Great wind today, NW gusty though and shifty (does that make it great? dunno). Poor start on race one... Tshan and Tback didn't make it to the line in time so it was me, running 2-up with my friend captcardiac. I was driving. Apparently kept up with some 17Rs upwind and felt like I was gaining on them a lot downwind... that is until we got caught in the dead spot in the middle of the course. We rounded A and 2 boats in front of us managed to forget all about that little mark that is commonly known as the "offset" mark which isn't optional I heard <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Hit A mark once when we didn't communicate very well and my crew thought I had the mainsheet when I told him to come in off the wire. no biggy. We didn't finish all that well in race 1 despite us being able to hang with the 17s. Did not notice the F18s really because we were dealing with pretty good puffs and managing to sail into all the dead spots. Race 2.. ahd a great start, hit the pin end with speed right at the gun. Smoking upwind and heard a pop which was something breaking which required us to forget the rest of the regatta. Had to help my friend with his boat.... I will fill you guys in on that later. Great day though and I consider it a success for my first race. If you get enough weight in the back of the boat you can KILL other boats downwind. A lot fo boats didn't make it to the start line on race one.. which brings up the question- if half the boats don't make it to the start on time, should you still start the race?
