Race 7 started in about 8-10kn and built slightly as the race went on. Mike Martin and Jeff Nelson were given a gift, as gate boat they started on a port tack lift, which swung right four minutes later, just as they were released from gate boat duties. From there, they crossed the fleet and had an easy lay to the top mark and an all the way victory. Sandy Higgins and Paul Marsh, the local boys sailing Hawaii 5 0 and using a different mainsail, sailed brilliantly to work through the field and pull second place. Jan and Morten were 16th at the first mark, but were superior in all legs, managing to move up to 5th by the finish.

Race 8 was perhaps consistently stronger, but no windier than 12kn. After the gains made to the right in the previous race, a large part of the fleet favoured a late start for the second race, yet most of the guns picked an early to middle start and it was the right call. The boats that worked the middle left early popped out in the lead at the top mark. Leading the pack were the Super Danes. These guys have just not made a mistake this regatta. They have been sailing together for a while and have done 10 of the last 12 Worlds, nearly always in the top 10, but have never even won a Worlds heat before. A jinx they have well and truly broken now, at what many are saying has been the toughest, (to win) 505 Worlds in a while. Michael Quirk and Geoff Lange from Australia had their best race of the series to place second and Howie Hamlin and Fritz Lanzinger were third.

For the Funk Mobile, today was pretty good for the overall. We weren’t going real fast and had to work hard to stay with the fleet and took a few risks to score our results. The first race, we got a pretty good start in a clear lane, but eventually fell in on the boat below. We elected to tack and duck between 59 and 62 boats, (I lost count). This is often not as disastrous as it sounds. You are only giving up one boat length. Plus we were heading out on a lift, so thought it would pay off and it did. We managed to round the top mark 4th and with our lack of speed lost a couple by the end to pull a 6th. In the second race, we decided to change jibs to rectify the height problem, (which we did on the water) and it worked, allowing us to hold our lane, but I feel we were a little slower again. We started early and hit the lay before we could tack. Initially we looked the goods, but eventually the wind had to back and we had no more room to take a dig, so we rounded in the teens. We lost a few, we gained a few and ended up 16th, which slotted us into 7th overall. Hopefully we can maintain that position, as I reckon that is a pretty good result after 12 months in a boat.

On the funny side, I spent a bit of the layday with Kevin Taugher and Jon Bell from the US. Taught them how to play cricket, had a laugh or three and since then, I don’t reckon we have been more than a few boats apart on the water. Everywhere we go there they are, strange how that works out. Good though, because they don’t slam us and we don’t slam them. Speaking of that, we haven’t slammed anyone this regatta, it’s just not how we sail, but there is one little farker who slammed us non stop yesterday and I think their time has come.

Back to the overall, today's performances mean that the Super Danes cannot be beaten and they don’t have to sail the last race, but also, there is a shit hot battle for second, with two point separating three boats. Mike Martin and Jeff Nelson of the US are second, Howie Hamlin and Fritz Lanzinger of the US are third and local boat Sandy Higgins and Paul Marsh are fourth.

One race remains. The forecast is the same as today, so it seems likely we will have another friggin’ light seabreeze.

Stay happy

Jfunk