To the best of my knowledge (as of March 2007), there will be no FF Open meeting for 2007. I will confirm this in the near future.

Detailed below is a brief account of the FF Worlds seen from a DRSC view.

Firstly, we had 5 boats competing in the main fleet, and one in the Silver. We also had two more DRSC fleet members out there supporting, taking pictures and having a good time.

The scenery was beautiful, with sufficient wind to sail every day, and towards the end, a quite strong breeze. There were massive shifts to be had, some so large that they abandoned the races, and it almost always paid to go out to one side or the other, though it was much harder to know which side would pay. I still have no idea! One side paying up the first beat didn't mean that that side would definitely pay up the next! It also didn't always pay to just tack on a shifts. Somehow the really good sailors still managed to end up at the front, at least most times, which means that luck was not that important.

Key moments from a DRSC point of view were:

1. Steve Douthwaite and Paul Averely finishing 6th in one of the races. To quote, "once you got to the front it was surprisingly easy to stay there". It was an outstanding achievement, and given this was there first really major competition together, they sailed really well in in all the competition, and only a few points behind Tony Lee.

2. Tony Lee and Chris Hough should have been 5th in another race. They were in the first 5 till half way up the last beat of that race, and only dropped back as a result of a major shift / dying of the wind that in other races would have resulted in them canceling that race. Tony was also the first DRSC boat home, with a creditable 36th overall, and showed none of the problems he had in the UK with lack of boat speed.

3. Athol King and Trevor Bellis had a very good Worlds, going well in both the lighter and heavier stuff, and finishing inside the top 40. It was most impressive, all the more so as they didn't have a good pre-worlds, but somehow managed to turn it round.

4. John Hardisty got bronchitis, which stopped him sailing in the preworlds more or less, and probably did for his & Roger's chances in the main event. They did sparkle in a couple of races in the Worlds, but not enough to save them just being last DRSC boat.

5. Simon Robinson & Dave Vasey had a great first pre-worlds race (8th), lovely to see all those kites behind you, but after that it was downhill, and counting from the back, not the front. We actually did quite well off the wind usually, but not enough to make up for problems at the start and upwind.

6. Giles Passmore and his son in law had a great time in the Silver / Classic fleet, and he permanently had a grin on his face when ashore, and probably on the water. A pleasure to see anyone enjoying himself so much.

Talking to other competitors, the all important thing was to start at full speed, preferably across the line without being seen. Keeping the boat driving through the short disturbed chop was also very hard, and unless you were at the front of the fleet, you were always in messy wind, and also disturbed water.

I also heard another competitor say that it didn't feel like a Worlds, more like a holiday. Sounds good to me. The organized socials were fun, if a tad disorganized (that's part of the holiday appeal), and there was always loads of food. I particularly enjoyed the paella evening. The socials amongst the DRSC group were also great fun. If like me you had high sailing expectations, the racing was always going to be painful some of the time, but it was a real privilege to sail there, soak in the atmosphere etc.

Hasta pronto