J-22 Worlds first day wrap-up
Before yesterday I couldn’t have said, “Well, I remember this one time when I was in a regatta that was so large that in one race we tied for 64th place with 42 other boats”.
Now I can tell that sailing story!
After waiting for the winds to build and settle in a somewhat straight direction, the race committee tried to get all of the 105 J-22’s heading towards the windward mark. A general recall and then a timing error on the second try delayed the race for 30 more minutes. We were in position to nail both of those starts on the pin end but that didn’t matter in the end.
The third try send all of the boats off without incident. We were one boat length behind a bunch of over-early boats that didn’t get caught and we were mid-line on the pin end side of the line.
After about 5 minutes, the wind went left and got lighter and we tacked to port and headed up the middle of the course. Wrong call!!
The middle went almost totally dead and we struggled with the steering and trimming in the light conditions finally making it to the top mark and then half-way down to the leeward mark before the breeze dropped to under 2 knots.
Finishing somewhere near the back of the fleet, we crossed after the time limit expired and joined company with a third of the fleet in the same predicament as us!
Race committee called it a day and then I had another “first” for my sailing career - being the 17th boat in an 18 boat tow line back to the harbor!
Today, the weather isn’t looking much better as far as sailing goes. Winds of 5-7 from the East (which means ‘no wind’ up here in New York). I hope we get another race in today.
Tonight, I’ll post photos and links to other blogs and report on what happens out on the water. Time to head to the boat!
