An interesting day at the canal. The conditions were very challenging with very strong winds only a couple of kilometres east of us.

The first part of the day we had a predictable wind with a very tight angle between 90/100 degrees. The wind was light with some gusts up to 30 knots being measured, but the lulls were impressive too. Everyone was on a 5.8/6.0 with weight and I used a 5.5 with weight. I was happy to keep up with the two big boys on this tight course and had the edge with 39 knots. People just congratulated me with the day prize when the wind shifted a little and it seemed to get a little stronger.

The angle appeared to be a little broader indeed at the startline. We were still able to sail up the course (the canal being 15 metres wide), so I guess the angle was 115 degrees at the most. Some patches on the course were 90 degree as well during almost every run. The wind fought all day between the strong Mistral (NE) east of us and the Tramontana (NW) west of us. We could litterally feel that effect on the course, making it the most technical day on the canal so far. I tried the speedboard with a 5.0 but the lulls stayed the same and it turned out I had to use a bigger sail to keep the momentum at this course angle. I couldn't keep my balance with the speedboard as well so I decided to stick to my slalomboard. My 5.5 was the biggest I had rigged since we were sailing in anticipation of the big winds and we're there for the record.

I checked the 500 metre times against the GPS once again and it turned out the biggest difference was my fastest run with a speed difference of 0.3 knots. The rest were varying between 0.2-0.0 knots.

Patrick Diethelm pulled away from us with an amazing 42.7 in these light winds. He sailed the new F2 missile XS which looks exactly like Finians' world record board but only a little wider. It has got a pinny tail and no cut-outs. It will be interesting to see if Finian and Partick will be a match. Patrick has gained weight and seems to be almost as heavy as Finian which is obviously an advantage to squeeze the last drop of juice out of each gust. I also heard Bjorn is still a MOS member instead of other messages, so if the wind picks up we will have three out of four of the fastest sailors who participated in Namibia last year.

We finished the day with the Italian crew. So both Andrea's and friends, thanks for this and see you next time when we hopefully get the battle of the giants in their quest for 50.