Andrew Campbell - Tough couple of races

by Andrew Campbell on 20 Jan 2010
Andrew Campbell reports from the Star World Championship.


I struggled getting off the line cleanly the last couple of days here in Rio. Yesterday was a very light air slugfest. We were postponed for nearly an hour, followed by five starts, three general recalls and another short postponement before finally getting the fleet off the line under black flag. We flushed into the middle of the racecourse but never really broke into the top group. After rounding in the high twenties, we could only nose into the next group.

Never getting any breaks, and watching some close boats move up the fleet, we finished a disappointing 24th.
Today was a very different race with similar results. We rounded the first mark in about 50th after a decent comeback on the first beat from a horrendous start. For whatever reason we had a better time picking our way through the fleet today. We took five or six boats a leg, sometimes at marks, other times mid leg. But somehow we managed to salvage a 26th place finish. Ironically, the 26th was a much more rewarding race than the previous day’s 24th.

Tomorrow will bring the throwout into the scores and mix things up a bit. We’ll look to beat the heat and try and get off the starting line regardless of the upwind current (almost a knot at times).