2007 Warsash Spring Series – Race 3 – Report from With Alacrity

We discovered for the second time in the Spring Series that it is awfully hard to recover if you make a big mistake early on. This time we convinced ourselves that the forecast for the wind to shift from NE to E during the race meant that going right upwind was the way to go. We duly tacked off straight after the start onto port and were happy with our position well to the right of the fleet when half way up the beat we started looking seriously for the windward mark - only to discover it was a massively biased windward leg and we had overstood by maybe quarter of a mile – doh!!

After reaching back down to the mark we spent the rest of the race trying to catch up. We managed to close the gap with Dragonfly at the finish but all too little too late.

I’m off to write 1000 times: Sail the boat around the course, not where you think the course should be.

Oh – and the wind shifted to the East just after we crossed the finish line!!