The results are in! I will start out with a congrats to the Saints! As far as my sailing is concerned, it went as follows: The day started out with light winds and a lot of sun - something we have not seen in the bay area for awhile. Unfortunately, because it was Super Bowl Sunday, a few of my fellow competitors decided to sit on the couch and watch the game, leaving us with only 18 boats on the starting line. My official scores were all over the place and consisted of an 8th, a 3rd, and an OCS (I will explain later).
First Race: 1-5 knots of breeze, 65 degrees and flat water. I had a decent start on the middle of the line and took a flyer out to the right-hand side of the course in an effort to gain from the building wind and favorable current. This worked out and I rounded the top mark in 4th. On the downwind everyone, including myself, was struggling to keep any forward progress due to the wind dying and the current sucking us in the wrong direction. Somehow after 45 minutes of several very awkward body positions and holding off a lot of attacks, I rounded the bottom mark in 3rd. On the last leg, the right side did not pay off like it did earlier in the race and I found myself in a three-way battle for 6th place. Unfortunately at the finish line all three of us were within an inch of each other and I ended up getting 8th.
Second Race: 5-8 knots of breeze, 68 degrees and flat water. I had a great start at the boat end of the line! I rolled over the top of the top three guys in the fleet and made my way to the front of the pack. I worked the fleet extremely well using my right-of-way to force my competitors to the wrong side of the course. I rounded the top mark in 3rd. On the downwind I sailed extremely aggressively and worked my way into the lead. At the leeward mark there was some congestion from slower boats of a different fleet. I ended up making it through the congestion only to end up in a tacking duel with the 2nd place boat. My intention was to keep him behind me to solidify my 1st place. 3rd place was very distant and I was in good shape... suddenly, the wind shut down on the former favored side that I was on. Somehow two boats that were fighting it out back in the pack got some crazy shift that launched them into the front. I finished the race in 3rd, 15 minutes after 1st place. Crazy wind this time of year!
Third Race: 4-6 knots of breeze, 58 degrees and flat water. I started on the boat end again! I thought I had a great start: I had two boats between me and the race committee, with both of the boats way over stood (over the starting line early). At the starting gun, the race committee called out a sail number which was the boat closest to the committee boat. I did not hear any other numbers called. I yelled up to the committee as I passed them to see if my sail number was called over and they said no... so I kept sailing. I worked again on my fleet management and forced a majority of the fleet into bad air. I rounded the top mark in 5th on the downwind, hit the turbo button and worked my way into 1st place. By the time I got to the bottom mark I was fighting off the 2nd and 3rd place boats. As we rounded the mark I went on the defensive again and covered one of the boats. This was my downfall yet again! I became too focused on my competitors and wasn't focusing on my boat speed. By the time I finished, I was yet again in a pack of boats! I got the short end of the stick and finished in 5th place, so I thought... Upon my return home I looked up the results online to discover that I was scored an OCS in the race. OCS means that I was over the line early at the start of the race. No big deal - I will use that score as one of my throw-outs. For every seven races I get one throw-out.
To sum it up: I did okay for the conditions. My tacks were the best ever, my mark roundings were smooth, and my fleet management is getting better! My results did not bump me up into the top three overall in the series like I planned. However, there is still one more day of racing left in the series where I can hopefully make that leap or at least solidify my 4th place overall.
The defender of the cup was Alinghi. They are a Swiss based team that has successfully held the cup for ten years. Unfortunately for them they did not have as good of lawyers, sailors, and designers. Alinghi's boat was a 90' catamaran with a 190' tall mast with soft sails. There boat was a fast but with out the wing sail they did not stand a chance.
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