Andrew Campbell on his SIRS campaign

by Andrew Campbell on 20 Dec 2007 Even after redemption day here in Sydney, with two top ten finishes to end the regatta, I could only manage to scrape back to tenth overall in the standings.

A very squirrelly and puffy 8-14 knot southerly and an early, ten o’clock,
start gave us decent but confusing conditions in which to sail our last race. With a couple of nice starts I was able to salvage a couple of nice finishes on a day when most of the fleet sailed very inconsistently.

Unfortunately, the regatta organizers seemed to think that giving us two throwouts, one from the qualfier series and another from the gold fleet series was the way to go. I was therefore forced to drop a 7th from my first day as well as a 28th from the third day. I would have gladly tossed another one of my twenty somethings instead of a nice top ten score.

The only solace is knowing that I’ve beaten a few more of the guys on the leaderboard on the water this weekend and I’ll get a chance to have at ‘em next week in Melbourne.

In the meanwhile I have another week of training to do here in Sydney. The plan is to train through Christmas, watch the start of the Sydney-Hobart on Boxing Day (the 26th) and then head south to Blairgowrie, on the southern coast for the Australian Laser Nationals that take place over New Years.

Results: http://www.nsw.yachting.org.au/?Page=33890&MenuID=SIR%2F13587%2F0%2F%2C2007%5FSydney%5FInternational%5FRegatta%5F%28SIR%29%2F13589%2F0%2F