JAMES TURNER REPORTS on the first day of sailing at the 2009 420 Worlds on Riva del Garda

Today was the first day with three official races. We had a solid day on a very difficult course to sail on. In the first race the conditions were 8 to 13 knots and reasonably steady. We had an awesome start and tacked out to the favored right hand side of the course quickly. With good pace and clear lanes we rounded the top mark in 5^th. On the reach and downwind we made ground on the leaders and then up the last beat we gained a place. With no change downwind and on the final reach we ended the first race in 4^th.

In the second race the wind picked up a bit averaging around 14knts. At about 1 minute to go we were in a good position on the line but at 20 seconds a European barged straight into us from windward spitting us out the back of the front row. With 10 seconds to go we made a bold move gybing out and sailed on port along the back of the fleet. Miraculously we found a gap in between 2 boats and tacked into the line 2^nd boat from the committee and keep sailing upwind. After winning the start we tacked over to the right a little late not getting a 100% clear lane to sail in. We rounded the top mark in about 8^th and stayed there until the next upwind. Going up wind we worked the shifts well gaining 4^th position two thirds of the way up the beat. As we sailed up the last quarter there was a huge right hander sending 20 boats over the top five of us. We managed to climb back 8 boats downwind to finish in 17^th.

In the last race we didn't have the greatest start. We were forced to follow boats out to the favored side of the course and then follow them into the top mark. We rounded in about 30^th. Once behind it’s generally pretty hard to catch upon as it's basically a one way track. With good boat speed and good downwinds we managed to gain a few boats finishing in 20^th.

Overall we are lying in 15^th which isn't too bad. Everybody seemed to have an inconsistent day so the drop will mix things up a bit tomorrow.

The regatta format consists of a qualifying series and then a final series. After the qualifying series the fleets will be split into a gold and silver division respectively, then race another 11 races in our separate fleets. There are 117 boats in the open division so that leaves about 59 boats a fleet. After the qualifying series is complete the boat carries their finishing score into the final series. For example, if you came 3^rd in the qualifying series then you carry 3 points into the next series. So at the moment the pressure is off as we only have to make the gold fleet in a solid position.

Tomorrow we have another 3 races scheduled to finish the qualifying series so basically we will be using those races learn more about the lake conditions and geographical influences on the course.