Audi Med Cup – Alicante – Race Day 3

The coastal race was held today, with light to moderate winds from the southeast. Most of the coastal racing is a procession, with little chance to pass. Today was not a lot different. For the second day in a row, Mean Machine won. They scored two first places, as they were in the lead at the half way point and at the finish. The course was about 30 miles and took just over three hours to complete. The TP52 Class allows masthead genoas (Code 0’s) for coastal racing and they were particularly useful today with the wind under 9 knots for half of the race.

Unfortunately I had a bad start again today… got tangled up with some Russians and we were very slow at the gun. We managed to clear out pretty quickly and make a big run back to mid-fleet by the top of the first windward leg, but we were two meters short of crossing Mutua Madrilena on starboard. That forced us into a late port tack approach which meant ducking a lot of boats. We gybed early in the run and that did not pay for us either.

We were going well on a long port tack upwind and playing the right along with Bribon. It looked good most of the way then just at the end, the wind went 15 degrees left and all that we gained evaporated. So, we rounded the island (10 miles South of Alicante) in 11th and were still there at the midpoint.

Then, as we headed back up the coast toward Alicante harbor under spinnaker, things go very light and the wind shifted right about 110 degrees. We all scrambled to get the Code 0’s on and we passed Platoon there. Then we went along the harbor where we found more wind and passed Matador and Ono. On the final run, in 5 knots of wind, we passed Mutua Madrilena.

So in the end, as has been our normal behavior this week, we passed four boats to finish 7th. Better but still, not what we are capable of. I really feel bad about the starts that I have had this week. They have cost us a lot of points. I am going to try harder in the last three races to get our boat out in front at the start and let it go. It is very fast.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for very light winds again and the schedule is for two windward leeward races starting at 1300.

For complete results go to www.2008.MedCup.org