Late day here in Palma!!
We had to wait for the breeze to show up in the morning and were delayed getting out on Day 2. When the breeze filled it was off the land and very shifty for our first race. I did not have a great first beat as I chose the left side and was looking good about halfway up the 1st leg coming in on port from the left side. There was then a large right shift which put me back onto starboard heading back out to the left side. The right shift looked like it was going to hold for the rest of the beat and I made the hard choice to tack back and minimize the loss to the lead pack. This turned out to be the correct choice as the boats I was with on the left were not able to come back at the top of the beat and gave me a lot of confidence in my decision to minimize the loss rounding in about 18th at the first mark. Things then got very interesting for the rest of the race with huge pressure differences and large shifts as the breeze died. I had a great first downwind to round the bottom mark in around 10th. We had two more laps of the Windward - Leeward course. I was happy with my choices on playing the shifts but also not taking too many risks for the rest of the race trying to pick off as many boats as I could. At the end of our race we finished in about 2 - 4 knots of wind and I felt good to get a 5th from a difficult race.
We then had to wait for the wind to fill and it came in from the normal seabreeze direction here in Palma. The wind was much steadier than our previous races and we were really able to see how my boat speed was in this race. After an ok start I sailed very well up the first beat to round in about 8th. On the first downwind I passed a 2 boats to round in 6th and then had a battle with the boats in 4th to 9th for the rest of the race. I was able to come away with another 5 to cap off a consistent and solid day.
Overall, there are still some mistakes I am making on the course and if I can eliminate those we will be in the hunt for some top 3 finishes in the races. Looking forward to racing tomorrow and making some more gains!!
Thanks
Zach
We had to wait for the breeze to show up in the morning and were delayed getting out on Day 2. When the breeze filled it was off the land and very shifty for our first race. I did not have a great first beat as I chose the left side and was looking good about halfway up the 1st leg coming in on port from the left side. There was then a large right shift which put me back onto starboard heading back out to the left side. The right shift looked like it was going to hold for the rest of the beat and I made the hard choice to tack back and minimize the loss to the lead pack. This turned out to be the correct choice as the boats I was with on the left were not able to come back at the top of the beat and gave me a lot of confidence in my decision to minimize the loss rounding in about 18th at the first mark. Things then got very interesting for the rest of the race with huge pressure differences and large shifts as the breeze died. I had a great first downwind to round the bottom mark in around 10th. We had two more laps of the Windward - Leeward course. I was happy with my choices on playing the shifts but also not taking too many risks for the rest of the race trying to pick off as many boats as I could. At the end of our race we finished in about 2 - 4 knots of wind and I felt good to get a 5th from a difficult race.
We then had to wait for the wind to fill and it came in from the normal seabreeze direction here in Palma. The wind was much steadier than our previous races and we were really able to see how my boat speed was in this race. After an ok start I sailed very well up the first beat to round in about 8th. On the first downwind I passed a 2 boats to round in 6th and then had a battle with the boats in 4th to 9th for the rest of the race. I was able to come away with another 5 to cap off a consistent and solid day.
Overall, there are still some mistakes I am making on the course and if I can eliminate those we will be in the hunt for some top 3 finishes in the races. Looking forward to racing tomorrow and making some more gains!!
Thanks
Zach
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