Nationals Wrap Up

Nationals ended with no wind on Saturday. There was a teaser wind that had us all put in and most go sailing, but I never even bothered to raise the sail.  Full results will be posted soon at http://www.mcscow.org/.

   Friday was the last day with enough wind to sail. It would have been a good day for a sail. But was a terrible day for racing as the wind never bothered to settle. We had one race that was started with a pile up at the pin. There were lots of shots from the west so I wanted to start near the pin and go left as soon as I could. I was near the pin but not within the pile up and started on port like 80% of the fleet. I tacked as soon as I got a header and went left.  I tacked a few times more but was soon laying the mark so I did not want to go further. That was actually a mistake. I still rounded 16th at the windward mark. The wind had shifted to the west at this point and so we had to beat from the mark to the offset. Two boats connected masts and I had to avoid them. I actuall gained and rounded the offset around 12th because of that fiasco. The leg turned into a reach and I went high because of this.  I am terrible at sailing reaches and just found myself getting passed left and right.  Half way down the leg the RC announced that they were going to shorten the race and finish every one at the gate.  I guess they felt they did not have the time to reset the course.  With all the boats that passed me I finished 23rd. 
   This set off a huge contreversy on shore. Lots of people felt that the race was not fair. The RC decided that abandon the race. This led to a protest being filed against the protest. The result of the protest was that they felt there was no basis for abandoning the race, or something to that affect. I felt it was a bad decision to finish the race. They should have either abandoned or reset the course.  It shook up the standings a bunch. It ended up not affecting my results as I went from 19th to 19th. 
   The regatta was a success even though the wind did not show up as well as we would have liked. The food and comraderie were excellent. I hope we get a chance to hold Nationals again if the North East region grows some more. 45 boats is small for a National Championship regatta for our class.
   MC sailing is coming to a close for the year. I have a few more weeks of pleasure sailing and I might go to one more regatta at the beginning of October. That would be the Cowan Scowan Regatta. I have gone there many times and it is fun, though it tends not to be a very competitive fleet. The top 5 are competitive but it falls off quickly from there.