D1, 2012

It was good to get the old team and boat back together last night and go tear up the race course. We had great conditions for a fully powered up sail last night with 8 to 12 knots out of the North and despite the ominous forecast no thunderstorms in sight. The course was set as SDXDXAF and we were off. It was a square line for a change so we set up closest to the pin just under the Martin 242 who was just to leeward of the big J. The Martin quickly got squirted out the back getting a mouthful of dirt from us and the J29. We had to maneuver around Animal Manor as we tacked our way to the lay line and rounded a fair distance behind behind J. We sat in this position for the remainder of the race slowly losing ground to them on the upwind and quickly closing the distance on the downhill. That J29 is an amazing all around boat. It is like a locomotive that will run anything down in its path. Unless we get conditions with winds above 15 knots that allow us to plane we usual get waterlined with little chance to recover. It is such an unusual race course that we sail on here in Kelowna with unpredictable winds and anything but windward leeward marks. The lack of any passing lanes and such a diverse fleet make for a very interesting dynamic. The latest race results to date are now posted on the website but keep in mind that they do not yet show the 3 throw outs that will be applied for the entire summer season at the end of August. Happy sailing.

M