Day one of Sail for Gold began with strong NE breeze for the sail out, making sure to get us nice and wet before dying off to moderate during the racing. We were very excited to get our final regatta of the summer under way, after a very productive training camp.
So the first race we had a decent start and were able to pick out way around the course with good speed. However a few poor tactical decisions kept us at bay, and we finished with a 12th place. That finish was not what we hoped for, but certainly good for the first race of a 10 (possibly 11) race event. You cannot win and event in the first race, but you can certainly lose it!
Race two did not go exactly to plan. After a few general recalls, the race committee put up the black flag. Unfortunately, we got the business end of the situation and were caught over early, receiving a BFD.
Day two of the event began with the USSTAG weather guru, Doug Charko predicting about 5 more knots than the previous day. That put the wind to be over 20 knots. Doug was more than correct, as the breeze was sometimes gusting to 30 knots on our course. Our coach was preaching discipline as one of the day’s focus, meaning we were going to focus on our pre-race homework and approach, in order to make the racing easier. Not surprisingly the concept proved to be effective, as we rolled a 9 – 7 in the two races for the day.
Currently we stand in 26th place, with the scores of 12 – BFD – 9 – 7. We look forward to getting a discard, which as we stand right now, will improve our position dramatically.
For full results, or to check and see if we are lying, check out the regatta website here.
Adam and Nick
