2002 DM: race 6

The line is set and the start sequence should begin soon.
..

(l to r) Messrs Fogh and Bjerregaard, Per Christoffersen with Joakim Gundel (4633)
and Jacob Kragh Knudsen with Peter Kirkegaard ...
..

... run back down to the Committee boat.
..

Bo and Thomas (2042) check out the leeward end of the line while Leif (8420) may
or may not be aware that Mogens (4645) is coming along on starboard tack.
..

Looks like Leif made it across Mogens OK.
..

All that fun stuff on Fru Larsen's transom is good reading but only before the race!!
..

(l to r) Jørgen Vekslund (1741), Flemming Nielsen, Gunnar Kondrup, Mikael Mogensen (5559) og John Friis.
..

Mikael (l) and Esben keep a good eye open as the start nears.

No start photos as "my" photographer was busy sighting the line, etc. To the best of my recollection, Anders and I checked out both sides of the course at some length and decided that middle right seemed to have the best possibilities for wind. After starting well at the RC boat end, we followed our game plan but once again the boats that went extreme left - Poul Ammentorp, Joel Bøgh, Steen Schubert f. eks. - did very well. We avoided a pretty large mess at the windward mark by overstanding slightly and made it back up into about 12th place. The extreme back in the wind direction that had blessed the extreme left boats had also made the short spi reach to the "gybe" mark very close and we picked off another 2 or 3 boats by holding off on the spi and sailing high. Being outside at the gybe mark was no real disadvantage to us since we had already decided that the recent wind shift would have changed the first part of this leg at least, into a broad starboard tack reach and that we would not gybe. This strategy worked well as we passed a boat or two that "blindly" gybed at the mark.

Steen og Carina Madsen looking good in Mammut as they near the leeward mark as part of a sizeable group
fighting over 5th place behind Anders Friis, Poul Ammentorp, Stephan Nandrup-Bus and Søren Jonasen.
..

Two more from that group: Steen Schubert (10249) has nicely waited until he reached the "two-length circle" before dousing his spi so that Per Larsen (9733) will not be entitled to room at the mark even if he gets an overlap now that he is taking Steen's wind. Per will have to be careful to keep clear of Steen who will be moving very slowly around the mark.

Free-flying spi as Whistle comes in from the outside. Although we didn't pass many boats on this run,
Anders' fine spi work moved us to within "striking position" of the whole group fighting over 5th as we started beat #2.
..

Steen og Keld rounded 5th(?) but came out of the rounding very slowly.
..

Per Larsen and Steen Ammentorp (centre) on the other hand, stayed far enough away from Steen Schubert that they were able to round with lots of speed and point high enough to cut off Steen Madsen (left). Uncle Al (right) meanwhile has kept up his speed by going low around the outside.
..

Steen Madsen bows to the inevitable. He puts the helm down and tacks away from Per Larsen to get clear air.
..

No pictures of the leader Anders Friis here who was too far ahead again. On the left (til venstre?) we see Poul and Irene Ammentorp in Woodie (239) who had, I believe, held the lead until right near the leeward mark. Til højre we have 3rd-place Stephan Nandrup-Bus just off Søren og Lise Jonasen's bow (4123). Both of these boats lost a fair bit by going right. Having decided to try the left (west) side which seemed to give more wind down the run, Uncle Al (9355) chooses to tack rather than try to "foot" past Steen Schubert to leeward.

Per Larsen does the same. Super upwind form for Steen and Keld in 10249 but they're headed off to the right side which certainly did not pay up the first beat - which admittedly was a few hundred metres to the east of this beat, but still...
..

Flemming og Henrik have decided to follow Steen og Keld over to the right side.