It was off to Highcliffe this weekend for the second qualifier of the year. I had been training there with the squad for a few days prior to the Q which had been pretty windy.
Saturday was much the same as we set out for racing, windy and pretty chilly. The Northwesterly reaching up to 25 knots gave some great racing. After leading from the start I went on to increase the lead by the finish. Race two set off in even more wind and as a front passed through the temperature dropped and the wind increased even more. On the second lap the wind dropped as the front passed through and the race was abandoned. The wind increased again for two further races after winning the second race I was caught out by the tide change in the third and didnt have time to catch up as the race was shortened after 30 minutes due to the fading light. After over 7 hours on the water we just made it in before dark. Unfortunately the wind failed to appear on Sunday and so racing was called off.
It was good to race in the strong winds on Saturday and I was pleased with how I performed to win overall. I am looking forward now to Hyere in a few weeks and will be training in Weymouth to prepare.
Results for the qualifiers belowhttp://www.laser.org.uk/docs/uploaded/stbstd09nh.htmlhttp://www.laser.org.uk/docs/uploaded/hclifstd09nh.html