Day 3

A Mixed Bag of Luck - Day 3

The day started with nothing short of plenty of wind from the north. Fabulous news we thought as we tightened our dusty harness’.

So exited with the prospect of some real wind, we were first boat on the water (twin wiring by 0845) 

After a glorious 5 minutes of good wind, it dropped to nothing at all with the added bonus of HUMPING choppy little waves - worst imaginable conditions.

The race committee kept us heavily bobbing for about 2 hours and then we were allowed to return to the beach.

The wind from the south started creeping in after a bit, the postponement was dropped and we were allowed out.

Nice enough conditions - wind between 12 and 16 knots, short steep waves and sunny sunshine (which always helps)

Race 1 - nothing out of the ordinary, ending up 5th 

Race 2 - we were standing 3rd, looking at 2nd, banging hard down wind, very hard. With the overtake looking so good we pushed the boat beyond it’s natural limits and launched ourselves into what must have been the most spectacular pitch pole of the day. After righting we were DFL but we continued around the course (while Marko rebuilt the boat)

Around the top mark, some back end victims looking good for a down hill battle. The kite went half way up, halyard (rope) snapped in half, kite wouldn’t go up or down.

Balls!

So we sailed quickly into the beach, retiring from the race, assuming that we’d have to loose that race + the next one (using up both of our discards)

However

Race 3 - we managed to get the new halyard on pretty sharpish. We saw from the beach that the wildcats had had a general recall - hope was delivered. 

We leapt onto our ship and hooned it back to the start line just in time to cross with our fleet as the gun was going.

7th

Race 4 - great start, very well sailed, just done at the finish by competition leader - 4th (should have been 2nd if we’d done it better

So with all that went on we lost our 2nd place and replaced it with 4th which is still good considering the mess that happened in Race 2.