It was Neil's first time on Elise. Neil is a pro sailor, taught at OCSC, chartered/delivered boats, raced a bunch of boats. Still, whenever you show up on a new boat and with a new team, it takes a little while for anyone to adapt.
Round the buoys races is really all about teamwork and tactics. There is definitely a bit of boat speed that's required. If you are dead slow, it will be hard to catch up. However, if all your maneuvres are slow or take time to recover, and if you miss your start, pick the wrong side of the course, end up having to give way at a critical moment, etc...you're probably done ;-)
We used the midwinters as training ground which means that there was absolutely no pressure to do well. The great thing about doing things like this is that we take risks and everyone has the time to learn. When we learn and push ourselves, we are likely to make some mistakes. We are just saying that it's really fine during that regatta. The fact that it counted toward last year's ratings might have to do with this ;-)
Anyway - my memory of the race is a bit blurry now but I do remember some excellent Chilean wine back at the dock...Interestingly we were back at a dock way before boats that beat us during the race. I guess we like to go fast when there is no time pressure...
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