Splain’in to do:

Why did the other boats beat the Tigers? Talent, plain and simple.

Are the other boats faster? Not really on the straight line but boat handling was better.

Think about who was on the boats: Robbie Daniels-Capricorn, Greg Goodall-Capricorn, Jon Casey-Infusion, Andrew MacPherson-Infusion, Enrique Figeroa-Infusion.

Those guys are REALLY good sailors. I could break it down further and mention how much they are able to sail, whether they are considered pros, mention their crews, or some other things. I think you can fill in more blanks.

Eileen and I being the first Tiger does not say much as we feel we were sailing terrible that week. We where, at many times, in the top ten but only finished there once. We flipped from a dumb mistake. We went the wrong way as if it were our religion. We came to the event with not one but two new sails that we had not used. Finally by Thursday we got some of the tuning right and sailed with some good boatspeed.

The others on Tigers did not have a whole lot of experience with the boat and at times they were sailing really well in the fleet. I had a comment from Mike Krantz that he thought we had good point with boatspeed one time he was thinking about going over us and could not.

Eileen and I have not sailed as much this year as we have in the past and we had last year off from each other while I was sailing with Bobby K and she was on Steve Myrter’s boat.

By the end of the week both upwind and downwind we had some very nice speed. If I could figure more out regarding Pensacola, rightway-wise, it would have been entirely different results.

We went to the event with the intention of having a nice time rather than an intense time. It was okay for a bit. I don’t feel that we really got into “competitive mode”. Sometimes things would work out for us but most of the time we were chasing our own tail.

I mention all of this to assure you that I think the Tiger is a competitive boat. It would have been nice to see the likes of Greg and Jacques at the event. I know that this post would not be made if that were the case.

Later,
Dan