Sailing for Second

  If the first few races this season are anything to go by, then I will only be sailing for second this year.  There’ve been 7 races, and I have sailed in 4.  I missed races 2,3,4 for Memorial Day. I could only commit to one day of sailing that weekend and I sailed on the wrong one.

  Sunday of Memorial day looked like it could be great, but the one race we got in was a mixed bag of shifts, no wind, and where did that huge puff come from. From what I was told, Monday was a great day of sailing.  The next weekend we had light to medium winds for three races.
  I had a decent start in race 1, but the wind shifted and died and it was a drifter to the first mark.  I did not play what little wind we had very well. At one point there were 4 boats in front of me packed near the mark.  One boat got away, then another, then another, and then the next boat quit.  Each boat that ended up rounding was more than 200y apart from each other.  The order was fairly set for the race.  I quit going around the windward mark the second time as I just didn’t feel like sailing any more in drifter conditions.
  The next three races I sailed in were a reminder of when not to tack. Basically don’t tack when you have no speed.  At the start of the first race last Saturday I was second row, so I tacked away.  The wind went lighter on that side and so I tacked back, but I had no speed. That threw me into 4^th place quickly with basically not much room to catch up.  I did end up passing Steve Bender for 3^rd, but only because he didn’t cover me and banged the other corner on the last windward.  Race 2 was a much better start and I was not that far from Scott Norris at the top mark. But going around the leeward mark, Scott and I headed right and the wind died down again.  I waited too long to tack and Brent, who tacked right at the mark in good wind, passed me. He might’ve caught Scott if he didn’t come back to the two of us.  At that point I just could not get close, Brett was just faster than me the rest of the race and pulled away. Race three was a fun race.  The wind came up a bit so that we needed to depower the boat.  I had a good start and rounded a few boat lengths behind Scott.  The rest of the fleet was far enough behind, I didn’t worry about them.  I was able to catch up to him at the leeward rounding, but he was still ahead.   A couple of good tacks later and if the last shift I tacked on lasted I might’ve been able to pass him. As it happened he was able to lee bow me and stay ahead right to the finish.  I can take solace in that I made him work for that win.

  I bought a GoPro, but I have yet to get the accessories I need to mount it to the boat. Sometime in the next few weeks, maybe I can upload some footage. It would be neat to look at.

  It’s weird not going up to the lake twice a weekend.  I miss sailing the bigger boats, but this year is not a good year for racing twice each weekend.  There may be a few weekends I can do it, but family is a little higher priority this year.