Langkawi Vice

"So, are your kids in this flight?", Gerard Koeppel is asking the friendly officers.

This is our spectator/fishing boat

Mohammed's ark and fishing boat...(that's him waving in the back behind Gerard)

day two...

The US turned it up today. Duncan won race 4b, pictured above crossing line (pardon amateur photography by the blogger). Richard had the best US day, with an 8 and 7 (results now posted: www.optiworld.org/MiniSite/results.php). Chris had another very good day, Wade also a good day, and Harry finally broke through with a good finish in race 5.
Racing started an hour early (10a), we thought to take advantage of stronger breeze earlier in day. In fact, it was to get two races before Muslim sabbath observance. The kids sailed in from the race course around 1p, in the strongest breeze we've seen in nearly 2 weeks. The breeze during racing was 8-12kn, again with considerable shifts. Course was reshaped for R5 to account for a considerable right shift. Courses in general have been well-shaped, perhaps a bit shorter than might be expected for this level of competition.

day one...

have not seen full results yet (nor been able to watch tracking) but the best US performance of the day was by Christopher, who spent much of the day looking back at competitors. Christopher had two top 10s and a 15 (or so) in three races with typical conditions: light air, shifty, and current (strongest on right side of the course, especially adverse in R1). 3 relatively short races: R1: 8-11kn (35 mins), R2: 6-10 kn with left shift, R3: 2-12kn, with the first flight getting the 12kn beat in a rainstorm. R2c and R3c were both shortened to end at the gate, which denied Wade especially an opportunity to claw back on a second beat.
US parents were out in a typical local fishing boat "chartered" for the occasion (a picture forthcoming tomorrow), allowing us to get relatively close. early start (10a warning) tomorrow (presumably to get the morning breeze before it burns away)

Opening ceremony

On stage at the opening ceremony

the boys with their new wives, a Langkawi island honor for visiting sailors

practice race and opening ceremonies

the practice race was preceded by a rainstorm with some (but not a lot of) wind. lucas and other teams decided to use the course but start in a group after the official start, which made for a much better (rule-abiding) practice race than usually happens at international events. the breeze had typical shifts (at one point, boats on opposite tacks on opposite sides of the upwind leg were sailing 180 degrees from each other). wade and chris had the best race, but for all the learning continues...
off now to the opening ceremonies...race 1 tomorrow!

Some pics of our day off, visiting the Eagle and swimming in the pool in the Westin