Ryan Palk

Well my third laser radial worlds is now over. I started better than i finished but i still had heaps of fun along the way. Unfortunately for me my last day was one of my poorer ones, falling out of the top ten into twelth postion overall.  12th in the world is still fast so im happy.  Last years world champion, ben paton from gbr just beat me by 2 points on the last day, which was frustrating, but at least i was close.  Now that worlds are over, and im back at uni frantically trying to catch up wat i missed, i would ike to thank a few people and organisations that have been helping and supporting my sailing.  A big thanks to the Royal Queensland yacht Squadron, who have supported Klade and I for alot of our laser sailing endeavours, and provide a truly world class training facility.  The Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club who have also help us out since we were kids and continue to keep doing so well.  Our coaches, Scotty Sinclair, Craig Cobbin, Adrian Finglas andAB, constantly making us think about ways to go faster. Craig Keen from Noosa Life Fitness Centre and Jared West for all the mad tips, Mark Patterson of Patterson sailing for all the right Laser equipment and ropes, Danny Fuller, maker of the best carbon tillers in the world, Crank carbon tillers! Ronstan Marine for sailing hardware and deck fittings to keep the boat up to speed, and which all worked perfectly whilst i was away, Queensport marine, for the best most comfortable hikers i have ever worn, plus were perfect in any conditions the kiwi weather could throw at us! my parents for letting me take time off uni and being semi ok with that and supporting me, my sis cause she is cool and of course my girlfriend who lets me go to these places when she doesnt want me to!!

cheers guys

teams racing states this weekend, gotta qualify for nats!!

good sailing

ryan

me reaching

devo

Today was the fifth day of the Laser Radial worlds in takapuna beach, with a 20 knot Ne blowing in on the Hairuki Gulf most of the day.  Mike Leigh and Brad Funk dominated the day, enjoying the windy conditions.  Today I had a 16 and a 6.  First race was up and down, reaching about 10th at one stage but dropping to 16th in the final stages of the race which was dissapointing.  i recuperated for the second race however managing  a good first upwind and maintaining throughout  to finish 6th.  So all in all today was a pretty good day, my speed upwind was good by hiking hard and downwind was very fast when i was in sync with the waves.  Now overall sitting 11th.  Hopefully tomorrow i can get myself into the top ten with consistent races.  Conditions are forecast to be much the same so will be having a good night rest tonight and eating plenty.  So far racing has been quite good. Yesterday’s last race was not so good for me as a 40 degree wind shift hit the fleet at the start and i was on the wrong side of it.  I started boat end which was favoured however the shift along with not securing a clear lane because of some hasty port tackers, left me well near the back at the top mark.  I caught up to 37 however was still not a great race. All that aside, learnt alot about risk management and i certainly will look up the course alot closer before the start from now on.  Looking forward to racing tomorrow and finishing strongly at the 2008 Laser Radial Worlds

Good shot of klade and me on a reach

Getting out

Today was the 2nd day of the Laser Radial worlds 08, after medium winds yesterday, the breeze strengthened today, with the heavier full rig sailors dominating the race track.  Today i managed a 25th and an 11th.  Which is not really the greatest results.  I made a mess of the 1st race with an average start, working my way back, then to overlay the top mark then hitting a starboard tacker, thus taking a 720 penalty turn, i managed to catch up but not enough to get back in the top 20.  Second race start was also average, but with a good 1st beat and learning to stay away from  the lay, i was about 7th going round the top mark, i held onto 9th position all the way to the end until the last beat where i lost a few boats in the last stages nearing the finishing line which was dissapointing.  But otherwise, has been good fun, with some good rides and fun as racing!  It is very close racing at the top and the conditions have been fun.  Unfortunately i have dropped from 6th to 9 th place after today, but i feel i still can come back after today’s racing learning from some critical errors that i made today. 

 With four more days of racing left its important to stay consistent and keep having fun as the 2008 laser radial worlds unfolds, and hopefully improve as the racing goes on.  Hopefully will be able to keep updating blog, however maybe not as im using the club computer and its packed in tight.  otherwise hope all is well back home, so far having fun and learning heaps here!!

cheers

ryan palk

Well today we had our first two races. Both were held in around 5-10 knots with a large South swell. First race, started with a sandwich between boats, shocking upwind as result and never getting into phase. A bad result. Second race was a glamour start, first to tack off and leading for a while up the first work. However I should have consolidated earlier lettting a few boats ahead of me at the top mark. I sat in 12th for the bulk of the race until one mistake (falling out of phase for like 2 mins) lost me ten boats. Amazing the difference one mistake can make in this competition. Result being a 25th. So currently sitting mid-fleetish, tomorrow supposed to be 25 knots, which technically not really my conditions but we’ll see what happens… otherwise, looking forward to tomorrow and a nother interesting day at Terrigal.

Kiwi coach boat goes snorkelling.

Cheers

Ryan

Today sailing was nicer with a 10-15 knot seabreeze, and the sun finally shining at Terrigal.  The swell is still up and as soon as I slow down the seasickness kicks in.  However hopefully I can manage this with some Kwells that I got this afternoon.  Day 1 of racing begins tomorrow and all 150 entrants will set to course tomorrow at 1pm. I checked my centreboard in to get fixed up a little, as it has a few little chips and air bubbles, so it should be ready tomorrow morning.  Othewrwise jut chilling with Jye Murray and his family, who have nicely put me up in Gosford.  Looking forward to sailing tomorrow, hopefully will be great fun!

good sailing

Ryan

Last nights strong winds proved to be to much for the mooring line of the 2008 Terrigal Worlds start boat, finding itself beached just near the cliff in front of the club. The boat is a fair way up at the moment but the race committee brought in a bocat to trrey and dig out a start boat that so far doesn’t look to keen on being out there.

Today I went for a sail and I can see why. It was about 1 knot with 2-3m swell which made for a thrilling 20min session in which I got seasick. Still, a positive can be taken from this session as I learnt to now take a pack of kwells with me all the time, plus roll tacking, gybing and general pumping made for an alright physical and balance workout. At the moment the low that is dominating the coast seems to be staying put, hopefully a little more breeze tomorrow for the practice race will let us get under way with no seasickness and the start boat in tact.

cheers

ryan

Some of the lasers feel the wrath of the Terrigal pointbreak.

What? 2008 Laser World Championships, Last qualifier for the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Where? Terrigal, NSW, Australia

Who? Me, Ryan Palk, 19, 71kg Full Rig sailor from Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club and Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, QLD.

How did I get here? 3rd Australian at National Championships, thus qualifying for 1 of the 7 spots allocated to Australia for the Terrigal Worlds.

Why? This is the first time I have qualified for the Laser Worlds. With this year being an Olympic year also, the competition is as tight as ever as sailors battle it out for the last Olympic places for Beijing 2008. The current forecast is showing an East coast low or East coast ‘bomb’ forming in the Pacific between Terrigal and New Zealand, mounting strong winds and large waves for the beginning of the regatta. Some sailors have already tasted the bombs power, simply from launching off the beach, being caught out by the waves and snapping masts, booms and tearing sails. The next 10 days should be a very fun experience and I will try to learn and push the most out of myself, whislt 150 of the world’s best laser sailor’s battle it out on the Terrigal ocean race course. Will keep posts up as regularly as I can, for more detailed updates go to www.laser.asn.au

cheers

Ryan

Well the worlds are over, even though it doesn’t feel as though they ever occurred. It was quite a weird regatta with only 8 races being completed which was a bit disappointing.  I had a poor last day to drop off to 20^th overall, so still top 20 in the world but not that great…Beno had a poor day to drop back a few to 32^nd while Klade had an awesome race on the last day posting a 2^nd to jump from 40 something to 25^th! Good effort I say.  Also Tom, had some awesome races in the Silver fleet to finish 8^th.  So we all had our ups and downs.  Even though it is easy for us to say it was a crappy regatta and just forget about, I think it is important to use this regatta as a lesson for a lot of our sailing.  Struggling to get into the racing on the first few days, I lacked the intensity of the rest of the fleet from race 1, not wise in a regatta with only 8 races…  Another lesson I learnt this regatta is that this was a smart sailors regatta, not necessarily a fast sailors one.  With massive tides, massively tight mark roundings and fickle winds, the sailors who took calculated risks, putting there boats in the right places, and executed them properly were the ones to come up with the win.  I think I sailed too conservatively, not taking enough risks, or backing my judgement enough.  The one race where I was happy with my sailing was the last race.  Even though I was hammered off the start by a sailor who was OCS, and decided to come down on me, with his boom getting caught onto my boat, we both stopped behind the fleet at the start, in other words last off the line by a long way.  I sailed my ass off that race, taking risks I thought would pay and they did, passing 40 boats up to 19^th. I think if I raced like that the whole regatta I could’ve secured a top 5, but that’s another lesson learnt for next time…

Overall, this worlds wasn’t as satisfying as last year’s, but I haven’t learnt any less.  The racing was tight, and in some of those mark rounding’s I really feared for my fingers as 40 boats tried to get around a mark at the same time! The winner Ben Paton, sailed an awesome regatta as well as fellow Aussie James who took out 5^th, good work James! So all in all, I still had fun, the off-water side of the event was really well organised, and the after party fun! I can take the lessons and other experiences from this regatta and use them in the future.  Now, it is time for a little break in Europe, get rested up, and return to
Australia, to resume Uni, start bulking up for full rig! And start training for Teams racing worlds in September in
Spain.  The potential is intact, I still have to exploit it!!!

good sailing

cheers

Ryan

Top mark rounding

Burman riding through a fountain haha

Well, today we were suppose to have 3 races to make up for the ones we missed from yesterday, which were cancelled because it was too windy and the waves were breaking at the entrance to the harbour, meaning it was to dangerous for us to get out.  It was still a good day tho, chilling with the Aussie boys we went to subway, went bowling and into a few interesting stores!  Today, we end up only doing one race, and being out for 8hrs straight!  the breeze was strong on the way out, then dropped out completely, swung around and it just got weird.  I was in green fleet again with James and Tom, and our fleet was the last to start.   After waiting for the first 3 races to go, the breeze did some weird things, and the races that were on were abandoned.  Damm.  it had now been 4 hours out on the warer and still no racing as we waited for some breeze.  Finally, breeze came from the NW, at about 8knots, with maybe gusts  of 12.  The races took ages to start as each fleet black fagged and general recalled like 5 times.  Klades fleet, (red) had heaps of black flags, i think nearly twenty of the boats in the red fleet were disqualified before the race even began!  We finally got our first race underway at around 330pm.  I had a pretty good start near the pin end, and went into pressure straight away.  I was 5th at top mark and real close to the front.  I had a pretty good downwind to round in 5th with a little gap behind me.  Second upwind was not so good.  The breeze dropped out and swung around and i lost a few boats, rounding the top mark in 10th.  On the reach i lost another and fell to 11th, however i had a good final downwind and reach round the bottom mark in 7th.  The last short upwind was a killer.  the b reeze dropped out to like 2 knots, with about 4knots of tide.  All the boats that rounded the mark first got swept away allowing the fleet to sail up and inside them.  I lost quite a few boats in this last section, losing 9 boats in the space of 100m! So frustrating, but it could of been worse, the guy in first got worked and finsihed way behind me, felt quite sorry for him, as he had sailed so well the entire race to have it snatched away in the last 200m.  Because the waves were quite big for the breeze level, it was perfect sea sickness conditions.  Our Aussie mate Ben Price got real sick, chucking up real frequently.  In his race he was coming 3rd, however had to stop to have a chunder, which made him drop back too, felt sorry for old Beno too.  the last races for today were abandoned cause there was no wind, or not enough anyway.  A big thanks to the US sailing team for the tow in, cause i still would of been out there now!  Otherwise having fun still have climbed up the rankings  a little bit, not really worrying ab out that at the moment just concentrating on sailing well and putting together some nice races. Hoping for a fun day tomorrow too!  So very sore now, being in the same curled up position all day has left us with really sore backs, but we’ll be sweet. 

You just see my sail at the left! yippeee

Well today was the first day of the regatta. What a surprise it was windy haha. Not sure if it does anything else here. Tom Burton and i were the two Aussies in the green fleet, which had some of the most awesome sailors I have sailed against.  Anyways, solid 20knots coupled with big waves made for an interesting day, including plenty of snapped masts and epic capsizes!  My first race was okay, i think i got top 20 (results haven’t come out).  I was happy with my speed but not execution of simple things which costs me many boats, i was also taken out on the bottom mark in which i protested but that didn’t help the damage that had been done, damm! Will have to be more proactive to out of control sailors coming down waves from now on!  Second race was good, came around top mark in 5th with some real good sailors, had an alright downwind and next upwind until on the lay and on the last tack my mainsheet somehow got caught under my actual tiller??? never seen that before but it stopped me good, nearly capsizing in the process of getting it undone! however, i managed to free it, losing about ten spots, damm again…But overall, i was quite happy with the way i sailed, i felt as fast as the top guys from last year, which made me happy cause this time last year they would eventually sail away from me.  the fleet is really close, and their is some epic battles going on. Myself and James Sandall from NZL whom i tied with last year are always right next to each other, its amaxing that after a whole year of sailing we are still so close, we seem to push each other round the race track which is good.  Im not sure exactly how the other aussie boys in the other fleet went, but im pretty sure they had a good day.  Otherwise, everything is pretty good, all the boys are pretty sore now from today, meant to be even windier tomorrow!  had my last antibiotic today so hopefully I can battle the rest of the cough off myself, haha i keep donating quite a bit of flem to the ocean on the downwind runs! pretty gross…anyways, will work on these issues and others in the days to come, to make sure i can keep playing the game! 

good sailing

cheers

ryan