More of the Same on Day Five
Today was the fifth day of the Laser Worlds and we were greeted with more of the same: 8-12 knots of breeze from the Northeast, current running upwind, and chop with small waves. Both races were sailed after a few general recalls and black flags, which eliminated about 10 people per race.
In the first race, I started at the boat and quickly flopped to port, headed for the right. I was looking ok for most of the beat, but when I came back the left had a bit more pressure, and I rounded in the high twenties. I went to work on the downwind and caught up to about 15th place by the leeward mark. I stayed about the same on the next upwind, but had another great downwind to catch up to 9th place. On the last reach, two guys were fighting for position a bit too hard and BOTH got yellow flagged, allowing me to sail by and into 7th place. I held onto 7th for the short upwind to the finish.
In the second race, the pin and left were pretty favored. I had a pretty good start near the pin and played the middle left, but was forced to do too many tacks while trying to cross the fleet. This time, there was a bit more pressure on the top right, and I came into the first mark in 28th! Again, I was saved by my downwind, catching 12 boats by the leeward mark. On the next upwind, I rode a nice lift to the right, and connected it with some pressure at the top right again to gain 10 more boats and round in 6th! On the downwind though, the pressure died and filled in high, allowing a pack of boats to go right by me. I rounded the leeward mark in 13th and stayed there until the finish.
It feels like groundhog's day here. Every day we've had the same 8-12 knots. I'm finding the upwinds pretty difficult; it's very hard to see the pressure on the water, and it's not very easy to figure out which way to go. I'm not having much luck picking the correct side, and I've been fortunate to have some good downwind speed to salvage some respectable scores. I'll try to figure it out a bit more over the last two days.
