| Race
Report Fore! Vince Brun and Brad Nichol fill us in on their day at the OCR. The day started out looking like a good day for golf. The two forecasts that we received included terms like "light and variable" and "the bay will glass over." The race committee postponed on shore and we were left to sit in the hot humid parking lot waiting for wind. Against all odds, a sea breeze began to fill and the race committee sent us out to try for a race. After a few hours of bobbing around in light air, the wind filled in enough for a race around 2pm. Vince and I were in the blue fleet again and were the first to start. The pin was favored and the sky was clear on the left side so we decided to work the left. Things happen in slow motion in light wind and the calamity at the pin was a long way coming and we could not avoid it. Three boats in front of us were over the line taking our air and one boat next to us was trying to go back to restart. By the time we cleared ourselves from the traffic jam things looked bleak. We stayed focused and were able to find some clear air up the first leg and made it to the top of the course in the middle of the fleet. Down wind the fleet kept sailing high of the course to the leeward mark fighting for every bit of wind. We were able to keep clear and pick up a few boats. At the leeward mark we were working hard to stay ahead of a boat that was close behind and were late getting the boat ready to go upwind. I was very close to turning our brand new jib into a handbag but was able to correct the situation with a quick jog to the bow to clear the tangled sail. The botched rounding forced us to sail to the right side of the course and half way up the leg there were two miles of separation between the right and left side. At this point a large shift could have shifted the standings significantly but in the end, we all came to the weather mark about even. The final leg was more of the same battle for clear air and we held our position to finish 7th, a great come back after a difficult start. Tomorrow looks to be similar to what we ended up racing in today with a light to medium sea breeze. Tomorrow is the final day of the "qualifying series" and after tomorrow's races the fleet will be split into gold and silver for two days of racing before the final medal race on Saturday. Cheers! Vince
& Brad
Headache Cheers, Vince
& Brad |