Windsor Wednesday Race - Scha-wing!

This race we took Tom and Amy from Hot Ticket. This was a starboard close reach course (66 degrees) with the air coming from about 130 degrees at about 8 knots with the pin side favored. I chose to use the light #1. 3 of the J/120's approached the start on starboard from farther back and Merlin came in from port following the line. I went around the pin, came in on port, and tacked when I got close to the first starboard tack boat. We managed to hit the pin end at about half a boat length behind the line at the gun a little slow. Night Moves was right behind us and I chose to go up into their lane to gas them a little bit. When we got a little distance on them we went down leeward to Merlin who at the time was about even with us. Going farther up the leg we concentrated on boat speed (meaning constant sail trim). All we needed was a few feet forward and we could start gassing them. With adjustments made by Rod, Ben, and Mike (moving the lead forward and back)we were able to get that distance and then blanket them. This put us ahead of Merlin and NM about 10 boat lengths at the top mark. This time I chose to delay putting up the 3/4 until I was sure it was the right sail after rounding. We put it up and extended our lead to the next mark. By having clear air we had kept our distance on NM, the next J120. The next mark was also another close reach and we rounded without problem. The next downwind leg was with the .6, performed a Mexican takedown and rounded inside of Dirty Harry, a J105 going slow. The next leg was a close reach and we managed to roll him and came in close behind Creative, another J105. Fortunately they let us cut in underneath them without laying down on us. The following leg was againwith the head sail on a close reach. The last leg to DP7 we put up the .75 spinnaker because we were about at 60 degrees apparent. NM went with their code 0 and that proved to be a problem in the river. Our sail was larger and we were able to sail it a little lower without collapsing it. We finished less than a minute ahead of NM and finished first. This race I felt we were back in the groove with very little mistakes made tactically and crew work. Even Colton enjoyed steering the finish. I would rate it a sha-wing.

COURSE B - 7.5 nautical miles
Start to B (065o) leaving it to port
-then to D (261o) leaving it to port
-then to DP8 (208o) leaving it to port
-then to CC (063o) leaving it to port
-then to D (309o) leaving it to port
-then to DP7 (212o) leaving it to starboard
-then to finish leaving DP5 to starboard.
Result: 1 out of 5 J120's
Link: http://www.wyc.info/regatta2005/WYC%202005%20Fall%20Race%202.pdf