Of course, it appears that the forecast was overblown. While the early morning was rough, it didn't get as bad as the forecast (winds and gusts in the teens), and the lightning dissipated before coming ashore. Still, had the forecast been accurate, the carnage would have been spectacular (and unacceptable).

BTW, one correction above: Valente's boat is a carbon Nacra 20, but is not set up for foiling (c-boards, no t-foil rudders). They still smoked the fleet...

More stories about yesterday's racing:

Bulgers tried to cut behind a rock pile near Hog Island, but ran aground, capsized, broke their tiller extension, and jammed a dagger board (which required major effort to remove later ashore). They managed to recover quickly, and were able to get ahead of Giulianos after their navigational error. It was a close battle to the finish after that, and Joe and Peter edged Chris and Max by 40 seconds (elapsed) at the end of the race!

Ian Ray and Peter Libre capsized once or twice near Prudence, and were really slow afterwards. They mentioned that their spinnaker had issues, and they wound up leaving last night after finishing last and seeing today's forecast.

Easton recovered after losing the ability to fly their chute (broken tack line), managed to edge out Ian and Peter by 20 seconds (elapsed) by the end of the race!

Mike