This was a great day on the water. Carrie and Jason were in the forward cockpit trading duties on the boards and sheets.  It was a first I20 race for both. Our loyal opposition,  Tim and Braden, showed in the hotrod OSP and schooled us with lots of leebow mumbo jumbo in the start gate every… single… race!

It was not until the third heat that we shook them by  spinning a doughnut with 30 seconds to go.  That earned  some clean air.  Even so, every race, the OSP cleared the windward mark first. But good ol’ 806 seemed to find its groove downwind.  The day saw us see-sawing with Tim and Braden like this, until the finish, where Tim smoked us on the first two races.

Some downwind observations: Kudos to Carrie who is a chute trimming machine, keeping us posted when we were caving in and when we had the all important tension.  Jason was excellent at finding just the right amount of tack line to let the chute float where we could work closer to dead down wind.  We saw some 7 and 8 knot bursts, routinely beating our upwind speeds.

Windward legs were a bit harder for us. We’ve been working on optimizing upwind angles all year. This Sunday, I set up the mast with more rake and really felt the weather helm.  But she was pointing a bit better.  Not until the third race did we discover the right main sheet tension at this rake to really point.  And, as luck would have it, Tim only had a mediocre run, so we were able to hold him off at the finish.

I share the race video below knowing it confirms some atrocious helmsmanship.  Thanks to Carrie and Jason for sticking with it while I puzzled things out!

Screen Capture of GPS Action Replay