No worries. At work with my laptop and mobile card. (Must Net has been blocked for us). Service keeps cutting out every minute or so, so is tough to keep up.

Wind shifting all over the place from 255 at race start to 307 then 76 during the race. Now currently at 123 @ 5.4 knots. Race still Postponed

Course E bouy data - http://afqx.qingdao.gov.cn/english/fbz.aspx
Make sure you change to station E at the top.

Stars and Tornados have been canned for the day. They didn't get a race in at all. The were 4 legs into their first race when they got a big windshift and they were all carrying their spinnakers to the windward leg. They will be pissed .... spent all day on the water and didn't get a race in.

Layday tomorrow, so pretty sure they will be racing.

Forecast for medal race day on Thursday is a bit better I think.

They will race 3 tomorrow, expect 11.00am start.

This wind was predicted. A bit more breers how iteze tomorrow but still light. Breeze for the medal race is looking very good.

Show the 49ers how it is done on course A.

http://windguru.com/int/index.php?sc=37855

http://www.windfinder.com/forecast/qingdao

Yep, official that there will be the medal races for RSX Men at 13:00, then the Women.

Tornados and Stars have 3 races starting at 11:00am

One

Seriously - the NOR says one race will constitute a series... How is that for faith in the selected venue?

I haven't spoken with PU (or anyone else there), but none of this should be surprising to anyone familiar with major events.

The one race minimum is a pretty standard thing for most events in general, helps with Murphy.

If you look more carefully at the Olympic docs (NOR and SIs), it's pretty obvious that they really wanted a minimum of 6 races for the "opening series" leading into the medal race. They are willing to extend all schedules until this is met, and have provisions in case it can't be met.

With a major wind shift part way through the race, you either do nothing, abandon it, shorten it, or change the course. At this level of the game, decisions are not typically made without consulting with the Olympic reps, judges, etc.

Since they were past the 6 race minimum (implied), there was no compelling reason to continue the race, if shortening or changing were not feasible (due to the location of the front and back of the fleet, etc.).

Mike

Just a litle note - there is no provision for shortening course like we have in club racing. Removed so that you can't have a local race officer shorten course when your team is in front. What the race officer can do is shorten the length of the course and indicate C-.

Public service message for fellow Canucks: Olympic coverage can be had on CBC Bold (who knew there was such a channel?) I can PVR the medal race. I guess I should have sent the email complaint to CBC sooner <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

BTW, currently showing on CBC Bold: Whale Music: "Quirky tale about a burned out rock star who retreats to his Pacific Northwest estate to compose a symphony to play for whales". Again, who knew?

Al

Wow, I've actually seen that movie...when it came out in theaters.

Race 8 finished (11 kts)...ARG wins, GBR 2nd, NED 3rd, FRA 4, CHN (!?!?!?) 5.

CAN down in 12th. USA DFL.

Race 9 just started. ESP 1st to top mark, CAN in 2nd place, GBR then USA 22 seconds back.

The Aussies need Argentina to do well in the next couple of races. We can't afford for the spanish to get 20 points up on 3rd place. Also the aussies are still carrying the lowest drop so it would be tempting to stow the spanish down in the next race. It becomes a question of gold at any cost or happy with a medal.

CAN dropped to 4th at first gate...and clawed their way back up to 2nd on the last leg...just 33 sec back of ESP. BEL has dropped out after first downwind.

ESP take a 7th and a 1st
AUS takes an 8th and a 7th

ESP go to a 7 point lead over AUS.

If ESP take any more points out on AUS..... the medal race will be tough for AUS.

Race 9:
ESP
CAN
GBR
GER
AUT
GRE
AUS
ITA
ARG
FRA
NED
CHN
UKR
USA

CAN now provisionally back in 9th overall with one race left to sail to get in the medal race.

Net Points after 9 races:

Crew NOC Net points
Fernando Echavarri
Anton Paz Blanco ESP 28
Darren Bundock
Glenn Ashby AUS 35
Santiago Lange
Carlos Espínola ARG 43
Iordanis Paschalidis
Konstantinos Trigonis GRE 48
Mitch Booth
Pim Nieuwenhuis NED 48
Johannes Polgar
Florian Spalteholz GER 49
Francesco Marcolini
Edoardo Bianchi ITA 52
Leigh McMillan
Will Howden GBR 54
Oskar Johansson
Kevin Stittle CAN 55
Xavier Revil
Christophe Espagnon FRA 62
Carolijn Brouwer
Sebastien Godefroid BEL 63
Roman Hagara
Hans Peter Steinacher AUT 63
Pavel Kalinchev
Andriy Shafranyuk UKR 88
Youjia Luo
Xiuke Chen CHN 88
John Lovell
Charles Ogletree USA 99

At this stage is it worth match racing the spanish down the fleet?

If the Aussies and Spanish came last and ARG first you'd end up with

ESP 41
AUS 44
ARG 44

I think I'd prefer to go into that medal race than

ESP 30
AUS 36
ARG 46

Big risk though if it does not come off. Would need to drive ESP down to the last couple of spots in the fleet to make it worth while. I think they should just cover them at the start and try to keep them behind them. Not let ESP take any more points out on them. They do not want to tie with ESP after the medal race also as ESP have 4 bullets.

Ok thats a better start

ARG 3
AUS 4
ESP 7

I have no finger nails left.

painfull isn't it

spain down another spot