Casey in Poland

Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yachtsman of the Year, Australian Laser Champion and all round good guy Brendan Casey is racing in Poland for the Laser Senior European Championships.
Here’s what happens…
According to Casey…

ON LOCATION

Day 1:

Gdynia, Poland hosts 2006 European Laser Championships. 137 sailors race on the Baltic Sea. Team GBR sailor Paul Goodison leads, Roop Suomalainen of Finland in second, and local Polish sailor Patrick Kuczys-Lutomski is in third. Michael Blackburn, best Australian in 13th. The conditions today were 6-8 knot variable sea breeze and the sea conditions were flat.

Day 2:

After waiting on shore for 6 hours due to no wind and passing thunderstorms racing finally got under way at 5:30pm. Conditions were great 12-15 knots of breeze and small sea state perfect for the laser to surf on the downwind. However the thunder and lighting returned killing the wind and the hopes of completing heat number 3.

Day 3

The lightest day of the regatta so far. 3-6 knots on a small sloppy sea. Today was my best race of the regatta finishing 9th. A far call from the first two race of the series. The differences was my starting technique.

Day 4

Light winds of 3-6 knots prevailed for heat 1 of the day. I finished 17 in the race but dropped 4 boats on the last lap as new pressure filled in. A nice 12-16 knot sea breeze developed for the 2 following races. Today a total of 10 hours was spent on the water. There is no sure thing as a comfortable position on a laser.

Day 5

European Championships concluded on a bright note with a 1st and 7th in the final two races. The conditions today were 10 –12 knots of wind and choppy seas.

I have finished 22nd out of 137 competitors.

Other Australians results were Michael Blackburn 15th, Tom Slingsby 20th, Ashley Brunning 65th, Josh Chant 23rd Silver fleet.

If you ask me if I happy with my performance I would say, that I have made significant improvement in areas of balance, trim and concentration in wind conditions of less then 10 knots.

Next regatta is the Atlantic Coast Championships at the Sayville Yacht Club on Long Island NY.

Click here to view results