Saturday, September 5, 2009

Day 4

This was my best day of Laser sailing ever!
A 15-20 kt sea breeze greeted us for our early 12:00 start.
In the first race, I got a good boat end start when the early arrivals accelerated and left me a nice hole to sneak into. A shout out to my friend Bill Miles for giving the boat end tip. Going fast and high I sailed over a couple of boats before tacking away to the right. When I tacked back I was all alone and saw the top mark at about 2 o'clock, but still a long way away. I thiught I was looking good until I happened to see the fleet rounding a mark well to leeward. My top mark was the bottom mark of the full rig course set up well to weather of ours. Damn!

Bore off and rounded 2nd from last. Worked my butt off to get back to 30th, my worst finish so far.

Second race I watched Ted Morgan in the AM fleet bang the left corner and not pass many boats when he came back on port. Also, the breeze was at about 190 and the local scuttlebutt said the seabreeze was usually from the southwest. Seemed to me that there was a possibility for a righty. So I did another boat end start, this time a German boat wouldn't let me in so I was behind him and had to tack immediately to clear my air. I kept going until I was well to the right side, all alone. When I tacked, the compass showed I was lifted 10 degrees and the entire fleet was behind me! I rounded first (what a kick!) and was able to keep my lead to the leeward mark. After a mediocre rounding and a so so weather leg I lost a few boats. Had trouble holding off the to guys downwind, and faded to 7th. Got my top 10! Whooeee!

The blast reach back to the club was fabulous. What a day on the water! Radials rock!

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