Sailing Blog
Soggy Day 2 »
May 14, 2010
After a postponement until 4pm local time due to no wind, we finally got underway with race five with a 15 kt Northwest breeze and plenty of rain making all of us call bs on the wonderful postcards we see around town of beautiful Cagliari and Sardegna. With one general recall, we got underway with a start at the pin end and seemed to be set up reasonably well as we were able to hold our lane off the starting line for a good 5-6 mins. With the top mark set fairly close to land, we played the shifts nicely, rounded in the top 3 and blasted off to the leeward mark.
Our leeward mark rounding allowed us to extend left which seemed to have a bit more breeze as once we tacked over, we were well in front of the leaders. A clean weather mark and spinnaker set allowed us to take the gun in a dying breeze.
Race 2 of the day showed breeze of 8-10 kts with increasing rain and a start time of around 6pm, much too late for our team who is used to having a few cold beers by this stage of the day. After a few Z flag starts, we found ourselves battling for a lane to extend to the left side where there was clearly more pressure. It looked bleak for most of the upwind as we were forced to tack away early, however we found ourselves being able to get left of the fleet at the top of the leg, hook into a huge lefty and round in the top 5. Shortly after our set, the breeze presented another face as it shifted 40 degrees to the right, straight out of the North and allowed 1-2 boats who gybed early to lay the marks. We rounded the bottom in 5th, battled up the last upwind on a shortened course and finished in our last rounding position.
Overall, a good day for the Samba Team. We showed great speed and patience in the breeze, and we did a good job of changing gears and staying on our toes on the lighter conditions. Very unofficial results overall –
Red, Highlife, Fantastica, B-lin, Samba.
There are only a few points separating the top 5, and with the Mistral predicted to set in for Saturday and Sunday, the regatta may very well be finished. Off to dinner…than to bed, hopefully with no more bed bug bites from the cot I am sleeping on. Check out Melges32.com for official results and photos.
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