The Cayard Chronicles - 2004 Olympics: Race Day 5 - Star Class #7 & 8
Athens August 25, 2004

Short story. We gained a few points on Second place CAN.

Slightly longer story; The race we sailed poorly, we won. The race we sailed well, we finished 15th.

Torben Greal of Brazil all but won the gold today with his 2,7. He has just outsailed everyone so far, no on is even close to his consistency.

The conditions today were initially 8 knots from 235 softening to 4 knots from 200. The last lap of the second race was very light..less than four knots of wind.

In the first race, we had a good start and went left with Grael and Percy. Our speed was very good. Unfortunately the right was the place to be most of the day. We got it wrong all race up to the last leward mark. There the committee moved the windward mark to a heading of 220. As soon as we rounded the leward mark, we tacked onto port to clear our air. I looked at the compass and it said 225. Then I saw the mark almost right in front of us. Strangely, the others were fighting to go left and stayed on starboard tack. We stretched toward the mark, finally got a small header, tacked and had a nice lead. Greal sailed a great race to scramble out of the left and still finish second.

In the second race, we had a good start, sailed fast, crossed the competition when we could, and were in 6th at the last leward mark. MacDonnald (CAN) and Holm of (DEN) were about last and second to last. This was shaping up well. Up the last windward leg, we lost four boats, all on the right side of us. Down the last run, we went in the middle and lost boats on both sides to finish 15th. We lost two points by 2 seconds. That is bad. I remember last year here, one of the keys to our success was that we won all the close finishes.

Anyway, we are still third, three races to go and for sure, as we were shown again today, anything can happen on this race course.

Five hours in the heat, concentrating and creeping along at a snails pace has left me tired. Going for a quick dinner and big sleep. Tomorrow will bring more sailboat racing.
Paul Cayard