Mid-Wests Day Three

This past week has been a busy one. With adjusting to the time change, catching up on missed school work, chores, and piano. But back to the last day of Mid-Winters in San Francisco the sailing turned out to be great.

Before we left the dock I was sitting in third place ahead of fourth place by two points and ahead of fifth by 5 but knowing that by doing the 6th race they would drop high scores. As we headed out to the course we new we were in for a classic San Francisco windy day. The first race was started when the wind was still a bit patchy and staying in the pressure was important. Down wind the waves were easily surfable in the breeze but in the lulls those who could keep surfing gained huge distance. The first race after several place changes I ended up third.

The last race of the regatta was just once around the outside. I had a clear start yet I was on the wrong end of the line so I knew I would have some fighting to do in the solid 18knot breeze. Rounding the windward in 7th I wasn't too bad off because the top of the fleet was still close. On the reach I dove low and passed one person right off the mark. After rounding the next mark in fifth after someones mast step had broken, I managed to pass one more person down wind. Then I flipped at the leeward mark getting pasted by three boats i got right back up. Fortunately they went too high on the long reach so I passed them back along with another leader who had flipped twice. After rounding the last leeward mark there was no time to gain anyone else so I rounded out the regatta with another fourth.

Unfortunatley this was not enough to stay in third. After a good day from both fourth and fifth places I slid back to fifth. Loosing the tie breaker for fourth, one point out of third and five out of first. Though it was I finished on the disapointing side of those points it was a succesful regatta in the fact that I was very consistant never finishing worse than fifth after the first race, and had a good start almost every race.