4-30-16 Racing

by Pam

It was a Biblical kind of day … the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away … the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Except for Sandy who must have said:

Sandy dominated the day with 3 bullets. At lunch he shared that the difference for him is that he’s lost some weight and he has become religious about strengthening his knee. The nationals are going to be really competitive. We are going to have so many good sailors on the course. Should be fun to do duty and watch the show.

We started Saturday with coolish temperatures and a little overcast but the sun was supposed to come out. The wind was from the North with those little fingers of wind such that you lifted up one side, sailed through the narrow finger and then got headed on the other side. Maybe a better sailor can keep tacking and stay lifted but I opted to just sail through the fingers. There was no copying anyone around you because everyone constantly seemed to be in different wind, even if they were just a couple of feet away. What a challenge.

I thought I’d sort of gotten the hang of the North wind again when it threw a curve ball and went light and fluky. In the third race, there were lulls, holes, super tiny bursts and wind coming from every single direction with multiple auto tacks and gybes. Thankfully, Paul and Doug shortened the course and put us out of our misery.

But, the sun did come out and the sail back in was positively glorious. Just lounging in the tub of the boat, soaking up the sun and enjoying the day.

So Doug was on the committee boat taking videos. When we stopped for lunch, he said he would have done a debrief with me between races but there was just too much to talk about. He says I have really good “wasted” speed. The first race ended with a photo finish between me and John for 3rd place that neither Paul nor Doug could call. So, they decided to post the video of the finish and let people vote. Cast your vote for third place … was it me, John or maybe even Gary?  Below is a various video of the sailing on Saturday with the photo finish somewhere close to the 3 minute mark.