Brier Patch #2 (JAM) Make-up and Series Results

Results (8^th of 14), 4^th (of 14) in the series.

Course: Triangle

Wind: ENE 6-8 kts

Crew: Mark, Judy, Hunter

A few points first: 1) This was a make-up from May and 2) there were 14 boats in our class sailing (more than any other fleet) and 3) the results don’t really show how well we actually sailed.

It was a light air downwind start. We wanted to start on port around the middle of the line, but we got stuck (on port) in the lower third of the line. This actually worked to our advantage because there was a huge cluster at the pin end, and we were actually in a clear lane of our own for the whole leg. We got the wing-n-wing established quickly and sailed well to Mark S, arriving in the top third of the fleet.

After rounding it was a beat to Mark W. We fended off Joker, who tried to roll us, and they had to go below us. However some of the bigger boats caught us right at the mark, and then proceeded to roll us on the final leg. Two or three big boats rolled us, along with the two J-70s. That slowed us down just enough in the light air that we lost of few places.   If the race had ended at Mark W we would have been third or fourth.

In any case, it turned into a beautiful night for sailing and we actually did sail as well as we can in light air (three of the top four boats in our fleet were the small boats: a Star, a J-22 and J-24). The others ahead of us were the big guys with the 155s. At least we beat both J-70s.