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Tough Sledding on Day 1 of Worlds »
May 16, 2011
The big Texas breeze that was advertised prior to the Melges 24 Worlds failed to arrive for the 5th day in a row, and the first race of the day began in 6-8 kts of shifty, unstable wind. On the Full Throttle, we suffered a bad start, got forced the wrong way shortly after the gun and were left hanging on by our fingernails to just be in the top fifteen around the first mark. Not only was the breeze lacking any sort of pattern, but it is also very hard to see on the cloudy water which left us scratching our heads on where to go, and hoping that the decisions we made would pay off.
Mid-way through the first race, we did a good job of battling to stay in the front group, but could not do enough, or break free from the boats around us to break into the top ten and suffered a very hard fought 16th. Not a good way to start the event. When you have a bad start in this fleet, it means you need to be spot-on from there forward to have a decent finish, and while we had good moments, we got forced the wrong way a few times which ended up costing us a chance to put up a good result.
By the end of the first race, the light NE breeze that we saw was giving way to the seabreeze out of the SE. The velocity had picked up to 10-12 kts, and there was a bit of anticipation on our boat that we would continue to see the breeze build and get to stretch our legs. The breeze was nice, but just as the first race, there were still large directional changes, and even bigger velocity changes with a very streaky wind that put a premium on being in the right place on the racecourse.
Our goal for the second start was to just get off clean and let our speed do the work which we were able to execute well and establish ourselves in the front group. The top half of the beat was a great reminder of why Melges 24s are the best boats to race on the planet as 12-15 boats were crossing each other with inches to spare, and all it took was one bad tack or bad shift and you would immediately get put into the B fleet. We hung onto 4th place around the top mark, had a decent first run, and again managed to hold our position on the next upwind…and then things began to unravel.
After a marginal set and getting stuck in the low-road out of the top mark, we had to gybe out after getting rolled by a few boats behind us. As we played the middle, a few boats extended to the far right corner and made huge gains, and 1-2 boats even got around us on the left side. Once to the finish line we had dropped 5 boats on the final downwind which was a painful reminder that if you lose focus for just a moment in this fleet, you will pay for it.
Overall, it was a hard day with results we would like to have seen a bit lower. The frustrating part is we were so close in both races of finishing well, but failed to execute at critical moments and we paid for it huge. While our team has a lot of experience in the Melges 24, we do not have a lot of time together as a unit, and we need to be better about executing, and be sharper around the racecourse. The good news is there is still 5 days of racing remaining, and the even better news is the Race Committee has delayed the first start until 1pm each day to allow the seabreeze to get established and settled in.
Stay tuned for reports from Day 2.
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