|
Jesse and Zander Kirkland moved up two places from 29th to finish in 27th with 318 points in Silver Fleet Racing in the 2010 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta.
The 2010 Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, the fifth running of the regatta which is held at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in Dorset, Great Britain, is the seventh and final event of the 2009-10 edition of the ISAF Sailing World Cup.
The Kirklands finished the day with a 14th place finish in the first race, before finishing 19th in the second race and then 22nd in the third and final race of the day.
The Kirklands battled in a shifty, blustery 10-22kt NW'ster out in Weymouth Bay. Zander Kirkland said, “We hit some good shifts at times and stayed upright, but continue to be plagued by little things that we need to work on to put together at good race at this level.”
“We found our bridle was off to one-side and was part of the reason we were having height on starboard. We also watched the gold fleet racing on the big screen and have figured that we are too far forward in the boat going upwind, so that is something else we will try tomorrow when going upwind in the breeze. Also another thing hampering us today was our spinnaker pole was not getting far out enough and hence were not able to get a sufficiently tight spinnaker luff, which made it harder to carry in the breeze and also less efficient VMG downwind. We believe the reason for this was because I tied the spinnaker tack too tight and prohibited the pole from reaching its full extension. Live and learn. The other thing we are still working on is our communication amongst ourselves in the boat in the heat of the moment. It is one thing when everything is relaxed and the boat is going slow, but it is a whole different deal when the breeze is up and we are trucking along and dealing with converging boats and current on the race course! This will come with time as we adjust to sailing with each other and to being in such a machine at such speeds,” concluded Zander Kirkland.
|
