It was an interesting day on the river. Before the first race Tim Zimmerman asked me about the current on the river. I told him that I usually did not take into account the current. I continued to say that I was up by the windward mark and that it seemed like the current was not much. More on the current later. The first start the pin was favored and I wanted to go to the left. After two general recalls, the third start I ended up jibing around at the pin starting in the back of the pack. I wanted to go to the left but I abandoned that strategy because everyone was headed that way so I continued to the right in clear air. I kept my air clear and played the pressure and rounded the windward mark third/fourth. After the leeward leg I was second and I wanted to go to the left(pin end) were the pressure seemed to be. I ended up on the left but Nabeel and Len got a nice puff/lift inside of me. Luckily the pressure I was sailing to on the left was a header and I ended up clearing both. The keys was keeping my air clear, sailing towards the pressure and not getting too concerned with Nabeel/Len and sticking to my guns with the left puff. The second race played out similar. The third race I sat out. One thing that I noticed in this race were the two leaders Rob/Mike on the last upwind leg when there was breeze were not sailing flat enough going upwind. I prefer to sail as flat as possible when there is any breeze. There were only a few times during the day where I was not flat upwind (95% flat). At the beginning of the fourth race I had not noticed how much the (adverse) current picked up and did not make the pin by a lot. Again I tried to sail up wind with clear air and pick off boats. After the leeward mark I noticed that a lot of the boats were staying behind the leaders in a line going to the right. Granted the right (boat end) was the place to be but two quick tacks to get a clear lane paid off and I caught a lot of boats. Again sail in clear air if possible. The fifth race the current was so much a factor that I started right at the boat and went to the right. However, Dario had a brilliant start at the pin and had clear air going the correct way. The two keys to both of our starts were right after the gun we were both sailing in clear air by ourselves. So, Tim I do not usually take into account the current but after the third race it was a factor in what I was doing. |
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