Apex and finale
The beautiful world championship venue of the coast of el Balís showed promising conditions during the days of training with winds picking up during midday. We were impressed by the international competition and were satisfied with the promising conditions. We went out for a day of training, then we worked on our boat. The next day we had to go through measurement and on day three we participated in the practice race, organized by the race committee. Our stay meanwhile was some 50 km away from the Harbour which meant half an hour drive to and from the harbor. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the stay in Barcelona and the possibilities to cool down the body temperature in the ocean.
The Series started rather poor for us. The conditions had already returned to weaker winds during the training race, but continued being weak during the championship. We struggled with the conditions but noticed flaws in our starts as well. We could not achieve the high goals that we set, which continued throughout the three days of fleet racing, resulting in us being in emerald fleet. Now we were fighting for a position in the second half of the competitors. The only thing that motivated us was the fun of sailing, experiencing the 29er skiff community one last time and watching the gold fleet on our course. We also saw many other teams who had previously done well in international competitions do poor in el Balís as well, which kind of cheered us up.
Although we had hoped our last dance would look more glorious, we can look back at successful years in the 29er skiff. Leander has spent three years and Amal 5, racing this magnificent, growing class. During our years we learned so many valuable lessons for sailing and our life. It was a great journey, which we could not have imagined to be better. Now we are looking forward. Looking into the future, our eyes filled with motivation to conquer a new class, the 49er skiff. We are excited to take our new boat for a ride and unleash our full potential in the next fast and furious skiff.