Race 1: medium wind, we picked the genoa as our head sail. It was mostly slack but sailing through the course we found some early ebb near short, so our tactical choice was to start near the pin end and head straight to shore to get that ebb, then tack as late as possible to head out to the mark, tack close to the windward mark, round the windward mark and gybe to head out to the slack part of the course.
Everything worked according to plan.
Boat speed was good. No major hiccup in team work. Outstanding layline calls from way out in the woods and in heavy current (bit kudos to Scott on that one), just slightly overstood on the first one but really not by much.
El Raton went way out into slack even more so than we did and put huge distance between our two boats by a really nice current move. Boat speeds and points were similar otherwise.
Elise fininshed 2nd behind El Raton, closing in on the Rat close to the Finish.
Race 2: heavier air, we switched down to a #3 jib. By then, the ebb was heavier and we opted for the committee boat end; early tack after crossing the line on starboard and out into the ebb.
On the first downwind, El Raton and Peaches switched back a #1 but we stayed with the #3 - and we felt way underpowered. The two lead boats put quite some distance on us on that second upwind leg until Nat said 'Oh wait, they have their #1 up, that would explain a lot of things'
We did not catch up and fininshed 3rd.
Race 3: tight pack again. Lighter air and we went back to the genoa. We luffed up Peaches over early on the line (leeward boats have right of way and by heading to a close haul, the boat right above you may end up crossing the line a tad early, as they are forced to head up. We did only one tack that upwind, when most other boats did three. Great layline call - and as we reached the first winward mark we were in 2nd position with El Raton. We followed closely on the downwind leg, with PEaches closing in. We passed El Raton on the way down and we were the first boat to round the leeward gate.
We headed back up into the ebb and rounded the windward mark again first, we headed to the shore to get current relief. Everyone followed and it was a very very tight pack and increasingly lighter air. On the last portion of the last leg, El Raton and Peaches were heading each other up fighting for 1st and 2nd, we stayed low to stay in current relief as much as possible and headed up for boat speed at the very end. We beat El Raton over the line by just a boat length.
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