The Saga of Team San Diego at Cowes continues...

Day 5

We could not have gotten more things wrong in one race if we had tried. We thought that by hitting everything in the Solent on day two, we would be clear now. Apparently, if the wind blows from the north/northwest it is not only gusty but shifty too. We got the course down and focused on the
current, forgetting about the shifts and got WAY out of synch on the random leg courses. We also got creative with our rig tune and I think we took our rig out of column- also not fast. We are surprised to find out we are in 12th and only drop one place overall to 6th. The highlight was the humor we found in yelling “starboard” to a boat with UK Deaf Sailing on the side. I know it’s not PC, but we were laughing at ourselves! We also managed to hit bottom again in another epic tacking battle up the shore to get current relief, but again at least the boats near us also hit bottom.

Class 0 (including all the really fast boats) did a 70 mile course yesterday and the other classes did really long (5+ hours) races. We sat at the Island Sailing Club deck and watched and some very spectacular down wind finishes and some creative douses in the 20+ knots wind.

One of our new friends Kit Rogers is on an IRC 46 (designed by brother Simon Rogers) that was splashed only a couple weeks ago. Really hot boat we got to take a tour of yesterday. There are so many boats here on the docks, that when we decided to take a tour of Yacht Haven (where a lot of the hot boats are) we could only choose where to start based on where to start by where the most carbon in the sky was!

Day 6

Has started with two postponements… and ended with them abandoning our race as it got too late to starts us. The wind is coming straight into the harbor and I think the hundreds of boats that are on moorings are almost
impossible to get to in these conditions. Also, several hundred small boats short tacking out of the harbor seems a bit dangerous in 20kts.

It is really breezy out of the north with big chop coming into the harbor and cold too. We spent the morning all sitting around listening to Cowes Week Radio on the FM interviewing Maximus skipper before a round-the-island record attempt.

We then took a stroll down the promenade to watch the big kids start. The shore-side activity is incredible- I had assumed that when 8,500 sailors left the docks things would die down but it was just the opposite… all afternoon there are hundreds of families milling around shopping, eating and
watching the races. I guess this is what people who don’t piss away their vacation days going to regatta’s do on holiday! The RC ashore is cool with the PRO and his team all in the castle-like Royal Yacht Squadron and the coolest onshore sailing job ever... the flag-dude (I doubt that is his
title) below them on the promenade who also reloads the cannon that go off. He was totally unflappable in setting the flags for all the 38 starts and getting the cannon reloaded as well all the while, being watched by thousands 5' away.

We then retired to the Island Yacht Club deck to eat and watch 100’ Maximus smash the Round the Island Record by almost an hour. Sitting there on the crowded deck with a ham and melted cheese baguette and a pint of beer watching the sites, I thought, what an awesome day… hundreds of boats racing in the Solent and in the middle of that, Maximus sailing through to set a record. Cowes is an awesome place… it’s almost a sailing overdose(if there is such a thing)!

Off to yet another party... I think it's the Sonar Class party at Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club but I am starting to loose track!!!

Cheers,

jefe