Volvo

It’s been a good week for sailing in Palma with a successful regatta.

The week started with some really strong off shore shifty winds, peaking at over 30 knots. As the week progressed the sea breeze became more dominant. On day 2 and 3 we had a race in the morning in a 16 knot decreasing offshore breeze and then a race in 10- 12 knot sea breeze in the afternoon. Gold fleet racing was dominated by unusually shifty sea breeze conditions.

In the strong winds on day one I lead the first race to just miss out on the final beat to take 2nd, after a mistake at the start of race two I had a massive comeback from the late 20s to 7th

Paul in the Laser Richard Langdon/ Skandia Team GBR image

On day 2 and 3 the results settled with a string of 1st despite a bit of a back injury. Physio flash did a great job of piecing me back together each day.

Tom Slingsby was all so putting a good set of results together as we seemed to swap yellow and blue jerseys each day.

After the gold fleet racing was complete only 2 points separated the top 3, guaranteed a medal it was all down to the medal race to determine the colour.

The sea breeze developed for some nice conditions on the final day.

I watched the radials finish their race giving me a clear plan of what I wanted to do. After a good start I lead at the top mark with a good few boats between me and the other medal contenders. After a safe run I split on the second beat from NZL to loosely cover the guys I needed to. I was second around the top and with a comfortable lead it was wrapped up, for a relaxing final run.

To see high lights of the medal race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzM_TkvRs6A&feature=player_embedded

For results see

http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/result.php?miclase=Laser%20Standard

Its great to have performed well under the pressure of such a tight medal race and come out on top

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at with my sailing right now as I head back to Weymouth to fix my body and get ready for Hyere, France at the end of the month.

Follow Paul and Team Volvo for life on Facebook www.facebook.com/volvocarssailing

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