Dean's Diary- Bad day at the office in Extreme Sailing Series, Nice

by Dean Barker on 29 Sep 2011
Dean Barker, Emirates Team NZ skipper and Director of www.kiwiyachting.co.nz!Kiwi_Yachting_Consultants_Nexus_AB, reports from Nice, France from the Extreme Sailing Series, in which he is helms Emirates Team NZ .

28 September 2011:

We are in Nice, France for the 7th Extreme Sailing Series event. After sitting out the last two X40 events due to clashes with the AC45, I was really looking forward to getting back into the racing.

We have been alternating crew a fair bit during the year in an effort to up skill as many of the guys as we can. It is good for the long term goal of the AC, but with many of the competitors sticking with the same team the level is getting tougher and hard to get on the pace quickly.

Today we raced with typical Nice conditions. Beautiful sunny day, nice temperature, but no wind. The breeze never got above 4 knots all day and was very puffy and shifty. It was incredibly frustrating in terms of results with a combination of being slow and not sailing tactically very well we often found ourselves back in the pack. In these conditions the rich tend to get richer and it is hard to work your way back through the fleet.

Today is another day and we will be looking for a much improved day on the scoreboard

Dean

To read earlier editions of Dean Barker's blog http://www.kiwiyachting.co.nz/dean-barkers-blog!click_here