Day Three
Today was the last day of qualifying at the Miami OCR, and the Lasers had two more races in 8-12 knots.
In the first race, I had an awesome start right at the boat and sailed off on starboard tack for a few minutes. There's no doubt that I was winning the race and looking good! When I got a header, I tacked to port and tried leading the group back, but I hedged myself a little to the right of my nearest competitors. At the top, some pressure came down on the left and I looked like I was somewhere between 3-5. But right at the top and even bigger lefty came, and I lost about 10 boats right at the mark! How quickly things fell apart. So I rounded in about 15th and tried to play catch up. The top 7 quickly separated from the rest of the fleet, and I found myself in a battle for 8th. I caught up a few boats on each leg and finished with a 9th.
In the second race, I had an ok start near the boat and took a quick hitch out for some pressure. I tacked back to starboard and was again winning the race. As I sailed to the top of the beat, I was reminded of how good the top left was in the last race. This time I hedged myself to the left and guessed wrong again. I was a bit better positioned than the previous race, so despite the breeze going right at the top, I still rounded in 6th. On the downwind I lost one but caught a couple boats and was in 4th at the bottom. On the second beat, the right came in again, and I lost a couple more. I ended the race in 6th.
So it was a bit disappointing to have great first halves of my beats only to play the top wrong both times. While a 9-6 isn't a bad day, I left a lot of points on the table. Tomorrow is the first day of Gold fleet, so the fleet should be twice as hard.
