Welcome to Gold Fleet

Today was the first day of Gold fleet, and the tight competitive racing lived up to its reputation. Over the past four days we've had qualification races with the fleet split into three groups. Today, the top third of the fleet came together to race each other.

We started out the day with a postponement for a few hours. Despite a nice harbor breeze, there wasn't very much wind on the race course. At about noon, the Race Committee decided to send us out to wait so that if some breeze filled we could start quickly. After a little more waiting on the water, we finally started our first race in a 2-5 knot offshore breeze. I had an ok start at the pin and played the middle left on the first beat. It was an odd breeze because every time I came back to the middle, the people I crossed who continued further left would gain. Finally I just decided to go pretty hard left and made some gains towards the top of the beat. But the right came in for most of the beat, and I rounded the first mark in about 25th place. I stayed about the same on the downwind. Around the leeward mark I noticed more pressure on the left, so I headed there and made some gains, rounding in the mid-teens. As we sailed downwind though, the bronze fleet and the gold fleet overlapped and it was chaotic. I ended up losing a few boats in the shuffle and rounded the final leeward mark in 18th. I stayed there until the finish.

After the first race, the breeze began to die a little, but the RC quickly started us up. I had another ok start at the pin, but hung in there thinking the top left was going to be good like the previous race. As I kept going left the breeze died and went hard right. Basically everyone who started in the pin half of the line and didn't go right was very far behind! There's not much more to say about my race, except that I was in the group well behind in the race. To be honest, I'm quite surprised that the RC didn't abandon the race, because on the second beat the wind went to almost nothing. They ended up shortening the race and finishing us at the leeward mark just before the time limit.

So it was a tough day in Gold fleet. Few people had two solid races and the results are still pretty close. Two more races to complete the regatta tomorrow in what looks to be an ON SHORE, 12-15 knot breeze! Hopefully it's a little steadier.