Laurie and I raced this night, so this is more 1st person rather than the 100ft level I usually give as Race Committee. We left the dock later than everyone, but still got out in time since Carrie was doing a good job of trying to square the course. We shot the line – boat favored. Then we ran the line – 34 seconds. Our plan was to start at the boat and we knew we had 30 seconds to play with on the line. We didn’t win the start, nor did we lead around the windward mark. Sharqi beat us and left a gap as they rounded which we promptly sailed through. We defended our inside advantage all the way down the leeward leg and rounded ahead of Sharqi but we over stood our tack and Sharqi tacked on the layline and were beating us to the finish.
A little front came through between the first and second races and we actually had a breakdown on our boat causing us to miss the start entirely. We were very lucky that RC called the whole race back. We stayed calm, feathered a little, tightened the main halyard, jib halyard and outhaul to make our sails as flat as possible and got ready for the second start to the second race. We did well on the start, but where we really made huge gains was on the downwind leg.
When a puff hits you want to stay in that puff as long as possible. The puff lets you sail faster so you want to keep the boat in that puff as long as possible. So when the puff hits you turn the boat down with the puff to stay in it. When the puff passes you come up to aim right at the mark – or above- to keep good boat speed. The goal is to keep the boat speed high and stay in the puffs as long as possible. The extra distance sailed is more than made up for by higher average boat speed.
What results is the S curve you see above with the boat sailing high in the lulls and down in the puffs.
Come on out to our Sunday and Monday races at the Annapolis Sailing School. They are great fun and you will learn a ton.
Here is the link to the pictures from the race: https://photos.app.goo.gl/opscHViHABkJMgQR7
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