OPERATION - BLING - COMPLETE

Finals day, was hot on the water and hot in the tents ! The dogfish team and J19's got close but not strong enough in the V12, the 1500 metre final was 7th placed, an achievement to be top 8, but the boys were disappointed.

It came down to the 500 metre and i have to tell you that the official DVD coming out of the day better have the start that the boys had in the clips because by all accounts they were smashing the field at 200 metres. The Tahitian top ranked team in lane 1 got a fright i bet at the 250 metre to see the lane 5 (dogfish team) giving large for the finish line. It was a tight finish but the top ranked Tahitians pulled it in the last 20 metres. Dogfish had no idea what the position was. Shaun ran down from the admin area having confirmed that there were 'no infractions' that the official posted placings were correct and the decision final. Dogfish second with a time of 1:50 some 1.7 seconds behind the Tahitians, what a moment.



There was some confusion when shaun put up one hand with two fingers showing shouting "TWO" then to enforce this lifting the other hand up with two fingers shouting "TWO". The more intellectual in the crew thought Shaun was indicating 4th place which was feasible. After some brief shouting exchanges and confirmation that they were 'blinged' the relief and joy exploded on the boat. Operation BLING - Complete.

I've been waiting to post this with pictures, but damn it everyone shot off !

Brett had to shoot through before the medals to catch his plane back to Hawaii then on back to NZ, so Shaun stepped in to take one for the team and collect Brett's medal. So all the pictures of the Silver medal dogfish team will have Shaun and not Brett in, its official Shaun is the 7th member of this crew, much like George Martin was the fifth Beatle. The medal ceremony was teetering on becoming a bit of a joke, but the emotion and pride and buzz was all there provided by the large NZ contingent.

We had a few beers and back slapping in the hotel pool, non man love I have to point out. Then out to Historic Folsom where we had some early causalities (no names).

Sunday was a quite affair of contemplation and a sinking in of what they had achieved, a good buzz was around or was that the snoring ?

The crew split, Brett gone home Saturday night. Brad and Dan took the Vegas option (nothing to report). The remaining fellas went for a quite meal down old town Sacramento; Hoff, Carl, Rob and Shaun. On Monday those four travelled to San Francisco, we dropped Carl and Rob off at the largest swankiest Hilton hotel ! photo's coming we hope and Shaun and Hoff went back to NZ.

So there is one post to wrap it up, this will occur when we have all the photo's in.

It's been emotional, its been education but most of all its been brilliant.