I just got to watch Race 5. Wow. Talk about a fk up!
Rick, you need to FedEx these clowns a copy of your Catamaran Racing for the 90's! It's obvious whom ever is calling for a downwind rounding at high speed, to roll right into a tack (and come to a dead stop!) has never raced a catamaran before!
I distinctly remember somewhere in your book, Randy Smyth said something like, "Speed is all that matters. Go as fast as you can, as long as you can!" Nowhere did it say, "If you are going fast and well ahead, bring the boat to a complete stop and wait for your opponent to catch up!"
Just wow! What a mess. They should have just stayed on starboard, rounded at high speed, kept on going fast, and waited for ETNZ to round, see which way they go, then either tack (SMOOTHLY, with Speed!) or carry on to the far left, and out of the adverse current!
Seemed like rookie mistakes.
Do you think JK has gotten LE's Sperry out of his butt yet?
At best case and with a significant lead (worthy of two tacks not causing you much harm), you round the mark and tack back so you reach near the middle of the course at the time your competitor is rounding the mark so you can follow from the front and stay in phase with them. That was bizarre to see them tack right away at that rounding. It does look like they thought they had a sneaky creative manuever in that they could get a free tack by going straight into a tack coming around the mark while still on their foils. They wanted to get right anyway but because tacks are so expensive, they reached the boundary too soon and would have had to do 2 more tacks to stay on the same type of line NZ was running into the lee water of Alcatraz. The blown tack hurt but tacking right away at the mark left them at the edge of the zone too early to take advantage of that side of the course. I heard a comment in the press conference that they just didn't have time to get everything setup for that tack which is part of the reason it looked so awful (the new leeward board wasn't even lowered yet). That was a major dork up.
