2008 Acura Miami Grand Prix- Race Day 2
The breeze was in first thing this morning. We got underway with the first race of the day right at 1035 with 22 knots from 170 and BIG waves. All the Farr 40’s were on #4 jibs and downwind was flat out planning. Opus of Germany won the race and we had a decent performance to get 6th while the two leaders from yesterday, Mascalzone Latino and Barking Mad were back a bit.
For the second race of the day, the wind had moderated a bit and half the fleet went with a #3 jib which is slightly bigger than a #4. The wind actually was down in the 18 knot range, from 180, and those of us with the #4’s struggled a bit up the first windward leg. We had good positioning on our approaches to the windward mark all day, avoiding the big starboard tack line up which was extra painful today with the big waves on starboard tack. We had a good run and changed the jib to the #3 for the second beat. We sailed fast and the correct way, which happened to be to the right and moved into third place by the second windward mark. Again Mascalzone and Barking Mad were back but again Opus was leading and in fact won the second race too!
The wind really dropped off for the third race, down to 12 knots and kept moving right…now 190. I got us a terrible start and we were deep…almost last. We were just very late at the committee boat end of the line and even when we tacked to port we had no clear air. So we spent the first beat just trying to get some oxygen and got to the first mark about 24th. Barking Mad had a great start and was out in front right away. We managed to grind our way back to about 14th I think at the finish. I am a bit down on myself about that last race.
There were plenty of red protest flags out there today and plenty of people calling the race committee after finishing to say they were protesting. Amazingly, very few protests ever come to fruition. I really enjoy not being involved in all that stuff and so far we have been real clean.
I haven’t seen the official scores but I think we are still tied for third with Nerone, a few points behind Mascalzone and about 11 behind Opus. Still lots of racing left.
For the official results go to www.Premiere-racing.com
Tomorrows forecast has a front passing over Miami at 0600 with lots of rain and then a sharp wind shift to the NNW and a strong cool breeze for tomorrow. When the wind blows from the NNW here it is offshore and so very shifty. Should be a lot of fun for those who get it right.
