Cowes Week, day 2

August 4, 2013

Today was a day of mixed feelings. Our start was a lot better than yesterday but unfortunately the whole fleet was called back as lot of boats were over the line early. The next start was not as good but we got away ok. The first beat was towards a laid mark near Osbourne House. The wind was very shifty and changed a lot in strength. We sailed the beat focussing on getting into the most favourable tide to the left of the beat. Unfortunately, the rights seemed to pay off for Raging Bee, Elaine and Zarafa and some of the other boats. The next leg was a fetch and we very bravely decided that we could set the kite. This didn’t work out quite as we had hoped as due to the shifty winds we weren’t able to sail high enough to make the mark. This meant having to take the kite down and head up again and take our (limited) losses. Who doesn’t try….. Throughout the race we kept switching places with the numbers five to ten and on the last run we seemed well positioned to gain a few places by staying out of the current on the island side. Unfortunately, the wind was less strong on the island side and we finished tenth on the water and seventh on rating. Although the seventh place was less than we hoped for we finished close to the numbers six, five, four and three. With a little more luck and some smart sailing we should be able to sail top three. We will definitely be trying hard tomorrow and better our results! Watch this space.