Day Three
Today was the third day of the Sail For Gold regatta, and the Lasers completed two more races to finish up the qualifying series. I was in Blue fleet today, sailing an inner loop course.
We headed out for an 11 AM start and got our first race off at about 11:30. I had a good start near the committee boat and quickly tacked to the right. I played the middle right of the course and was looking pretty good early on. As I came to the top third of the beat, the right began to lift with pressure, and I hedged myself to that side. I rode a nice lift into the windward mark in 2nd place! On the downwind, I was able to carry some pressure up to the leader, Tom Burton from Australia. I rounded the gate right behind him and quickly tacked to the right before him. About half way up, I consolidated in front of him and led the group to the right. We both played the top right and extended quite a bit in front of the fleet. I rounded the last windward mark in first, with Tom right behind me. We stayed even on the reach, but Tom went very low on the run with pressure to pull ahead of me. I rounded the last mark in 2nd and reached in comfortably ahead of 3rd place. It was a great way to start the day and left me with a glimmer of hope that I could still make gold fleet!
We finished the first race at about 12:30 and were heading to the starting line anxious to start race two. The race committee, though, ended up postponing us for THREE hours while they adjusted the course! It was a frustratingly long wait as there was plenty of breeze to sail us. But we finally got our start off at 3:30. I had a my best start of the regatta at the committee boat again and tacked out right. The right looked pretty good, but as we came across the top, the left had more consistent pressure and a shift at the end. I rounded in about 20th. I stayed about the same on the first downwind, and headed out right towards a big cloud on the second beat. At that point, it got a little odd; Kyle Rogachenko, my US teammate, tacked just in front of me and headed across the middle in a big righty. I sailed about 100 yards passed him and tacked on his hip. At first I looked ok, but I quickly began to fall into him. So I tacked further right in pressure and did the same thing! Kyle seemed to get a perfect wind-line which he rode across the fleet into 2nd place; he really played it well. I, on the other hand, ended up losing 10 boats who went to the left of me. I rounded in the high twenties and was able to pass a few boats on the final downwind to get 22nd in the race.
So a 2-22 was better, but still not a complete day of good sailing. Unfortunately, I didn't get it done to get into Gold fleet. I'll be racing the next two days in Silver fleet, but I will try to use this opportunity to learn as much about the venue and figure out how to sail my laser well again!
