Dan Slater: Not a bad day at the office in the Finn Gold Cup

11:16 PM Tue 7 Jul 2009 GMT

'Dan Slater and coach sort out the issues between Races 3 and 4 at the 2008 Olympics' Richard Gladwell Click Here to view large photo

2000 and 2008 Olympian, Dan Slater, reports on Day 2 of racing in the 2009 Finn Gold Cup in Denmark

Not a bad day at the office today in very tricky conditions the breeze started in race 1 at about 8 knots and quickly built to 14-15 knots during the race.

I had a nice start and was able to go where I wanted but I put myself a little to much in the middle and a big right hand shift at the top of the first beat put me about 11th or 12th at the top mark.

After a really good downwind I rounded the bottom mark 4th which was good for a change. As I sailed up the second beat passed 1 more boat to round the top mark for the last time 3rd and that was were I finished.

Before race two I changed sails as the breeze was now a good 15 knots and my ultra light sail from the Olympics was now well out of its range. Thanks to Fletch the Australian Coach who has offered to take some gear in his coach boat for me I was able to have a heavy sail on the water.

Race 2 started off very unstable and we had a few really big shifts early in the race which sorted the fleet out quite quickly I managed to round the top mark in 10th or maybe a bit better and by the bottom mark I was in 5th or 6th. Up the second beat basically seven of us pulled out on the fleet and all rounded the top mark really close. The lead changed lots and we surfed downwind the waves in free pumping conditions.

At the finish 2 boats were just 3 boat lengths in front of a line of 5 of us who all crossed together. I finished 5th which topped off a really good day having won the day which moved me up to 3rd overall.

Tomorrow I'm told by the locals will be simialr conditions so it will again be about minimal risk for maximum gains.

Thanks for your support

Dan

Dan Slater
HIGH PERFORMANCE SAILING
+64 (0)21 555 356
[email protected]
WWW.HPS-NZ.COM

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by Dan Slater