Sailing Blog
Salad, Dressing on the Side Please…. »
January 17, 2011
With a strong front that moved through in the wee hours of the first day of racing in Key West, sailors on all 3 divisions were left to deal with left over swell and lump, and a SE Breeze in the 9-12 range that made for some very challenging conditions. On top of the confused seas and light to medium wind, there was a massive amount of seaweed and seagrass on the racecourse, and once it latched onto your rudder or keel fin, you went from bow out and ahead to well behind in a flash. At times there were patches 30 ft in diameter requiring a tack or gybe to avoid them. Despite the less than ideal racing conditions, the veteran, experienced teams still prevailed on day 1 of Key West Race Week and proved that being mentally tough is a huge component to sailing fast.
As for our team on INTAC, we had moments of brilliance, and other times we learned some valuable lessons about what racing is like as a new team in the Melges 32 class. One thing that always stands out is how you can go from fighting for position in the front, to being relegated to the back of the fleet with one bad leebow or mark rounding. We were holding our own in both of the races today, but a costly mistake in each would send us from nipping at the heals of the leaders, to playing tiddly winks with the bottom group.
Day 2 is forecast to be much lighter, and hopefully the seagrass and seaweed will have cleared out by the morning to make for some easier racing. And hopefully we will have some better conditions to allow for more exciting posts from KW! Standing by for day 2…
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