Offshore of Durban:
On the first day of the Marriott 2025 Mirror Worlds hosted by Point Yacht Club offshore of Durban, Paul and Polly Changuion are leading the leaderboard. The fleet set sail as the clouds were rolling in and the breeze was building. Race Officer, Kevin Bingham, set a windward leeward course with competitors needing to complete two laps. In the first race, the wind was sitting at 18 knots gusting 25.
Paul and Polly Changuion had a good day, getting separated from the rest and maintaining a good start. Howard Letoto and Hayden Miller were right alongside them, and they kept ahead of them. At the bottom mark, Polly and I got ahead of Howard, and on the last beat, we were dicing with Howard and exchanging positions. Howard came second, but it was really close.
Catching up with second placed, Howard Leoto, who is competing in this seventh Mirror Worlds, shared that today's sailing was incredible. They started right on the pin and tacked quickly after the start and got a massive lift on the left. They rounded the bottom mark still in first, but Paul was near them. On the last leg, they pulled the spinnaker bag back and all of a sudden, the spinnaker was all over the boat, so they lost some ground and Paul managed to pass them.
On the last beat, they focused back on the race and caught up with Paul. He then went to the far right, while Polly and I stayed a little bit longer on the left. When he came back, he crossed us by half of a boat length, less than five seconds ahead of us.
For the first time sailing in Durban, David Meehan earned a third spot on Day One. He and his nephew and crew, Henry Olsen, arrived from Perth on Saturday. They had an interesting day, getting used to the boat and conditions, and finished third.
Kevin Bingham made the call to can racing due to the strong wind at the start of race two. Day Two of the Marriott Mirror Worlds is expected to get underway at 11am with a south westerly forecast at around 7-11 knots.
