Bermuda Report- by Frankie Lardies
On the 16th of October I left Auckland for Bermuda. On the way there I stopped in Perth to meet up with the Australian rep and Peter Gilmour. While I was in Perth I went to the fresh water sailing club. In the morning we did a classroom session about the rules and we also did a beep test to see how fitness was going. That afternoon we left for our destination of London via Singapore.
We arrived in London after about 22 hours of flying with a 30 minute break. In London we arrived at Heathrow airport which was huge! We hired a car and went to see Buckingham Palace then we got stuck in really bad traffic and had long drive to Gatwick airport.
When we arrived in Bermuda, we went with our respective families and went to bed. The next morning all the international sailors had to go to school with their billets. That afternoon all the international sailors got together and went out sailing to set up the boats.
The next day we went out past the reef onto a shipwreck to go snorkelling, after that we went to a really nice beach and had a really good sand war with the Dutch grand pa (Opa). Then it was Thursday and racing had to start in the morning, we got to chill out and watch racing on a 4 and a half million dollar super yacht.
At lunch time we rigged up and got towed out to the race course. It was out behind an island meaning it was really shifty - was a good breeze blowing 15-18 knots. I came 2 and 8, quickly realising I was the quickest out there but doing a 360 lost me 5 places.
On Friday morning we watched some racing from the mainland then we went out racing again. In the afternoon the wind dropped to 8-10 knots and I finished 14 and 2, with a really bad sail set-up causing me to have a really bad first race.
On Saturday we did five back-to-back races in 18-20 knots so the fitness levels started to come in by race 3, as all the unfit people started falling back I finished 5,1, 2, 1, 8 - it was really hard to stay hiking the whole time. Then we all went back in exhausted for a good nights sleep.
At 2 o'clock in the morning I was woken up by a 60 knot wind shaking all the trees on the island around. Later in the morning when I woke up, it was blowing 40 knots - which was good as I was in the lead by 1 point. We had to wait at the yacht club until 12 ocklock to see if we would race or not, the decision was not to race as it was forecasted to blow 35 knots for the rest of the afternoon. We all went to play Xbox as the keel boats hadn't decided to go racing yet.
At 1pm the decision was that Russell Coutts was the winner and that prizegiving was to be held at 3. Prize giving was really hard out, with the tv, radio and newspaper. Then we all went home to pack as most of us were flying out that night.