Danny Rabin reports from J24 Worlds in Sweden.  His team includes Tim Healy, Moose McClintock, John Mollicone and Gordon Borges.  Photos © Magbus Grubb.

I didn't sleep well last night. I don't know if it was anxiety or the Brazilian barbeque that Mauricio Santa Cruz treated us to. I had nightmares where the themes included Tim yelling about trimming the vang, and the Principal Race Officer, Peter Reggio, explaining to me that we were going to race on Saturday as well.

As expected, it was on the lighter side when we headed out to the race course this morning. It wasn't particularly warm, but I decided it was time to sail one day without thermal layers. The current was ripping North to South, and the committee boat needed a stern anchor to try to hold themselves back against it (it didn't really work, but whatever). Basically, if we finished in top 12, we would clinch the win, and wouldn't have to sail the final race. The fleet had it's customary general recall in the first start attempt, and the race committee went to the black flag. There was another general recall, but the RC nailed 5 boats under the black flag, including the 5th place Argentinians. On the third start attempt, we were conservative in the middle of the line, and as it turned out, too conservative. The left side came in hard, and we were never able to break into the single digits. Ian Southworth's team from Great Britain finished 3rd, and we were 16th (greater than our point total for the regatta up to that point). Now we were faced with a scenario where if they won the final race, and we were 14th or worse, we would lose the regatta.

We once again had a general recall in the start, and the committee went to the black flag. It was a 2 boat regatta at this point, so our strategy was to find Southworth at the start, and stay with him. We actually lost sight of him during the pre-start, but at two and a half minutes we spotted him up near the boat. We locked on to him, and chased him down the line. We started just to weather of him, about a third up from the pin, but with a comfortable lane. The two of us were able to sail out to the favored left side, and by the first mark, Southworth was winning the race, and we were third. Nothing changed on the first downwind leg, and on the second beat, the spacing was such that Southworth just couldn't push us back in the fleet. In fact, we gained a boat, and headed into the final leg in second behind him. We held on, and are now the J24 World Champions!

My hat goes off to Southworth's team - they had to win the last race to have a chance to topple us, and they made it happen. Fortunately, the breeze built significantly for the final race, and we have really had a boat speed edge in these conditions throughout the week.

The awards ceremony is in a few hours, and we are enjoying some Croatian beers in the meantime. I'm really grateful to all of the positive thoughts and support that many of you have voiced in response to these email reports. I am totally spent, and quite content to hang up my gear for a while, and coach the Brown Sailing Team in a few weeks.

There should be some good team pictures soon, but these are the best I could find for now: