Star North American Championship-Final

Oxford, Maryland

One race was held today on the Choptank in 7-10 knots and rain. The wind was just as shifty as it has been all week.

Brian and I had a decent start and sailed pretty well not he first leg (and were lucky that our side worked out well) to round the first mark second to Doug Smith and Chris Rogers. We managed to pass Smith Rogers to lead at the end of lap one.

On the second upwind leg, we protected the left side as it seemed good that far in the race. This meant that we were within 10 degrees of the port lay line with 12 minutes of sailing to do. That wasn’t enough protection! 5 boats passed us to the left!

The final run was a fetch and so was the final windward leg to the finish. We managed to pass two boats to finish 4th in the race and in the regatta.

Torben Grael finished in 11th and that’s all he needed to do given that Arthur and Dave were 9th. Tomas Horno and Josh Revkin had a very good race finishing 3rd and that was enough to boost him past Aurthur and Dave for second in the regatta.

All in all, its been a fun 8 days in Maryland and we had 13 races in that time. As frustrating as it can be at times, sailing in very shifty conditions makes you sharp. You have to make so many decisions over the course of the race as compared to very steady conditions which are more about boat speed.

Next Star appointment for me and most of the boats here will be the Winter Series in Miami starting with the Schoonmaker Cup, November 22-23.

For complete results for the North American Championship, go to: www.starclass.org

Paul