Krystal 5th @ Palma ISAF Grade One

Krystal finsihes 5th overall in her first ISAF European event

It has been a busy few weeks in Europe. After a very long flight from Australia I finally made it to the small island off Barcelona called Palma. All the different classes are scattered around at different clubs around Palma. The lasers were at a cute tourist town call Can Pastilla.

Yachting Australia set up coaching for the event for me with Fernando Alegre. He is a great coach who has helped me with boat on boat tactics and fleet strategy. I spent the regatta all ears on how to control boats around me.

The regatta itself was tricky with the first half of the event being less than 5knots. Palma this year left a lot of top sailors out of the equation as they couldnt figure out the conditions. The medal race was sailed in 15-18knots and confused sea. I headed into the last race in 4th place, 14points off 3rd and LTU 5th, FRA 6th on same points. Worse case serario i could have been 8th overall.

I didnt have the best start but played the shifts well to round 2nd at the top mark, on the run I was yellow flaged which meant I had to do a 360 turn. I rounded 8th climbing back to 6th on the next leg. On the last downwind to the finish I was flagged again.

I finally finished the medal race 8th which resulted in 5th overall. My goal of the event was to finish top 5. Aim number one is achieved, my next goal is to Podium in Hyeres. The next ISAF grade one is in Hyeres, France in two weeks time.
http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/events/hyeres-2012.php

The AST was very successful with the 470 men’s crew of Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page won Gold, with Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty claiming the Bronze medal in the Women’s Match Racing competition and Tom Burton finishing third in the Laser class.

Results
http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/portada.php