Saturday Great Pumpkin

Three Races. 4th overall, after El Raton, Wile E Coyote and Dianne.

• First race - wind speed 8 to 12
• Second race - wind speed 12 to 15 with three times very weird lulls with wind speed dropping from 14 knots to 8 within seconds!
• Third race - wind speed 15 gusting 17. We changed headsail down to a #3 jib.

First start sucked but we caught up and were 2nd all the way up until the last upwind right behind El Raton. Good boat speed, good point and good team work.

Nat made a mistake letting Expressway inside at the leeward mark (they had no rights. they had not established any overlap) which cost us one place on the last upwind leg and Wile E Coyote just came from nowhere, from the other side of the course and just blasted right by us. They had awesome current calls. Hats off, nothing we could have done differently given our position in the race by that time.

Nat and Nathan shared foredeck duties (Nat did the last race and Nathan the first two) and managed two Mexican and a regular windward douse - probably not as fast as Scott would have done it, but not slow either. 

We had one new person (Charlie) who did an awesome job picking up jib and spinnaker trim and Mike adapted really well to pit/mast work with a short-handed crew configuration. 

Our tacks were REALLY good - with both the genoa and the jib, we didn't lose boat speed, came out of the tacks fast and had some really good rhythm.

One other bad tactical call got us to pick the wrong side of the course currentwise - however, overall good layline calls too (except for one which was really tough to call given the current at the windward mark)

Good starts the other races - and the last race, we fnished within one boat length of the two boats ahead of us so overall good sailing, and we could learn to pick out currents even better. I think that boat handling wise, we have improved much, keeping up with the group of leaders in these conditions.

Still some more work required in very light air and very heavy air (less than 5 knots and above 25). We can improve on the tactical side of things.