L'orient inshore race today - 2nd
Overall placing in the Tour - 6th
'We've now pretty much passed the half way point in this race and its been as competitive and challenging as I expected. We've had some great results, some average ones and only one shocker, so pretty consistent all in all which is the key to doing well in this race. What we need to do now if to convert a few more top results to move back up the leaderboard.
Generally the team is happy with progress to date. To do well in this race you need to keep fresh, ideally rotate team members a bit and keep the energy levels high. The leaders so far have demonstrated a better knowledge of the French coast and seem quicker in the lighter breeze, we have not been able to do any sail development and that shows up in these tricky conditions.
Our strategy going forward is to keep consistent, still aiming for the top results obviously. It all looks pretty light going forward but with less tidal influence which is good. The racing has been ultra close, all very exciting.
The Omani guys on our team have doing fantastically well - from learning to sail earlier this year, to now competing internationally, in a really tough event is a steep learning curve for anyone and they are doing really well and making a great contribution to the team.
Thinking ahead, the new class M34 for 2011 is going to be great for this epic event. Perhaps in the first year there will not be so many boats but it will be good for newcomers like Oman Sail to get a jump on some of the teams that have been doing it in Mumm 30s for 10-15 years. The Oman Sail new boat should be ready soon and we will bring it to the UK and get stuck into training as soon as possible.
But for now, we have the 2nd half of this event to tackle and our focus lies on the racing ahead. Time for a few hours kip now after this morning's race before we dock off at 2000 hrs this evening and head to Talmont St Hilaire for the next stop.
Robert