Nikola Girke's Page

Today was a pretty hard day....the wind had changed direction and came more from the south, which is straight off shore from Portland, a big headland/mountain/island. Thus, the wind had to maneuver it's way around it, making it very inconsistent - both shifty and gusty ranging from 8-13knots.

In both of the races today, I had great starts. In the first race I was able to play the wind well and turn that start into a 3rd place finish. In the second race, I also had a great first upwind leg, roun… Continue

Although today was moderate breeze (well, anything from probably 11-16knots), it felt like it was light air. Anything compared to yesterday would seem light and powerless. Needless to say, today's racing was a bit more tame. We had 2 races in these "marginal" wind conditions where one can sometimes get planing while other times you needed to sail with the daggerboard down and rail the board. To plane, you need enough wind to be able to sail on the fin only and you go fast, although the angle you… Continue

The wind hasn't eased off for days now. Yesterday's practice race was just a taste of what was to be the first day of racing. The boys started racing at 11am while the girls start was at 1pm, and it was windy! Solid 25-30 knots for the first race and even more for the second. The girls fleet was split into two, thus we only had 29 boards in each fleet. The first day is done and luckily I am still alive to tell about it!

My start to the first race was horrible. I don't know what happened but som… Continue

Hi from Weymouth/Portland, England.... home of the 2009 RSX World Championships and what will also be the venue for the 2012 Sailing Olympic Games.

I've been here for a bit over 2 weeks now preparing for the World Champs which start on Friday the 4th. I've finished with all my preparations and am ready for tomorrow's practice race. Surprisingly, it's been windy for almost all of the training and sometimes too windy to sail. The other day it got up to 40knots.... The wind is supposed to stay aro… Continue

Hello again....sorry I haven't been in touch lately, but it's been all go!

At the end of June, after Kiel Week in Germany, I flew home very briefly before I headed to Toronto to coach at a Development RSX Clinic for a week. I too was able to sail with the two development guys (and not just coach on a coachboat) as well as two of the Canadian Sailing Team guys as we were lucky enough to have a coach from Royal Canadian Yacht Club to run drills and do video footage of us. Although I had just come… Continue