Regatta Report
7/7/2005 - 29er Worlds Qualifying Day 3
Day 3 of qualifying brought much more wind as promised! Perhaps a little too much!
Race 1: flood tide in10-14 knots
We had an excellent start at the pin end and looked great. All of the boats to weather fell into us rather quickly. However, we tacked to early and ended up ducking a few boats. We sailed out of the breeze and into a hole. The few boats we ducked continued further left under the Yacht Club and got all the breeze. We continued to look for a shift to get us back into the group but waited too long. A few other boats got inside of us and we rounded about 12th. We did the expected tactical move by jibing out into the bay for the stronger flood tide. However the unexpected happened and everyone who sailed toward the Yacht Club ended up with more breeze and the passing lane. Again we lost a few more boats on the run. Up the beat we stayed even and hit the few shifts there were. Downwind we did the opposite and hit the shore. We were looking good after we jibed. Unfortunately we encountered a wave and a large puff at the same time. The boat could not release and had nowhere to go but to round up. I ended up around the bow and under the jib as Stu quickly hopped on the centerboard. We righted the boat quickly but had still gotten passed by a few boats. We ended up a disappointing 22nd.
Race 2: flood tide in 12-16 knots
We won the start towards the boat end! Unfortunately our pointing ability was lacking and we missed the first righty that filled in. We still hit shifts and rounded in fourth just behind the lead group. We set our kite and went towards the shore. We should have jibed sooner than we did to stay in the puff just like the group behind us did. We ended up sailing into a hole and got passed by 5-6 boats. On the next upwind we just didn’t seem to be able to put it together and were somewhat out of phase on the wrong side of the course. We got passed by several more boats before rounding the weather mark and sailing towards the finish. Positions did not change on the downwind and we finished 16th.
After the day we dropped to 23rd overall barely making the cut for Gold fleet. Tomorrow the finals start and our qualifying score carries over as a non-discard able race. Stay tuned for more racing and better results! No where to go but up!
Graham Biehl
Stu McNay
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