Dan Tucker reports on the Lay Day and Race Day 3

Dan Tucker reports on the Lay Day and Race Day 3

Greetings!

Yesterday was a lay day -no racing... We went out with Dan Fitzgibbons the Australian SKUD skipper and some of the other Aussies for a few drinks after racing on Tuesday. Maureen joined Dana and I in our hotel room that night, for a little relief from the venue. We got to check in with Trent at home, with a video call on Skype, which was nice.

We took a taxi cab tour of Qingdao to see some sights and went shopping. We had no English speaking guide, just some bi-lingual notes, so the sightseeing was a bit of a disappointment. But just riding around away from the heavily built-up and very commercial part of the city where the venue is was really cool, as was the local's shopping district. We were driving around in the back street of real residential neighborhoods, where the mix of old and new was interesting. The 'Very Famous Building' which cost 1 Yaun (about $0.80) for 3 of us to enter was a laugh. Cool old granite castle, but empty and run down. The view from the very top of the tower was pretty nice though. We also visited the Badaguan resort district, which as absolutely beautiful, and for some reason there were women in wedding dresses everywhere. We never did figure out why, on a Wednesday afternoon!

Riding is a cab is a white-knuckle affair!! Lane markings are merely suggestions, might as well not be there, including those for the oncoming traffic. No such thing as a stop sign. Total anarchy at traffic lights, which apparently merely control the crossing traffic -they have zero impact on drivers turning left or right, not even yielding to those with the green. Pedestrians are brushed back as if they don't exist, yet they walk straight out into traffic. Crazy stuff, and very scary, even for an ex-New Yorker. Heck, the Chinese cabbies make NYC taxi drivers look like absolute pussycats.

Today was Race Day 3

There was very little breeze -a long postponement ashore for the sailors, but we had to board the spectator boat at the appointed time, no matter what! We went out, toured the coast to the east of the course, and floated for a while until the sailors were sent out. The spectator boat crew generously decided to keep us out until the finish of the race, much to our surprise!

Conditions were very light and shifty. The SKUDs got off and USA looked pretty bad shortly after the start, 6th or 7th... At the first windward mark, the American flag spinnaker was hoisted in 5th, behind Great Britain, Malasia (!), Canada and Australia. Across the reach leg nothing ever changes, though USA & AUS closed on CAN, but on the run, GBR gybed at the mark, while others extended, with USA going furthest to the breakwater. Malasyia rounded the gate first, with the 5 lead boats all bunched up. In the light shifty breeze, things were mixed up on the 2nd beat, and GBR regained the lead, with USA still in 5th. Ugh.

The 5 leaders converged on the 2nd leeward gate in very light breeze, gybing through huge angles -it was tough to tell who was gaining and who was loosing. I think all 5 boats were overlapped as they went through the gate and turned left for the short reach to the finish. As it shook out, GBR won, Maureen and Nick had positioned beautifully and took 2nd, with CAN and then AUS. It was a nailbiter to watch!

So currently USA leads with 7 points, followed by Australia with 12 and Canada with 13. While Maureen and Nick are opening up a little breathing room, there are still as many as 5 races to go, so it's not over yet!

John Ruf had a 7th, but beat Paul Tingly from Canada to take the lead in the 2.4mR Class!

Unfortuantely, our friends Rick, Tim & Bill on the Sonar had another tough race, and are in 8th place, 25 points out of first, and are likely out of medal contention.

Three races scheduled for tomorrow...

USA! USA! USA!

Thank you for your ongoing support, and thanks for reading!