Beautiful  morning, sun shining but still windy on the Bay.  The girls had a late start due to the grand masters race commencing first thing, so after breakfast it was time for for a leisurely bike ride down to the boats, passing all the morning paddle surfers with a pod of dolphins around them.

Guess what? We saw an Aussie parrot, it was ‘down under’, no really, i am not joking, it was hanging up side down!

The girls continued to get indepth tuition whilst observing the Grand Masters racing, Particularly on the intricacies of trimming the sails. There was also a lot of discussion on the sea breeze here vs. what the girls are used to in Denmark, where we determine the sea breeze via the clouds.  Here it is different, the sea breeze develops when the air is being warmed over the land and this happens on both sunny or cloudy days.  Not least, an additional complication of the uneven height of the coastline, which challenges the wind strength constantly when they are out racing.

There is a quick turnaround when the grand masters come in and the girls have to modify the trapeze harnesses, check the rigging, etc.  We noticed a problem with the rudder and had to move quickly to rectify it, luckily we had Sarah Turnbull to help. It’s amazing to see all 56 boats, crew, etc., fight through the surf and out to the racing field.  Its crucial to time the waves, they work to a four wave series and you have to time it correctly to be sure you can safely get through the surf.

The girls had a great start on the first race, third off the start line and were 9th overall, absolutely brilliant..  Second race a little, slower start with the winds picking up to between 24-26 knots.  Several boats in the grand masters had already capsized today the girls were 15th in the last race. So overall the HobieGirls were in total 18th out of 27th.

The Youths had a superb result with Daniel Bjørnholt, and Felix winning the Youth World Championships. It was super impressive, not least because Felix had never sailed Hobie before and they had never sailed together!  Trine and Nicolaj, also had a good result coming in 6th place, so a great result for Denmark overall.

The winner of the Women’s World Championships were Bella Zanesco and Jessie Dobie of Australia.

Although the winds are strong, the sun is even stronger and we have to be very careful with sunscreen, particularly the sailors out on the water, some have already learnt the hard way.

The girls now have 3 days off before the semi finals and I will be on extra guard duty, because this is when things go wrong with them.  We continue to have problems with keys being mislaid, sorry Yoanna, you again and Michala, forgetting to register the boat, each time before the racing starts.

Don’t forget to check the blog tomorrow to see what they have been up to on their day off!

P.s Michala has lost the bloody keys again..

Blog writer: Kirsten Larsen – Photos by: Kirsten Larsen & Michala Brincker – Web & Design: Michala Brincker. Thank you to Hobie Australasia for letting us use photos from the prize giving.