3'rd in the Marathon
1'st in the Slalom next day.
Here is what Jesper had to say:
"First off all, respect to all sailors finishing the 2011 LOC race. It
was indeed hard conditions out there.
The day of the race started up good, with a solid sea breeze kicking in.
Choice of weapons where the Xfire 102 or 112 and KA Koncept 7.5 or 6.4.
For me the race is a lot about comfort over the distance, so I was
pretty sure to use the 102 board with a small 30 fin. 7.5 were the
right choice as well.
The start was not too good, so I was catching sailors on the first leg
out. At the first mark I could only see Dan Engdal who got the best
start and then Bjoern chasing him in front of me. On 2'nd leg I passed
Dan and could see Bjoern was not going as deep as we where, so at the
2'nd mark Bjorn was just 10 m from me ( he already jibed).
From then on he gained some distance and I was sitting in 2'nd. I
looked back to insure nobody was catching up from behind, but didn't
right away spot Chris Lockwood who past below me,,, So from then on
"our battle began" (as many times before)
I managed to just pass Chris again after fighting very hard, over 1
long downwind leg, and even gained a little distance. Enough so I
thought "OK that should secure 2'nd place for me",,,
Straight after I catapulted over a chop,, and went hard down on the
boom and heard this crack noise from the boom head and sure enough I
broke the plastic and shredded the boom head line. I thought for sure
the race was over for me!!
But some how I managed to water start, with the boom now sided all the
way down in the boom cut out and only holding itself together with a
2mm shredded line and wobbling like crazy. I still can't believe it
hold together to the end,,
Chris past me when I was laying in the water. I did manage to get up
fairly quick and decide to give it a "all or nothing" to catch Chris.
I actually caught up with him and wondered why he's jibe "was so wide
and slow?" (but later discovered he had the back problem). My jibe was
just as lame as I didn't wanted to "push" my boom to explosion,, so we
ended out side by side,,
On the last leg towards the finish I eventually past over the top of
him, then we had to point upwind a bit to make it to the gate and my
"low setting" boom was just so inefficient pointing and I could hear
that Chris would come around me and he did. Think we even hit each
other in the process, as I tried to push him high,, he he
Pretty stoked to make the podium and in the end very lucky that the
boom held up."
Next day we had 4 rounds of slalom and I used the Xfire 112 with 7.5.
Great and fun racing and I ended up winning it.
Jesper
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