Day 3

Day 3
Today brought similar conditions to day 1 with a shifty 12-16knots from the southwest. And though the current was pretty slack for race 1, it picked up to a significant level for the remaining races (almost directly against the wind). So, as there was no racing yesterday, the Race Committee set and completed their goal of 4 races in our fleet for the day…to sum it up, it was a long day!

We had a couple good starts today where we were able to get a lane soon after the start, which has been one of our goals we set before the event. In one of the good starts, we were able to play a few shifts on the beat, and round the windward mark in 10th. After a well played gybe-set to the favored side of the course, we over-compensated into the adverse current on our starboard gybe to the leeward mark and overstood. We loss a handful of boats, but still managed a decent finish (this adverse current on the downwinds definitely throws a curveball when sighting your laylines). Unfortunately we soon found out we were over early, BUT its not so bad as it’s a sign we are pushing the line with competitive acceleration.

Now onto our boat handling. It is definitely improving-we are becoming more comfortable with both the tacking and gybing(our tacks are now getting competitive with the top boats in the fleet). Further, our mark rounding’s are also getting cleaner. Now the frustrating part. Despite all these gains we have made refining our boat handling we have not seen major changes in our placement in the fleet. But, this is not a total surprise as Zach Maxam once told us that when you make gains inside the boat cleaning up boat handling you will not seen big changes in your position in the fleet. SO, we can not get too upset, but nonetheless it is a little disheartening.

So, onto Silver Fleet tomorrow. The forecast calls for more of the same, maybe a little bit windier. We are hoping we can continue our progression in the boat handling department, and combined with some good tactics perhaps squeeze out some good finishes!

J