We arrived to a great warm weather which was thoroughly misleading as the temperatures dipped after the second day to hover around 18 degree celsius. Half the regatta consisted of strong winds above 20 knots and the other half was light. We didn’t mind the strong winds and big waves (>3m) but the cold… thats horrible!

A couple of mistakes in the race strategy and it’s execution towards the end of the regatta cost us some points but the crucial thing is that we know we will not be making the same mistakes again come year end.

We finished the regatta with the Bronze medal. Racing was delightedly tight and it all came down to the last race to decide the colour of the medals for all top 3 placed boats. Racing in varied conditions of big waves, strong current, fog, strong and light winds proved quite an experience.

The team sitting around on a foggy day while AP was up

Installing new Zhik hiking straps

Our friend Seng Leong riding down one of the huge-ass waves

Launching off a wave

On the podium

Monkey face

Another podium finish for us

Team photo after prize presentation

But the real experience for most of us was the little village where our ‘hotel’ was located.

'He Gang Cun' - The village name

The houses in the village

Another house

The locals get their clean water from these water pumps installed outside each house. Seemed like a step back in time where taps weren’t invented yet.

Every house's water pump - Their source of water

Another house's water pump

Village Center

The local wet market

Now, we’re glad to be out of no-man’s land in rural China and onto Perth for the next part of our training & racing over Easter. Coming out of the racing at the ASC, one thing we know for sure is that we have risen in our level of sailing. Hopefully, we’ll still constantly keep climbing up on the learning curve.

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