A Little Bit Better...
Two more races were sailed today on the third day of the Miami OCR. I was in blue fleet today and started first, sailing the outer trapezoid course.
After a few general recalls and postponements, our first race started at about 11:30. I had a great start near the boat and played a few shifts up the middle right. I did a good job of connecting the puffs and eventually consolidated across the fleet in first place. I rounded the windward mark in first with Jesper (SWE), Andreas (AUT), and Tonci (CRO) right behind. Those guys closed a little on the first reach and downwind, but I was able to pull ahead at the leeward mark and escape from the crowded mark rounding well. On the second beat I maintained a comfortable 5-10 boat length lead and rounded the last windward mark in first. On the downwind, Andy, Jesper, and Tonci went lower than I did and got some nice pressure to close the gap. The four of us were duking it out with someone pulling ahead a little and then the others catching up. Right at the mark, Andy pulled ahead last to round first. Tonci just got an overlap on me to round second. I rounded third and reached into the finish for a third place finish. While I would have liked to have won the race, I was pleased with my decision making and speed, and the race was a keeper.
In the second race, I had another good start at the boat and tacked quickly to the right. A lot of people tacked to port shortly after the start and the guys at the pin were looking quite good. As we all sailed to the right, the fleet caved a little, and I thought that I was looking ok. But at the top the breeze went left again, and I struggled to get back, rounding in 25th. I rallied a little on the first downwind and caught up to the 12-18 pack. I battled with those guys for the rest of the race, ultimately finishing in 16th.
Overall it was a better day, but still not as good as I'd like. It was very tricky sailing again today: very difficult to see the pressure and pretty shifty. Tomorrow is the first day of Gold fleet so hopefully with a few good scores I can make some ground up on the fleet.
