A year after starting the build, I finally get some bullets!

The boat went really well but I was a bit rusty:

Race 1 started in about 4-6 knots, and I was starting with Pete (in AUS 9) a bladerider, about 7 finns and 6 OK dinghies. I shot out to an early lead despite feeling like my pointing was a little low and soon had about a 2-300m lead over the fleet. However I sailed into a hole on the right of the course and rounded the top mark behind several of the Finns. I overtook the Finns on the reaches of the first triangle but on the 2nd upwind leg I had a shocker and let all the Finns and nearly all the OK’s through on me (basically I just parked in a piece of glassy water). I caught all but 1 of the Finns and ended up crossing the line 10 seconds behind him. In those light and flukey conditions the speed difference upwind between a Finn and the IC was small – I would accelerate quickly but stop quickly while the Finn would point slightly higher and maintain momentum.

Race 2 was a windward leeward 3 loop sprint race – I had my racing brain in gear this time and had a few more knots of wind (it was now about 10-12 knots) – I hit the start line with good speed however I missed a lift and let the fast finn pip me at the top mark. Again sailing the angles downwind I had him at the bottom mark and then just powered away from him (like an IC should). Once the IC was planing I found I was pointing as high as the finn and still footing fast. On the second loop my rudder popped up and I sailed one long tack to the top mark with it not in the water – but by overstanding the mark I gave myself enough time to push it back down, tack and sail to the finish.

It was great to get some bullets, and I now need to spend some time in the boat getting back up to speed – it will always be tough to win on YS on short course racing but I was pretty disappointed with 19th and 15th respectively overall (http://www.yachting.org.au/site/yachting/results/adelaidesc/2009/club/north/singlehanded/series.htm )– the only small positive on my results is that we have some hotshot laser and Finn sailors at our club at the moment.

On the boat: the boat felt great, but in the light stuff I was using huge amounts of Cunningham to get the battens to pop (infact after stuffing around releasing and tensioning the Cunningham – Iended up just racing with it on). Next week I will fit the other set of battens Lindsay sent to me.