"Many that are first shall be last, and those that are last shall be first" Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke
 
Kia Ora from San Francisco, enough of the Hippy stuff....
 
The Boys Fleets were divided today, all the Kiwis made the Gold fleet and we had first start after the Girls raced, starting at 2pm.
 
A beautiful day, warm and sunny, lighter winds early, forecast to be stronger at 17 to 22 knots but stayed under that but quite shifty with Max Flood current at 12.30pm.
The left was always going to be favored as the current starts from the shoreline and works its way outward.
 
After a couple of General recalls the Gold Fleet got away. Taylor started by the boat and the others were further down the starting Line and difficult to see from where our boat was stationed. Taylor had a great lane but tacked back to the right into better breeze ...but more current still flooding in. It didn't pay off, he was deep by the Top mark but the others had gone more left. Trent was out in the front pack but the other Kiwis were deep in the pack. Taylor worked his way back through the fleet to about 25th until the last mark, got caught in a sailors mainsheet rounding the mark, then tangled in another boat ....by the time they had got clear Taylor recorded his first ever DFL .....Dead xxxx Last!
Liam suffered a similar incident with a sailor trying to drive his boat straight over Liam, another tangle that cost Liam dearly.
 
Trent had another great race to finish 10th, Ryan 29th, Liam 35th and Keith 40th.    
 
The Silver Fleet really had some troubles getting away but eventually they did and the Gold Fleet lined up for the Last race of the day in a big Ebb, and stronger wind over current creating more waves for the down hill specialists.
 
The Fleet was a little more divided side to side, many sailors went right to take advantage of the Ebb current flowing out of the Bay. There were a few OCS's in this Start and the overall results reflect the fact that these have been taken out.
 
Trent was 53 before the OCS's removed, how the fortunes change....Taylor was 11th, Ryan 21st, Liam 28th, Keith 37th and Trent 48th.
 
The overall results so far are Trent 12th, Keith 15th, Taylor 37th, Ryan 39th and Liam 50th. The second drop (worse race discarded) kicked in on the 10th race and our boys have got their 'drops' in early. There can only be one drop in the Gold fleet so tomorrow will be an interesting day.  
 
Last day tomorrow, Silver Fleet sail two races 1st, then Girls and Gold Fleet. We have been promised a great steak dinner with the Closing Ceremony ...at this stage I am more interested in getting Taylors Tiller extension operable, broke again ...thank goodness for Duck tape on the boat so he could sail the last race.
 
As always, a huge thank you to all our supporters
 
Happy sailing
Rob Burn