I Jinxed Us (not)

After scoring 2 bullets in the racing on Saturday, I thought it was going to be easy to win this regatta, and though win we did, we had to work hard to do so. We sailed three windward leeward, twice-around, 1.7 mile leg races in 10-15 knot SSW breezes. We scored 2-3-2 in three races on Sunday and beat the 2nd and 3rd place boats by 5 points. Three different boats took bullets on Sunday – Denali, Bad Apple and Second Chance. We were in close contact at the finish of all three races and missed out on the bullet of the last race by less than 2 feet.

The winds were directionally fairly steady with shifts rarely more than 5-10 degrees. It was one of those days in our venue where, because of tidal current, it paid to go right in the beat, especially in the first two races. We figured this out after the first beat of the first race where we managed to round 5th (last). We picked off one boat in the first run by throwing in a couple of extra jibes and getting into some stronger breeze. We picked off a second boat at the leeward mark with a nice tight rounding and a third boat on the second beat by catching a favorable shift. Only Denali was left in front of us and we could not reel them in on the last run. They beat us by about 3 boat lengths.

In the second race, Bad Apple got a fantastic pin end start, crossed the rest of us on port tack, lead us all out to the right corner and did a great job of covering the remainder of the race. Again in this race, I think we got a little too far left on the first beat, given the current situation. We were third behind Bad Apple and Denali.

We started the last race with Denali 3 points behind us and Bad Apple 4 points behind. If we scored a 5 and Bad Apple won or a 4 or 5 and Denali won, we’d be out of the top spot. So tactically, our job in the last race was to sail fast and, if possible, stay in a controlling position relative to Denali and Bad Apple.

We got a good start with Bad Apple below us and Denali on our weather hip. Denali tacked to go right about 150 yards from the start and we tacked to cover shortly thereafter. Bad Apple followed us over. Denali tried to shake us loose with several tacks on the way up the beat, but we stuck with loose cover and kept control of them. Bad Apple was focused on 2nd place for the regatta and wasn’t taking any risks. Rather than break out to one side or the other, they basically stuck close to Denali and us.

Second Chance did go deep right on the second beat and this did pay off for him. Although we crossed him coming back from the right by about a boat length we didn’t think he was on the layline. We went beyond him by about 2-3 boat lengths and tacked. He managed to pinch up to the mark and get in front of us. We had a duel downwind with Bad Apple on both our heels. We almost caught by the finish; they won by about 2 feet. Of course, now that it’s too late I can think of two or three things we could have done to get by him. Those have been logged into the memory bank for next time.

It was a great weekend – beautiful weather, excellent crew work and 1st place!