Rohan Veal reports on the final day of the Int Moth Worlds

by Rohan Veal on 31 Jul 2006 After a terrible day's sailing on Friday (see my web site for details), I had lost my lead to Simon Payne by three points meaning that I had to win the last two races of the series to take the title. I was not in a postive mind frame at the time, but I knew that it was possible.

We awoke to no wind on Saturday, leaving me several hours to make some changes to the boat that would hopefully improve my upwind speed and height.

I was then ready to hit the water and give it my all to win back to back titles, however by 3pm the wind had still not come in and the race committee called off the racing for the day making Simon the new World Champion for
2006 and Adam May claiming the bronze.

I am still disappointed with myself for making such a critical tuning error on Friday, but there is not much I can do apart from learn from my mistakes.

Simon said tonight that he will be retiring from competitive Moth racing but will still make the trip next year to 'coach'. We all look forward to that one! ;-)

When I get back to Melbourne, Virginia and I will be taking a well deserved break by visiting friends in Vanuatu as it has been some time since we have had a real holiday (with no boats or motorbikes). I am still not sure as to what I will be doing Moth-wise for the next few months, but I will post on my web site as soon as I find out.

At some stage I think I will need to schedule in some surgery on my knee though as it seems to have taken a battering on Friday in that light air. I can walk okay, but there is still a lot of fluid there that will make life difficult for me in the future.

Thanks to my wife, family, doctors and sponsors who got me here in Denmark and I look forward to the next 12 months of Moth racing.

Cheers

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For Rohan Veal's website see: www.rohanveal.com

Rohan Veal's 2006 Sponsors and Supporters:
Ronstan International - www.ronstan.com
KA Sail Australia - www.kasail.com
Victorian Institute of Sport - www.vis.org.au Club Marine Insurance - www.clubmarine.com.au Velocitek GPS - www.velocitekspeed.com Marlow Ropes - www.marlowropes.com Dirty Dog Eyewear - www.dirtydogeyewear.com Windrush Yachts - www.windrushyachts.com.au Fastacraft - www.fastacraft.com Yachting Victoria - www.yachtingvictoria.com.au