.."Come Back"

txt courtesy of sailinanarchy

Come Back

Andy Horton and Brad Nichol take us into day one from the Star NA's in Miami.

Andy told me he would kill me if I said, "It was an electrifying day on the water." Well, at least it was not shocking! Everybody was on the look out for the cold front to come through Miami, this is the same front that brought tornados to the mid western US yesterday. It finally came as the fleet reached the last weather mark of the day bringing blinding rain, heavy wind and plenty of thunder and lightning. Star sailors are a bunch of tough guys so we continued to race.

We were having a tough race at that point after a bad start threw us off our game plan but at the offset mark we nailed a jibe and took off on a plane. It was raining so hard that we could not see100 ft but we pointed our compass on the finish line and let 'er rip. These were fire hose conditions (we were going so fast that the spray felt like a fire hose) and we were able to pass quite a few boats. As the storm cell passed the wind got a bit lighter and we had trouble making the transition from reaching to running and lost four boats to finish 13th. We were not exactly happy but it was good to be able to claw back from 38th at the first mark.

There was a first race of the day, which seems like a blur at this point with so many tacks and jibes between the Swedes, French, Kiwis and ourselves. All I know is at the finish we were able to hold off the attack to finish second.

With a 2, 13, today we move up into 4th place with two races to go. We hope to drop the 25 from yesterday after tomorrow's one race. As the front has passed tomorrow should bring light wind out of the north and cold (70 degree) temperatures. The regatta will finish with the sixth and final race on Saturday.

Cheers!

Andy& Brad

Tip of the Day: Know your angles. It is so important to evaluate your situation going into the weather mark. Are we in a righty of a lefty? What is the heading to the leeward mark? What are the other boats doing? You can make solid gains in the first few seconds after the weather mark if you know which way to go coming out and get the jump on the pack.

txt courtesy of sailinanarchy