Reynolds in 18th. Last year we were top Americans, finished 4th at the worlds and qualified the country for the Olympics.

So looking at the big picture, which is getting ourselves prepared for the US Olympic Trials next year and then onto a medal in Athens, we have built a good foundation. We have some long-term projects under well way; like me gaining 20 pounds for the weight rule and being happy that we have our new boat sorted out and on its way to Miami. We have to work hard between now and March 18th to keep making gains.

We have already mapped out our training sessions in Miami this winter

We had a terrible day. But somehow, we are still in fourth place,,, 9 points out of first.

It started by me having the stomach flew. We all know what that entails so I wont go into the gory details. Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling my best. Next, we realize that the mainsail is torn, at the spreader, on the way out to the starting line. The coaches, Luther and Chris Bedford (Meteorologist), had to run back to the harbor, in our tender, and get some “stick back” to repair the sail. Got that done. Then we had a horrible start to race one and we are 15 th to the 1 st mark. There are only 18 boats so that was ugly. On the run, Phil slides off the bow and into the water. I did not have to go back to get him, but dragging him along for a few seconds was slow.

As the race progresses, we are not making much headway on improving our lie. But the wind died on the last lap and there was a chance we could have been saved by the time limit and the race having to be re-sailed. But nope, the first boat drifted across the line, 2 minutes inside the time limit.

OK Race 1 is over. Now, Race 2. IT is blowing 6 knots, max. We are over early at the start of race 2. This means we jumped the gun and crossed the line too soon. Phil is sure of it so we go back. So we are last off the line. But we go left, again Phil’s suggestion and we round mark 1 in 7 th place. Nice comeback! The wind is dying so the committee keeps shortening the length of the legs at every mark. We fight the whole race with Percy (GBR) and the Danish team for 7 th only to fall into a hole on the last leg and have Beshal (AUS) and Pickle (GER) pass us. At one point I thought the whole fleet might pass us as we were truly “parked”. A few boats in front of us were disqualified for also being over the starting line early and not going back to we got a few points back there.

We managed to get back to the harbor, put the boat on the trailer and get back to the “Palace” without any further damage.

Tomorrow, they have scheduled us for one race only. We now have a new element to the racing here which has been shifty and tricky to this point. Today we added “no wind” as a new factor and we had this element at some point during each race. This is another level of “tricky and shifty” as “no wind” is usually followed by “some wind” from “somewhere”. That is the tricky part. Hopefully we will figure it out better tomorrow. There is a lot of potential for movement up and down in the standings. We are 9 points out of first and 13 points ahead of 6 th . With the winds as fickle as they are here, anything is possible.

It feels like the world is coming to the end then you realize that it is just a sailboat race.

Today was the first day of the combined fleet. So all the best teams on the same race course.

Race 1 toady, we led wire around all the marks, lost 4 boats on the run to the finish and thought that was bad. Then when we got back to the dock we found out that we were OCS~over early at the start. The bummer is that I asked Phil to check for the