Good Start...

I can honestly say that I had no idea how I would stack up against such a big talented fleet. Well....so far so good. I had really good upwind speed in the light and lumpy conditions. There was still a lot of sea left over from the strong Easterly breeze from yesterday.

The first race the pin end was pretty favored and I really had no idea which way to go. It seemed like the wind was trying to go a little right as the day went on. In every recalled start, I was probably over early. Fortunately, when the real race counted, I had clear air and a good lane in each start. With the good upwind speed that I had, I was able to get around the first weather mark in decent position each race. I was a tad slow downwind compared to a few boats. I am hoping that my downwind speed will get better as time goes on. You can't win this regatta unless you are going good downwind, particularly with downwind finishes.

First race I got a 2nd and really could have won that race...it was very close. In the second race, I was right up there again and if I had been a tad faster downwind, I could have been in the mix for a win too.

The 3rd race I got stuck a little left on the first beat and about 10 boats were ahead of me coming in from the right. I got a little right of them near the layline and closed the gap a lot. From then on, I just slowly ground down the boats in front of me and finished right behind the main pack.

All in all.....I will take it. It was good start to the regatta. Hopefully, I can keep the momentum going into to tomorrow.

Here is a link to the results:

http://www.carolinayachtclub.org/LMNADay1.html