A1, 2012

So close, yet so far.  That about sums up our experience last night for the opening race of the regular season.  Once again very light winds out of the South ranging between 1-4 knots would be on tap for tonight with a course of SACA.  A somewhat pin end favored had most of the fleet bunched up and eating lot's of dirt.  We setup with clear air and blasted off about mid line with no one to leeward of us and Fitz just to windward.  We ran as close to shore as we dare and tacked over to port having to duck Fitz in the process.  We quickly tacked back onto the starboard layline just behind Shadowfax and prepared for the offset mark rounding and spinnaker set.  On the run downhill we had pretty decent speed despite the very light conditions and managed to pass J and Fitz leaving only Ghost Rider just off our bow.  We rounded C right on their transom and continued on Port for a few more seconds to get a lane before tacking back to starboard and starting our chase back to A mark.  A critical moment for us was when Ghost Rider tacked near the red mark and just barely crossed us.  We continued playing the East shore on starboard tack and got into a huge lift.  Looking back over our shoulders we knew it was the right more as anyone daring to venture further out was greeted with almost no wind conditions.  We managed to lead the fleet by a considerable margin all the way to the last tack.  We tacked over to port just South of the yacht club while J and Fitz continued a little further along the Eastern shore.  This was our critical mistake of the night.  We had to sail a header back toward the finish while they enjoyed a lift for a few more minutes before flipping and heading back out towards the finish.  They both finished within seconds of each other about 4 boat lengths ahead of us.  It was very painful indeed seeing a hard earned lead vanish over the final 1/4 mile but that' just how it goes.

Marc
(photo courtesy of Joanna K)