The breeze eased to a measly 10-16 knots today for the final two races at the Western Hemisphere Championships. The early start had a tinge of deja vu as 15 knots funneled into Nassau Harbour as we ventured out at 830am. Once we got to the course the wind moderated slightly and went 30 degrees right as it happened. Unfortunately we were on the left side of the first beat in race 1 and rounded in the 25 range. With some work on the runs and second beat we were able to scrape through to a 12th place finish. In race two I misjudged our position in our final approach and we were well late to the start. Fortunately the boat was finally getting to proper tune and we made a nice comeback upwind and downwind to finish 6th. With the throwout in effect we finished 10th overall tied with our roomates from the week Rick and Phil. Their winning the first race today rectified their double DNC day yesterday after they wrote off a mast.
I feel like this week was a wake up call for how to prepare myself for a breezy regatta. Having CISA Clinic finish so shortly before the regatta and virtually no tuning time didn’t do me any favors to have a great event. I was frustrated at time with how we sailed and I’ve left much room for improvement, but taking this as a training regatta leading into the Europeans in June we should be in good shape by then.
We leave for Europe in two weeks heading to Lake Garda after a lot of driving and then Viareggio, Italy.
Results here.
