Sailing Blog
Finish in Sight – Day 5 Melges 24 Worlds »
May 20, 2011
We are tired. 5 days in 15-18 knots with steep chop, and incredibly tight racing requiring maximum effort has taken its toll on our bodies. Even when your legs go numb from hiking, your lower back feeling like it is going to seperate from your body, and having hands that look like you are having an allergic reaction to a bee sting from pulling on sheets with large amounts of load, easing up is not an option as you know the team behind you in the standings is pushing hard and looking for the smallest opportunity to pounce. All we have remaining is 2 starts, 4 upwind legs, 4 spinnaker sets, 2 leeward drops, and we are home free. Oh yeah, and we have to go out and defend our 2 pt lead on 2nd place with 4 teams breathing down our necks.
Day 5 was more of the same wind-wise, and we fought hard for a 4, 4. The first race we were able to pick off a few boats on the first run and get ahead of some key competitors. The 2nd race, we had a great start and were saved from being called over by the smallest of margins and were in 2nd place at the first top mark. Andy put us in a great spot on the downwind, we came flying into the left gate, pulled off a nice Mexican drop and rounded first ahead the Italian Audi team, and Uka Uka.
As we battled on the next upwind towards the right side, we took notice of the charge that the Bermudians were making after being called OCS and being last place after the start. They somehow got to 4th place at the bottom gate, crossed behind us on the right side of the course, tacked well on our hip, hooked into a huge righty and were leading the race at the next top mark. With them just behind us in the standings, I went from feeling ok when they were called over, to concerned when they rounded in fourth, and into awe when the crossed the finish line with a bullet. Now, just to be clear, this team is not a bunch of rasta smoking islanders from Bermuda. The boat is owned by Alec Cutler who either lives or works there, but the team he has are the 2009 Melges 24 World Champs consisting of Canadians Richard Clark, Mike Wolffs, and Curtis Florence. So while people see their country code of BER on their sail want to say “Hey, Mon!”, they might get a response of, “What are ya talking aboote, eh?” These guys are seriously good, only 2 pts behind us in third, and we are going to have our hands full trying to fend them off on Day 6.
All Uka Uka has to do in the first race tomorrow is finish 26th or better, and they will seal their 3rd Melges 24 World Championship. It is always painful to be racing at a regatta and have the champs win by a big enough margin where they dont need to sail the last race, but when a team sails as well as they have, all you can do is tip your hat and work harder to beat them next time. I hope Uka continues their campaign for years to come as they have set the bar high, and it is always good to know you are racing against the best.
When the alarm goes off in the morning, I will be like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz trying to get out of bed and warmed up for another day of racing. Stay close to Sailing Updates for up to the minute reporting from the race track. Forecast is for 12-18 out of the SE.
No video today as they was a bit of a technical error on-board, hopefully I will be able to put together some good final day footage.
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