The first day was kicked off with a lengthy postponement due to a lack of breeze- a fairly uncommon condition for Weymouth. Luckily though the wind filled in by 1pm and we ended up getting two races in eight knots of fresh westerly breeze. We sailed okay on the day- scoring an 18-23.
Day two was much more eventful, just in a bad way. The wind was again out of the west, trending towards the right and building throughout the day. The first race was sailed in 12-15 knots, where we scored a respectable 15. The next race the breeze continued in its building trend, and the boat was really starting to rip on all angles of the course. After a bad start, and a tough first beat, we rounded the first mark somewhere in the high twenties (in a fleet of 38). During our first spinnaker set we tore our a 2-3 inch gash at the top of the kite- at the time not a big deal. Throughout the first downwind and next upwind we were able to battle back well with great speed and tactics to round the weather mark in 10th. On the reach we popped the kite and got the boat ripping for a good twenty seconds before the little tear at the top of the sail turned into a big tear, and suddenly we acquired a new flag on our mast. The kite had completely separated, leaving the head to flap in the breeze, and us without our powerful third sail. We sailed the rest of the downwind under main and jib, and crossed the line a disappointing 31st.
Going into the final day of the qualifying series, we knew that we could not risk getting another deep race. We played it somewhat conservative, and were able to score a 13th and a 16th to squeeze our way into the Gold Fleet. We look forward to some awesome racing and even more so to moving up in the standings!
Follow the results here, and the event website too!
Thank you for all your support,
Adam and Nick