It was a scorcher when we woke up and it looked very unlikely we would get any breeze, but the race committee put us out there and to their credit we got a good days racing. Starting in a very light seabreeze and building to wiring conditions by the end.

The race winners were Jens Findel and Johannes Tellen. They sailed in to an all the way lead, enjoying the light conditions and glad to have the Super Danes sitting on the beach. Howie and Fritz pulled a second and Kevin Taugher and Jon Bell sailed their boat Sherwood Scuba, (who has a scuba shop in the woods by the way?) into third a great result for the boys.

For the minor placings on the overall, Mike Martin and Jeff Nelson lost second and fell to 5th. They had won the pre worlds and looked to be untouchable, but being a bigger crew, the lighter winds hurt. Their two worst results were in the last two races, when the wind was at it’s lightest. Moving up was Howie Hamlin and Fritz Lanzinger, after their second on the day they moved to second overall. Howie has won second seven times now and in his acceptance speech last night, he said ‘sometimes I am real disappointed to win second, some years I am ecstatic. This year I am ecstatic. It has been the best year of my life with the 18, winning the 14 Worlds and now second here, it’s a mighty achievement’.

Also moving up was Sandy Higgins and Paul Marsh. The local lads had a good final race, with a seventh and placed third overall. A result, they too were ecstatic with. The crowd went nuts when they came up, because many realised how much work Sandy had put into the event on the administration side as well as trying to race. A difficult thing to do, trust me I know.

The Funk mobile had an OK day, we scored 13th, but unfortunately let some of our pursuers through and dropped to 10th on the overall. We started pretty well, worked the left and rounded the top mark 7th. Speed wise, we weren’t good, we kept falling in on boats to leeward and having to tack to find clear air, but we played the correct side each time. Unfortunately, the speed issues cost us a few spots on the uphills and we misjudged a gybe on the run and dropped four boats to achieve our thirteenth spot. We are the same weight crew as Mike and Jeff and that may be part of the problem, but more likely it’s time in the boat. At the presentations, a lot of the top crews came over and said, top 10 after one year in the boat is a huge effort. Thanks blokes!

From a personal perspective, it was draining for me. My body started to shut down on the second last day. Apart from racing, I was MC’ing, handling the media, writing all the releases, interviewing people for the website, the sailing magazine and for the video and helping in a few other area’s. On the final day, I was up at 3.30am and finished my duties about 11.00pm. Unfortunately, I felt so rat shit at the final presentation, I couldn’t drink or cutloose. But for the result, I was stoked, we set a goal of top 10, as did about 50 other boats, but we managed to get there. A big thanks to Helmut, my skipper, you are bloody good sailor, as well as a great guy. If any of you guys ever get to meet Helmut, you will have a ball!! And to everyone I met, it was great to meet you all. Thanks for the fun.

It was a great regatta. Everybody enjoyed the event and had a great time. The response of the overseas competitors to Adelaide and the generosity of the Australian people, was noted throughout the night in the speeches and private conversations. So many convinced that we live in paradise here and they are right. The next Worlds are in Palermo in Italy, October 2008.

Stay happy

Jfunk