Sailing Blog
Melges 32 Gold Cup – Day 1 »
December 3, 2010
Success on the first day of the Melges 32 Gold Cup was all about managing the big oscillations in shifts, and more importantly, catching the last shift into the top and bottom marks. With a nice NNE breeze at 10-15 kts, and 30-40 degree shifts, there were plenty of lead changes and it was very common to have the fleet on top of you, then step into a shift, tack over and have your position flip flop with the boats on the other side of the course. We did a good job on the Volpe identifying the incoming shift and putting the bow down and getting to it as fast as possible. Our tactician Ed Baird put us underneath the new incoming pressure and kept our risk low with the rest of the fleet, and our helmsman Ryan DeVos did an awesome job of keeping the boat grooving all day. Our goal for the day was to sail clean and have 3 “keeper” races and we did good of doing both on day 1 with scoreline of 3,2,3.
The leaders of the event Ramrod also did a nice job of getting off the starting line cleanly and getting into phase immediately after the gun went. The shifts were coming so fast and with such big angle changes that if you spent anytime getting out of phase, you were instantly losing boats. The real shockers for some boats were on the downwind legs. It seemed if you got caught in the middle, boats on either side that extended to the corners were able to touch into pressure and make some nice gains. Warpath, who won the last race by a mile was in great position in the first 2 races, but fell victim to having the pressure fill in from behind on both sides while they got stuck in the middle. Laylines downwind were a bit tough today also, as you would often find yourself gybing on a good angle into the mark, then getting new pressure and being wound down 20 degrees which resulted in being over stood which is never a good look.
The forecast for tomorrow is for much lighter conditions out of the same direction which should the make the racing a bit more painful as it will be the same tough, shifty breeze, but we will all be moving much slower. There will be a premium on getting off the line clean, sailing fast and taking a look up the track to put yourself in the best position to take advantage of the new pressure.
Results can be found here, and real time updates and results can be found at a new site…Sailing Updates which seems to be pretty nice for people trying to get real time info. There is also some video and interviews on the Sailgroove website. And of course, stay tuned to 42marine.com
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