Phil Crebbin reports from the SORC

The former Olympic 470 representative gets a taste of close racing in the 1D35 fleet in Miami

Race five saw us have our only good first leg and we rounded the first mark in second place behind Widowmaker. This was a longer three lap race and with the Widowmaker team really on song, it took us the whole race to wear them down. We were finally able to apply the starboard gybe trick again at the finish to record our only win of the series. Heartbreaker maintained their tremendous consistency in 3rd place.
The third race of day three had slightly less wind and we were again in the bottom half of the first ten at the first mark. Heartbreaker was leading and Widowmaker was also in the front group and so our chances of winning the daily prize were receding rapidly. We made some gains downwind and worked away steadily back upwind so that we managed to break through to 4th by the second windward mark.

Widowmaker was now in our sights in 3rd and we had to get her to win the day.The gap looked too big but we used the waves and the shifts, Brian Bennett doing an excellent job trimming the spinnaker and calling the steering on the waves for Sledd, until we were able to set up the starboard gybe attack coming into the finish. This time they were able to claim water for the mark, but they had to bear away to make it and lost speed in doing so. We crossed the line together and we were sure we had got it by at least a foot!

We had to wait until the results were eventually posted, but they confirmed 3rd place and the win for the day for Avalanche, with Widowmaker 4th in the race and a quarter of a point behind for the day. Heartbreaker recorded their second win of the series with Zsa Zsa, having their best race, finishing 2nd.

Heartbreaker was still untouchable in first place overall 12.25 points ahead of Avalanche, but we were now well established in second place. Widowmaker had charged up through the ranks into a comfortable third place, 6.25 points behind us and 6.75 ahead of Joss in fourth.

The possibly violent weather originally predicted for day 4 did not arrive and in fact the conditions were very good with a 15 to 20kt wind. We were on the left side of the main bunch going towards the right after the start and it was Tabasco and Widowmaker who came out from further right to lead round the first mark. In a very tight group we ended up only about 8th round the mark, but we were helped by Smiling Bulldog fouling the boat in front of us as we approached the mark, and so they had to do a 720.

We could not afford to lose any places, but we were seriously threatened by Heartbreaker coming from behind down the run. The turning point in more ways than one was the leeward gate, where we were presented with an opportunity as the whole group in front of us and alongside us, except the leader, went round the port mark, leaving the starboard mark completely free.

We then tacked back onto port after we had cleared the rough water near the gate and were immediately ahead of several of the group. We kept a good lane with good speed and were clear in 4th at the windward mark, close to Joss in 3rd. We went fast down the second run and picked the shifts correctly to overtake Joss and finish well clear in 3rd, behind Tabasco and Widowmaker who had led all the way in 1st and 2nd. It made for a better finish to have Widowmaker well within our sights again, with no other boats between us.

Heartbreaker finished 6th to win overall with 19.5 points, having sailed a really excellent series before going on to do battle in the Farr 40 fleet. Avalanche was second with 28.75, Widowmaker was third with 34 followed by Joss with 42.75. Tabasco’s win in the last race brought them up to 5th, only 1 point behind Joss.

Avalanche is now the leader of the 1D35 North American Championship Series for 2001 counting two second places, ahead of Joss with a first and fourth. I hope this means the Brits get invited back again. Unfortunately this may have to be later in the season because of commitments on this side of the pond.