The regatta was a great time. Saturday was buoys and Sunday was a distance race to Fort Pickens and back. The conditions Saturday were challenging. The winds for the first race were about 10 kts but they really picked up for the 2nd-4th race. In the 2nd race, Andy and I were very close on the first downwind leg. I was right behind them but could not get by. We were of course talking smack. I got a little ahead of them when we both jibed and I gave Mike and Andy a very respectful "see ya ladies". Mike told latter that Andy then said "get out on the trap and we'll drive over him". Mike was about half way out on the wire when I pitched poled. He got out an oh @#$% right before they went over too. We were so close we had to disentangle the boats before we could right them. Both our mains had come out of the track so we had to go back to the beach to fix it. The wind continued to build for the rest of the racing. Someone mentioned it was around 18 kts for the 4th race. Andy won the last race boat for boat and was doing very well in the 3rd race until he capsized going downwind. I was way over powered for last two races and was just along for the ride. I finished the day with 3 total capsizes. Andy had 2. All our capsizes were downwind. The distance race on Sunday was good fun. The wind was out of the south west the whole day so it was basically a port upwind tack all the way to the fort and then a starboard downwind back. The winds built from about 5 kts to 12-15 kts. Andy got to the fort a minute or two in front of me but I caught back up on the downwind, mainly because I could sail a little deeper and did not have to jibe. We went under the bridge together but they edged me out on the upwind back to Key Sailing. On the long upwind in building winds, I noticed that in the very light wind Andy and I had about the same boat speed. As the winds built and I was able to get on the trap but they were still on the hull, I was a little faster. When the winds were strong enough for both of them to get out on the trap and I was de-powering, they were always faster. Downwind, uni seems faster/can sail deeper in the light winds. As the wind builds past 12-15, especially if it is gusty, I can not really power the boat up downwind and not wind up swimming. The two up boat seemed to be able to continue to drive the boat hard as the winds built.


Chris
Trident F16