B1, Awesome!

Wow, what a night for a sailboat race. This being the first Wednesday night race of the season we were off to a good start. Steady 10-15 knot Southerly breeze was the order of the day for race B1. The course was SACBACF and offered a great mix of beating and running. We started right up on the line near the starboard pin end with the majority of the fleet, and immediately tacked out to the right in search of clean air. Reaching the upwind A mark it was time to bear off and put that big kite to work. What a ride! We had 5 people on board tonight and just a couple knots of breeze short of planing, but we still managed to hit a sustained 10 knots of boat speed downwind. Approaching C mark after what seemed like only a few minutes it was time to douse and beat back up to B. Rounding B a slight bear away and close reaching upwind to A. At A we did a bear away set then jib and run to C. We had great boat speed downwind but got trapped under the J29's wind shadow, quickly losing 4 knots. This cost us greatly on the downwind leg. We rounded C mark 1st just a boat length or two ahead and started back up to the finish. It was a drag race with the J29 all the way upwind sailing in very close formation. We managed to hit the finish line first overall but a quick glance back showed Pentameter and Woo Hoo too close to cover our PHRF rating difference. For us, these were the best condition yet this season and I hope a sign of things to come.