Early Season Flying Circus Results

Just as we did last year, Flying Circus came out of the gates strong, winning the first race of the season. A bit of a fluke, this one. A big shift at the start made it a two leg reach and we happened to be in the right place at the right time. In two other races on the first Wednesday night we scored 6 and 2 out of twelve boats and we were second for the night.

On the second Wednesday the wind was light most of the day and so I wasn't expecting what we got on the race course, which was a northerly that built to 20 knots. Unfortunately for us our regular trimmer was not around and the backup I had lined up forgot. So we sailed in heavy air with 3 female crew and me, about 200 pounds underweight. Laurie O stepped up to trim, but not being used to the position and being 6 months pregnant, it was not an ideal situation.

Nevertheless, we salvaged a decent night. We were 7th of 13 in the first race, and would have finished much higher, but for a horrendous spinnaker wrap at the first rounding at which we were 2nd. With even stronger winds in the second race and without sufficient time to change down to the jib, we managed to pull out a second. I'm not sure how, but I'm sure we weren't the only boat feling challenged by the conditions. We finished 4th for the night and after two weeks, we're in third, tied on points with the second place boat.