Greetings from 3rd place! After no sailing for six weekends, it was great to see everyone and spend time on the water. The day delivered sunny skies, mild temperatures, a flood tide, and inconsistent wind, especially in direction. It came from the west(ish) at the start of the first race and then mostly bounced between the northwest and southwest. Kudos to Tom and Steen for helping us get in three races and keeping the course as good as it could be in an impossible situation (e.g., during the last race we crossed the starting line sailing downwind and crossed the finish line sailing upwind!). Congrats to visiting sailor, Tyler Egeli, for winning the day!

A few observations:

• The conditions kept me on my toes! Since nothing was consistent for very long, it felt like the entire afternoon had an extra layer of intensity because I was constantly looking out for wind or trying to feel the wind and adjusting boat position and controls accordingly. It was also a weird mental game because positions could change so dramatically so quickly, both in my favor and not – and so I just never gave up and it mostly worked.
• In terms of controls, I found I played with the vang a lot – keeping it two-blocked when going upwind, then easing varying degrees when reaching, and then letting it off a lot during those few moments of going downwind. This seemed to help with speed.
• Going high on the “downwind” (aka reach) legs during latter races generally worked well and on at least one occasion it was a great passing opportunity.
• There were at least two rules situations on the water that involved the offending parties doing turns (one of whom was me). One re-learned lesson on my part was to make sure when I need room from another boat to actually vocalize that loudly at the earliest opportunity (we all know this, but friendly reminder!) and also to try to anticipate situations as much as possible, especially when things are weird (e.g., reaching to/from the windward mark) (we all know this too, but friendly reminder!).
• Speaking of reminders, it is also great to have an extra line and electrical tape onboard when things go wrong. The mainsheet block end of my hiking strap liberated itself during the first race and I’m grateful I had my bow line that I could spring into temporary strap duty for the rest of the afternoon. I’m also grateful that it wasn’t extra windy b/c my temporary solution would have been less great given my lack of electrical tape to secure my now floppy strap to the line.

Over and out for now. Hope everyone is having a good week!

Laura