A Love 4 Sailing

Day four had mid 60 temperatures with 5 to 8 knot north to northeast winds.  Race seven we started one boat down from the weather end and headed left. Tacked on the first left shift below and ahead of our competition.  Since it was a northerly wind it was quite shifty, 30 to 40 degrees at times.  We waited for the right shift and tacked back to the left– crossing the competition.  This allowed us to control the race up the first beat.  We rounded first at the weather mark and jibed shortly after we set the spinaker.  About half way down the run we jibed back to the middle before our competition which allowed us to seperate from the group.  We took the right gate at the leeward mark as the wind started to lighten up.  We covered the second place boat on the middle left as one boat headed off to the right.  As the right hand shift came in one boat made big gains and appeared to be crossing us for a while.  We sailed conservatively and waited until we could cross.  Even though our lead was cut by more than half, we rounded ten boat lengths ahead.  We jibed and sailed most of the run down the left hand side.  This allowed us to maintain our lead and finish in first. 

Lack of wind forced the cancellation of the second race.  Tomorrow is a lay day, which is good because it is supposed to rain.  Racing will continue on Thursday….stay tuned.  Appreciate your comments.  Click here for results.  http://208.106.141.167/npt/c/cnt/down/07PTResults100907.pdfÂ