HARKEN ROund Robben Island Race -26th JAn 2013

The wind were forecasted to blow.. and this it did. We started with a full main and a J4, with a good start we were in the first few boats at the weather mark.. debate followed whether we should gybe and sail the lighter breeze or sail down the coast line. We decided to go for broke.. with the kite being hoisted it was twisted which we struggled to solve which had us lower to try and sort out.. (all this in 30-35 knots) once done we struggle to rehoist with it taking when halfway up.. almost immediately it power up and ocilatted to our weather side inducing a chinese gybe..(we were heavily powered) we managed to clear away quickly after this on the opposite gybe but the spinnaer was damaged which meant no more kite for the heavy stuff.. We had to be content to sai the downwind without a kite.. close to the island the winds died so we hoisted our light kite and then changed to Code Zero and then to J2.. The winds were light on the other side of the island occationally dropping. We managed well around the island but on the CT side it was still light and fickle with a nasty swell making it difficult to sail.. By this time we had done quite a few more sail changes.. We saw the breeze coming and prepared again with the J4.. Once in it, we realized the intensity and prepared to reef. We took longer then normal for this so it lost us some time. Once reefed the boat was happy again and we had a great sail back to te finish line. Unfortunately we did not fare well in this race.. with us coming mid fleet. Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Warwick, Tony, Sarel, William. Boat performed well... Torn spinnaker.