Good Upwind, Bad Downwind
Wednesday today, time for the mid-week weekend. Although I left the office slightly late and I picked up David from his work, to go together to the club, we managed to arrive nice and early. There wasn’t much wind, but I expected it to pick up later on. I rigged Bubble and went to change. It was warm so I decided to wear my hikers and a short-sleeved rash vest. When I went outside, I realised that it was getting a bit chilly so I decided to wear a spray top too.
We went out, and the wind seemed to be shifting a bit, so it would be a bit tricky start. I got ready for the start. I went on the line and I had a quite good start. I carried on for a while but once again, after the first couple of tacks, I messed it up. I was close to Rob, Tom, Tom and Jane. On the first downwind leg I got ahead of them but they were, still, quite close. On the beat I messed up a bit. At some point one of them would get away and I would fight to get back ahead. Basically I was good upwind, but downwind I was getting slow. It seems I need to work on my downwind technique.
Tom got ahead of me and for a moment even Rob. On the last upwind leg, I managed to pass Rob and I was chasing Tom. I didn’t manage to catch up with him but I was getting closer to him. On the downwind leg I got very close. Then there was a short reach (from 1 to 2) and 50 yards upwind to the line. If the upwind leg was the full length I would get to him. Never mind, next time.
I enjoyed it quite a lot, the wind was nice, relatively steady and the battles made it even better. I finished 12 out of 15 which is not that great, but since I enjoyed it, it doesn’t matter. Invitation Trophy on Sunday. That’s 3 races. It’s going to be nice and exciting. See you then.