Medemblick and Kiel were just about a glance of the work that will have to be done to climb places in the 470 fleet! The worlds just conluded the eye opener. the challenge is massive but is also exciting as it allows me to upgrade dramatically my understanding of rigs and sails, understanding I can bring back into my coaching. And in the process I can sail, compete and enjoy the challenges of racing at such a level... Let say I am happy out despite results definitely not matching my ambitions. Hey! that is all about what I teach in dealing with ambitions and expectations...

Anyway, the worlds were VERY tough this year with long days in challenging conditions ( from 5 to 30 kts). Overall our pace upwind was fine and even pretty good at times. it is very much our downwinds that let us down big time with a few costly capsizes but mainly a major speed deficit and poor angles leading to poor placement decisions... Anyway let say we blew some good first beats as soon as we had to get the kite up... grr! Our qualifying series was well off the mark and we made bronze fleet with only 3 boats behind. The other Irish partnership was a little more comfortable and entered bronze inside top 10 of the fleet. The final series was very windy and both teams suffered gear failure, but on our side we managed to progress in the fleet and despite the frustration of dropping places downwind all the time, we finished with two satisfactory races (15th and 20th) climbing us to 30th in bronze (110th overall).

• 110th Barry Mc Cartin/Thomas Chaix (CSC, TBSC. KYC)
• 113th Rob Lehane/Iarlath Kennedy (RCYC, KYC)