Dan Slater: Tough but happy first day in the Finn Gold Cup

9:08 PM Mon 6 Jul 2009 GMT

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2000 and 2008 Olympian, Dan Slater, reports of day1 of racing in the 2009 Finn Gold Cup in Denmark

Today was the first day of racing in the Finn Worlds held in Denmark just south of Copenhagen.
Conditions today were very shifty and 7-12 knots.

My first race started really well but I was forced to tack away from the favoured right side in the early part of the first beat and never got a lane to get back to to that side. Round the first mark I must have been about 50th but on the second lap I think I cut that down to finish somewhere round 25th. It wasn't the ideal start to the regatta but I had some good guys round me in what was going to be a tricky day.

Between race one and two the breeze was shifting 20-25 degrees both left and right making it really hard to pick a side to start on. I decided on the committee boat end and had a really good start on the Black Flag. I was able to tack and move out towards the right early which seemed to look like it had more pressure.

At about a 3/4 of the way up we started getting headed out on the right and for the first time I looked like being able to cross all except 6 or 7 boats. I decided to take the shift and get back into the middle of the course as there were some dark clouds starting to role over us. This proved to be a good move and by the top mark I rounded 3rd.

Down the first run I was a close second but I split tacks with the leader at the bottom mark. As we went up the second beat I managed to get into the lead and had a battle with Daniel Birgmark from Sweden for the remainder of the race. The breeze built with a black cloud down the last run to maybe 18-20 knots and at the finish I crossed just three lengths ahead of Daniel to win race 2 of the regatta.

Overall it was a really tough day and everyone had a mixed bag of results so if I can get some consistent good results then things may work out well.

Till tomorrow

Dan
NZL 1

Dan Slater
HIGH PERFORMANCE SAILING
+64 (0)21 555 356
[email protected]
WWW.HPS-NZ.COM

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