Tim, the first leg to the bridge was a jib reach and there were monster boats in the fleet. It actually worked out pretty well for Ding (who started mid line or a little further left) but I was worried that if I started lower on the line, there was a good chance I would get rolled by the faster boats who's dirty air would keep handing me to the next boat in the freight train and I would end up at the back of the fleet. If it was an upwind beat to the bridge, then yeah, starting down there to get a clear lane of breeze would have been a pretty clear plan - the reach changes things a little.
Bob and I started dead on at the pin at the gun and it worked out very well for us. The M20s/F20 and SC22 were far enough above us that their dirty was never an issue. We got rolled by Jim before the bridge but it wasn't because of where we started it was because we didn't have the speed Jim had as the breeze softened on the approach to the bridge. If we could have kept pace it never would have been an issue for us and we would have been 4th through the brige behind the big boats. For us the pin was a good call and we'd do it again, the boat end is where the rif raf hangs out. :-)
"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda "Excuses are the tools of the weak and incompetent" - Two sista's I overheard in the hall "You don't have to be a brain surgeon to be a complete idiot, but it helps"
