This blog comes from USSTAG Development Team member Clay Johnson at claysails.com. Johnson is tied for first after the first day of competition at Rolex Miami OCR.
Today was the first day of the Miami OCR. I was in the yellow fleet and started second today, sailing the inner trapezoid. We had 10-15 knots and a lot of chop.
Coming into the weather mark. Photo Credit: Al Clark
In the first race, I had a good start at the boat and played the middle right up the first beat. At the first mark, Giaccamo Bottoli (ITA) was winning followed by Bruno Fontes (BRA). I was in third and had Paul Goodison (GBR) and Rasmus Myrgren (SWE) right behind me. I played the low road on the downwind and was able to pass Bruno. At the bottom I was in second place and headed to the right again. The second beat got pretty shifty, and I stayed to the right of the group. Goodison played the left and crossed ahead, and I got a righty at the top to pass Giaccamo. At the last mark, Goodison was leading, I was second, Giaccamo third, and Rasmus 4th. I held on to second for the rest of the race. A great first race!
In the second race, I started in the middle and again played the middle right. At the top, I was able to string together a couple good shifts and round in first place with a pretty good lead. I had a great downwind to extend my lead. At the bottom mark, Goodision rounded and went all the way to the left. Rasmus, in third, rounded and went right. I thought the right was a little better so I hedged myself to that side. At the top, a lefty came in, and I lost a little of my lead. I was still about 100 yards ahead at the weather mark. On the top reach, Goodison turned on the speed and caught all the way up to me! He was sailing really fast and just took off from the rest of the fleet. I actually extended a little on the fleet, so he must have been really cruising! At the reach mark, I rounded with Goodison right behind. We were pretty far ahead so we both went at it. I was able to have a good downwind to stay in front, and I reached to the finish for a race win.
So I am pretty happy with my first day. With a 2-1 I am currently winning the event, tied with Goodison who had a 1-2. Plenty of racing left and the forecast is for a little more wind tomorrow.
