Well, the wind certainly didn’t cooperate for Spring Series #7. The Sunday morning forecast was for breezes around 8 kts along with steady showers. We were lucky enough that the rain held off…but so did the breeze. Seven Lightnings (along with some Albacores, Cats, a Buc, and two I-Scows) drifted up or were towed up to the racecourse. The RC did as well as they could with the light to nonexistent breeze, resetting the course to take advantage of the only breeze of the day and send us off on a race at about 12:30. When it did fill, the breeze seemed to come from the East or Southeast, though it was very patchy (more like bands that would come up the river from the S/SE) and it was key to be the first boat to the pressure wherever and whenever it appeared. We did a good job of holding off the pack (and rounding some marks twice…more on this below) to take a bullet on Sinistra, followed by Chris, Liz & Palmer on String Theory (they very nearly got us, but we got one last puff as we drifted down to the shortened-course finish at the leeward mark). Kudos to the RC for their work on a challenging day. As it turned out, it was a beautiful afternoon for an extended after-race BBQ!
Keep reading for some more details of the racing from my vantage point on Sinistra, and add your own comments in if you have them!
