Rolex NYYC Race Week-Day 3

Newport, Rhode Island

IRC class 1, which includes the TP52’s was assigned to the “stadium” course inside the Bay and in front of Fort Adams today.  The wind were light, under 10 knots throughout the racing period.  Racing got cut a bit short at 14:00 as a large thunderstorm built just to the north of the racing area and was threatening.

In IRC 1, we had three very competitive races with all three TP52’s and Interlodge, mixing well in the results. Onboard Phoenix we started off the day nicely winning race 1 and leading at every mark of the two lap course.  Race 2 was tougher for us as Vesper was just ahead of us at the first mark.  This made us the meat in the three boat sandwich.  Interlodge sailed well to take second again and Spookie corrected out on us by .  In the final race, we had a great start and were comfortably in the lead.  We had a technical problem with our spinnaker dropping system and the end of the first lap.  The spinnaker ended up in the water like a giant sea anchor.  We lost a minute of time with that and our chance to get back into the running for this regatta.  Vesper had the race well in hand and got in a bad lane down the final run and Spookie got around them for the win. Interlodge corrected out in 2nd in all three races.

Spookie leads the competition with 14 points while Vesper and Interlodge are tied on 18 and Phoenix is 4th with 20 points.

While we are disappointed in the third race today, generally we are learning a lot about what it takes in the various conditions to sail Phoenix well. We are achieving our goals of getting our new team competitive with a couple of boats that are very well sorted out and have been at this for a while.

Two to three races are scheduled for tomorrow with light winds again.

For complete scores go to: http://www.yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eid=2713

Paul