Back In Race Mode

Well, back in race mode today. Round Robin 3 started off with USA 49 doing battle with the Swiss team. The first start had to be abandoned because the Swiss were rammed by the umpire boat, that is definitely a first for me. After getting settled into the next pre-start, we had a good battle on our hands. The new and improved Swiss boat did well, they added a bigger rudder and wings to their aft keel. In the flat water and 18 knots of the southwesterly breeze we won the start, held on up the beat, and rounded just in front of the Swiss. It was pretty tight all the way around the course. The major excitement came when our spinnaker exploded as it filled at the second weather mark. The bow team did a great job sorting everything out and getting our backup kite hoisted quickly. Up the last beat we were just able to get them out to the starboard layline and lead them into the mark. We executed a nice tack set and protected down the run for our win. A win in this round is worth nine points, so it is nice to see those points go up on the board.

I also have to mention the extraordinary effort put in by our sail loft last night. Our new main missed its plane, and didn’t arrive until 6:00 PM last night. Craig Phillips and his sailmaking team worked through the night to take a 3DL skin and turn it into a finished, ready to race mainsail complete with logos. We put it up right after the race to take a look at it and it looks really nice. Tomorrow we take on Abracadabra with their bowsprit boat USA 50. It should be exciting. Thanks for tuning in.