Race 2 & 3

Raceday for March 5th dawned and we all awoke to fairly clear skies and a breeze of 5 k out of the SE.
Some confusion as to who is going to be committee boat for the day gave us a late start but with the sun being out this did not matter. Spellbound managed to get the course organized, marks set and all was good.
Course was set as 3A x2 for all Divisons and off we went. First start for us was a late one but we managed to not fall too far behind. Lots of "tactics" were pondered in the cockpit and it was decided to stay right as we had a strong ebb current ripping at 90 degrees through our W/L course.
Some tacks later we went around the top mark as last boat in Div but not far behind, opted for a gybeset and off we went. Turned out to be the right move, gained lots of ground back on the way down. Some traffic at the leeward mark kept us a bit to the outside. Again top mark gybeset and back down we made up more ground, but in the end could not get Jabiru and Danu coming in from the pin end and crossing well ahead of us. We were hopeful as we had timed about 66 seconds behind Jabiru in a 56 min race, very close - too close to tell who had his nose ahead.

Second race was much of the same. Same course, same laps, same wind, but the current had come to a near standstill halfway into the second race. Start was much better this time around, calling Jabiru up at the line, who in the end did go up as he needed "time and opportunity to turn" delayed reaction on Jabirus part as well as our part for not getting that little red thing out of a pocket. 2 well sailed laps with exceptional crewwork followed, in the end it was enough for a 3rd place finish.

the numbers:
1 sat spent sailing
2 3rd place finishes
5 kts consistent breeze out of SE
6 awesome crew
8 degrees C
18 sec separating 1st from 3rd in race 1

Check out the video from the day:


Our friend Arnie from EX, J/29 brought his GoPro HD out and put another neat video together showing the events from his perspective.



Cheers!