Three horse race

Andy Beadsworth reports on the Star racing at the Holland Regatta

Races 5 and 6: 2-6 knots 090°

Race 5

After a two hour postponement the fleet left the shore in 5-7 knot easterly breeze.
However by start time it was already fading. An important day in our 8025 campaign. Would we be as competitive in the light as we were in 7953?

We opted to start to leeward of the majority of the fleet, mid line having spotted more pressure left. We got off well, another individual signalled. We appeared to have good speed pulling forward on those to windward and rolling forward on those below, maybe a little short of height.

The pack to windward all tacked right and headed for the right hand corner. Not what we had figured. We carried on left for a bit, taking a bit of a risk and getting a bit of leverage. However our nerves got the better of us and we tacked. As the pressure came in from the left it backed 15 degrees. We were looking pretty famous on the boats to our right but there were still five or six boats to our left. We had really good speed over these guys and managed to pull forward leading the fleet by two to three lengths at the top mark with Ante Razmilovic in second.

At the leeward mark we had extended another couple of lengths. We backed the left hand side again. This looked good, but we missed a cruiser up the course on high right pressure and some of the fleet had got quite bow forward. A mistake but fortunately we spotted it just in time. We crossed over and lead again round the windward mark by a few lengths. It was pretty tricky down the run and we decided to make sure we covered Loof who was back in fourth or fifth place. He gybed into the middle so we followed, so did Kusznierewicz which was great. However Freddy gybed back out to the right so we set ourselves up to leeward of him. Kusznierewicz carried on out to the left. Suddenly the jury boat hoisted its yellow flag (penalty coming to someone for rule 42, illegal propulsion) and motored our way. Freddie thought he is coming right at us. Then suddenly he veered off towards Loof who picked up the penalty turns. We immediately gybed back to the middle and Kusznierewicz. He had made gains and crossed us by a whisker. We gybed to leeward and ahead in a strong position locking him out from the finish. We both gybed ours was better and we rolled forward he gybed back and completely stopped the boat we had more speed and aimed to cross the finish at 90 degrees. It was tight but we though we had it, but so did Kusznierewicz. However the results show it the other way around.

Race 6

The next race the wind was started in 3-4 knots. In the last minute the wind backed 10 degrees left and we headed for the pin. Most of the boats were slow on the line when the gun went. There was no room for us going 3 knots faster and we had to gybe round behind the pin. It was not so bad and we were quickly back in the front line heading out right. At the windward we approached on the port lay line and fouled at the windward mark. Probably unnecessarily. We did turns in almost no wind which put us almost last. The wind died completely and the water looked like glass. Tough racing.

We clawed our way back tacking a couple of oats on the run, then a chunk on the next beat to round the last windward mark 10th. We gybed away from the pack three quarters of the way down to the finish looking for some clear water and maybe a bit more wind. It paid off even though it was probably not the best line to the finish. Just getting clear of the pack and sailing our own angles was an advantage. We got 7th at the finish.

Overall

We have dropped to thirrd with three races to go. There is a gap to 4th. It's turning into a three horse race. Loof is now 10 points ahead. Kusznierewicz is second.

Still, all to play for and another discard if we get 9 races which looks likely.

I feel like we missed an opportunity today. We had good speed and sailed really well making a couple of expensive mistakes in the second race. The most important thing is, we have really good speed again in the light wind. This is good news!

Cheers.

Andy and Freddie