Anthony and Cy

A little early Christmas Present.

Hello All from the other side of the world!

Today was one of those days were everything was just really nice.  The weather was supposed to be crappy and too windy again but it was sunny and sailable.  Our solid boat work really worked out and the craft is in supper condition with systems running very well.

We finished off some minor work list items this am and went for a sail. We joined in on some racing with a bunch of the other non qualified countries and did well finished 1st in one race and had a few other top 3’s.  This felt good as this is the group of people we need to beat.  It included NOR, JPN, CRO and some other countries.  The conditions were our best ones, semi light air and we had ok speed and good height.  We headed in for a quick lunch and wanted to get back out with the A level guys.  The good guys were running races and we joined in.  There were 14 boats out which included the ISAF ranked #1 Germans as well as the Spanish Gold Medalists,  and the number one USA team.  The first race we missed the start since we were coming from lunch but we only about 10 sec late. We sailed well tactically and finished in the top 8 maybe?  The next race, we had an ok start and went right, got a nice puff from the right and rounded somewhere between 5-7.  The leaders all gybe set to catch the puff that had gone down the right side.  We straight set (bear away) and got a nice puff and header and I looked up and we were laying the gate marks.  The leaders didn’t see this and kept going. So we lead around the bottom gate but had the Gold Medalist Spanish hot on our ass.  We sailed next to them for the second beat and they were a bit faster but we were able to hang on till the top mark.  From there, we saw a nice puff on the right so we gybe set and the Spanish straight set.  Our side paid off luckily and we won the race.  Obviously the race means nothing but it is still a nice boost to win a practice race with such a good group.

The racing was over and we still wanted some more sailing and the wind was starting to blow in the high teens / low twentys.  Two of the other USA teams were still out so we did a big burn downwind in the breeze and we were going so fast.  There is nothing like being fully powered up, in the straps, as low as the trap will go and flat water. It is very close to windsurfing.  We went for about two miles and turned around for the beat back home.   It was a great opportunity for us as the USA teams are good in the breeze which is our weakness.  We experimented with our centerboard height and this was  a big gain for us.  In the past we hadn’t pulled it up.  Were suffering from not being able to ease enough mainsheet when a puff would hit and we would heel over and go slow.  By pulling up the board a bit the boat got a lot easier to manage and we were going a bit better.

So the day was one of the better ones we have had. Boat was working well, nice weather, some light air, some heavy air and no items on the post sail worklist!

Below is a pic if the Spanish coming in after yesterday’s big wind with sails down and coach boat help.