Regatta Report
1/23/2006 - Miami OCR Day 1
Hello race fans! Today was the first day of the 2006 Miami Olympic Classes Regatta (OCR). Many of the world's top ranked teams are here to accumulate points towards the world rankings.
Pre-start it looked like it was going to be some good racing in 12 knots of breeze. Just before the first start it died down to about 8 knots. Our first race of the OCR was to be an inner loop trapezoid course. After a general recall we got off with a race winning start towards the pin end. We had tremendous speed and pointing ability and soon found ourselves in a very good position. We made a few mistakes up the beat to round in 7th position but close with the pack. On the downwind we were forced to jibe out for clear air and found ourselves to round the bottom gate close with the middle of the fleet. We made some good calls on the upwind to gain back what we had lost and close in on the top group. At the top mark we had an awesome tight-reach set enabling us to roll one of the top British teams. We caught up to the top pack and were within striking distance, but could never break it. We went on to finish a close 6th.
Race 2 started in even lighter breeze, around 6 knots, with an outer trapezoid course. We had another awesome start but this time it was towards the boat end. We held our lane pretty well but soon decided to tack off to win the right side. We were looking top 4 for much of the race until we misjudged our layline. We over stood and allowed a few teams to barely make it in front of us around the mark for a rounding around 7th. We again had an awesome set on the reach and we passed a boat. The rest of the race stayed about the same with a few missed opportunities to pass boats, but we still lived to finish 8th.
On the day we thought we sailed consistently given the competition and the tricky wind. Overall we stand 8th, 1st American Team, with 14 points. Tomorrow is forecasted to be light, but we'll see in the morning!
For complete results go to: http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/RolexMiamiOCR/results/470_06.asp
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