Day One:
8-15 Knots of breeze, and a strong flood tide. The first race of the day was the one of best races I have ever had! I had a decent start on the middle of the line and decide to tack on to port right away in search of stronger breeze. It worked! While the rest of the fleet was drag racing to get to the city front to get some current relief, I was sailing in stronger breeze. I did not want to get to much separation from the fleet so I tacked back onto starboard and made my way to the city front. To my surprise I was in the lead! Shortly there after I got involved in a tacking duel with Steve Bourdow (2 time Olympic medalist), in the process Several other guys caught up and began to challenge for the lead( 2 world champion sailors). Not good... Now I was sitting in fourth place and not liking it! Some how I managed to get back in the groove and was able to get back into third place by the top mark. On the run down wind I was able to stay right on the heals of the first second place boats. On the last upwind I made some good tactical moves and was able to jump into second place! On the final down wind I sailed my butt off just to stay close to Steve, only to just miss first place by a boat length. This was my best race ever because of who I was competing against, where I was racing, and how I was able to make some great tactical decisions, and keep the boat in the groove. The rest of the day I sailed consistently in the top five but on the last legs I managed to loose a few boats, to finish the day in a solid 6th place.
Day Two:15-30 knots of breeze with a strong flood tide and a ton of steep chop. It was typical city front racing! After the start everyone would drag race over to the city front and and short tacking back and forth with in 10 boat lengths of the shore until you decide to make a break for the weather mark. It was pretty much follow the leader all day and try to keep the boat upright. In these conditions I still have not figured out how to consistently stay in the groove and I end up struggling to keep the boat going. By the third and last race of the day it was blowing in the high 20's and low 30's, after several high speed crashes while trying to avoid other capsized boats I decided to retire from the race, not wanting to risk myself or my boat. In the end I finished 8th out of 17 boats which was not to bad considering I had to use my throw out for the last race. My training partner Drake finished just ahead of me in 7th place and of course Steve Bourdow managed to win the regatta with Tracy usher in second Followed by Peter Vessella in third.
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