This was a weather start in about 8 knots of air with the left pin slightly favored. We came in on port and tacked to starboard when we got close to Merlin on the left side of the line. We could not this time got up in Merlin's lane when she got lifted. We could not get control of her because they managed to stay on our right hip. Up towards the top of the leg she managed to get in our lane and tacked on the layline before us and managed to get lifted to the mark. That put us at the top B mark in 2nd. At this point in went dark quickly with the rain coming on. We gybed back and forth a couple of times looking for mark D and just could not find it. This proved to not be problem for Hot Ticket and Night Moves where they rounded it on top of us and quickly rolled us on a broad reach. As we approached DP8 Jayhawker got inside of us and to injury to insult I steered the boat too slowly and stalled at the mark causing us to touch it. We did our penalty turn and then went up the right side of course because we felt there was more pressure there. We managed to round right after Night Moves and stuck to them until DP5. Since it was almost dead downwind we managed to start gassing NM and then got on the left side of the river where there was more pressure. This put us in the position of passing her to finish third. This race was not successful mostly since we could not find that mark D. In the group of boats ahead of us we just could not see it. Maybe if Colleen had been there....Result 3rd out of 5 J120s
Link: http://www.windsoryachtclub.com/2007-re
COURSE B - 7.5 nautical milesStart 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.
This was a triangle race running around the triangle clockwise. The wind was varying between 335 and 348 degrees with wind speeds around 12 knots. Because the first leg was going to be a close reach I felt it was important to start at the left pin upwind from all the other 4 J120s. At 1.5 minutes before the gun I ran up toward the pin on starboard and when I felt there was enough room to tack on port. We managed to be near full speed at the gun where the leeward boats were going a little slow because of maneuvering. Merlin was the next boat down and they could not get up us before the start because the where too far down the line(thanks Doug). With a clean start I could sense the others were drifting south of the rhumb line we went down with them in the puffs to give cover. Every time the wind went left we gave them some gas. Hot Ticket got caught in the group and got squirted out the back. They then went to the north of us but I was not concerned because there were other slower boats up there to block there air. Merlin went way low on the course but I felt it would only be extra distance and when she came up to our line at the mark we would still gas them. With Jayhawker on our line behind us we would go up to their lane the wind backed and still get faster down the leg by doing so. We got the first mark in first place. After gybing we put up the .6 oz spinnaker. We were going slow at first so I saw an open spot above us and got 
This was a romp counterclockwise around Lake St. Clair. The wind was out of the northwest at about 15 knots. We managed to get to the line a little ahead of the other boats. But after the 3/4 spinnaker went up the trimmers got an overide and collapsed the spinnaker. This caused night Moves to roll us and we had to ride her stern. It was a very fast leg with boat speeds between 7 and 10 knots. We managed to only broach only once. After getting slowed down under a Na40, Hot Ticket got in just ahead of us at Thames River buoy. At this point I thought we had good chance to pass Night Moves. They put up their #3 and it was blowing only 14 knots and sure to go slower. Hot Ticket only had 4 people so they most likely would be unable to do well going to weather. Both predictions came true. On this leg the wind was shifting 25 degrees so it was necessary to continually tack. Somehow the only boat to catch up was Merlin. We must of come together with Merlin at 7 times and manged not to lose ground. The last time we tacked towards them and got hit with a header in the middle of the 
tack. We could not tack back because the wind speed was down to 5 knots by this time. So we rounded buoy g27 in the shipping channel behind Merlin but still ahead of Jayhawker. What happen next was simply amazing. Even though Jayhawker was only two lanes above us they got a lift and we got a header. If we would of tacked I thought we would cross behind them. They simply took the lift almost all the way point huron buoy where we just managed to sail into a hole. We rounded the buoy in 3rd and put up the .6 spinnaker since the .75 had a rip in it. Luiz and I repaired the rip and when completed we put up the .75. We almost caught up to Merlin and Jayhawker but they managed again to leave us behind. The rest of the race we got headed and went back to the ap1 to finish in the river. We finished at about 8:30 so it was relatively fast.
