Well today was a tough day. We had a mostly westerly that seemed to have oscillating directions of about +/-45 degrees at times and velocity chances from 2 to 10. Generally speaking the breeze was out of the west at about 5 knots I would guess though. The shifty conditions made racing tough with lots of position changes throughout the race and no one really owning the day.
Eva and Dan did a nice job running races and were able to get 4 races off in the tough conditions. They adjusted the windward mark and line after the first race which made things a bit more even for the shifts.
I do not really have any great tips for the day but would like to highlight a decision that Tom Hutton made in the last race. There were several of us stacked up at the leeward mark rounding and Tom and I rounded in 4th and 5th with 3 boats ahead of us. I had a nice tight rounding and managed to not be getting bad air from the 3 boats stacked in front of us and Tom was outside of me on the rounding. He chose to foot off some and get to clear air for the “upwind” beat which was mostly just point at the mark and get there. Several lifts occurred on the leg and I eventually found myself in bad air from the 3 boats ahead of me. Tom on the other hand had clear air all the way to the mark and won the leg and race due to his choice at the leeward mark. Just a reminder that pointing high and being inside at the mark is not always the best choice!
I hope that everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing who shows up on Sunday for Series #3!
Farley