Finally Two Races Under my Belt

Well the most I can say about my performance today is that I got two races under my belt, and that is a good thing. I hate to keep harping on the weight issue, but it got me again today. Even though it was only 15 with much lighter spots, on the reaches I was hiking as hard as I could and was still getting passed. I spoke with Steve Cockerill today and he is the same height and weight as me, and is sailing Radial. He said he is just too light for standard now.

For some reason this Race Committe is setting a very skewed line for all races, with the pin always being favored. I got a good start in the first race, pin third of the line, tacked to port, hit first shift and tacked back to Starboard, all in clear air and in a great position to the boats on both sides of me. It was very shifty, and I worked the middle, tacking on the shifts, I was looking solid, top 15 with about 200 yards from the mark. I had to take two hitches, and believe it or not, I lost about 15 boats in those two tacks. Very frustrating. I was able to pass a couple boats downwind, went for the left gate, and went back upwind. Tacked on the first shift and worked to the right side, which was a mistake. Rounded the weather mark around 30th and promptly lost two boats on the reach. Held on the downwind, and reach then on the short upwind, I thought was able to cross a Swedish boat, but no such luck, he tagged my starboard quarter and I had to spin two turns and finish, losing even more boats. Ending around 37 or 38.

Second Race again line skewed, started well on pin third of line, but for some reason could not find a clean lane. After several tacks to clear my air, I was hung out on the left side, not where I wanted to be. And sure enough, in comes a massive right shift, and with the boats on the right side making the mark on one tack, I was very deep. Naturally the RC was unable to change the trapezoid course, so we ended up with reaches instead of runs, a run instaed of a reach, and a one tack to the weather mark. This made it impossible to fight my way back into the fleet, and ended up deep once again. Not what I wanted, but I did get in two races today, and had a wonderful reach into the club planing all the way.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday are looking like lighter days, which should help me, although the lulls with the chop and waves today was frustrating. I hope it flattens out a bit if it does drop. Now that I am firmly entrenched in the silver fleet, it is time for some fun for the next three days. Let's see how I can do in the light stuff.

This will be my last major (heavier air) regatta I will sail standard rig. I will be moving to Radial after this, mostly because I would rather lose a little weight than try to bulk up. Unfortunately with all the light air we get on the Chesapeake, practicing with the Radial is difficult. I will do frostbite in a Radial this year.