Wow – as there are so many great reports up for Day 6 and this is proving a busy week at work I will keep this really short.
It was a hugely enjoyable race, classic one design racing that was nip and tuck all the way round. We thought we had sailed well enough to win until Festina came back from the death at the end! After we had sneaked into the lead for the first time at the last leeward mark we had the classic dilemma of who to cover when the 2 closest boats split in different directions, we chose what we thought was the quickest route to the finish whilst staying between Festina and Rapscallion and it was looking good until the last half mile when Festina lifted up to the finish whilst we and Rapscallion had overstood. Obviously disappointing to lose by such a narrow margin at the finish but was a very memorable race that was great to be part of.
Only thing I would add from the other race reports was that I thought the oscillating wind was shifting for long enough to be worth tacking / gybing on – it was one of those days that if you got in phase with the shifts it was very quick. On the other hand the strong spring tides made judging laylines quite difficult and hitting them too early (or sailing past them) is very slow, we did this twice and lost valuable ground – unfortunately when it mattered most on the first & last beat.
Remember a 3rd discard kicks in if we complete 11 races which will make the points look much closer throughout the fleet, though it would need Festina to press the self-destruct button not to win the series now – they have hit an awesome run of form over the last 4 weekends. However, looks like snow forecast so maybe we won’t get an eleventh race in this Sunday. If we do sail it’s gonna be cold!