Tonight’s regatta was for three races. Skippers were Viv, Gin, Moon with Emilio racing in the first two and a new skipper, Cooter Coorana racing in the final. The Blake was well behaved with winds coming from 160 degrees with a variable wind of around 20 kts. Tourists were not an issue.
The first race was pretty uneventful with Viv taking the lead from the start and holding it throughout, followed by Gin, Moon and Emilio finishing in that order.
The second race saw one battle between Moon and Emilio with Moon coming from behind and finally getting on Emilio’s windward side, shadowing him and moving into third place.
In race three Moon established and held the lead leaving Gin and Viv to battle it out. The finish between these two was very close with Viv crossing just before Gin while they were overlapped.
Cooter joined us for the third race. Today was his first day sailing in SL, his first day with the 12M of course yet he managed to finish the course. His boat wasn’t IDd so the line didn’t pick him up, he finished behind everyone but did finished. He is a RL sailor and that experience helped him here. Finishing a course on your first try with a 12M on your first day sailing in SL deserves a congratulations.
Congratulations to Viv for her two victories and Moon for his one.
NYC 318
Race Results:
1: vivipezz Resident _>i> – Race Time: 0:14:35
2: GinPhx Resident 18AI S – Race Time: 0:15:06
3: moonglownight Resident moon – Race Time: 0:15:31
4: emiliopc7 Resident EM69 – Race Time: 0:16:21
Lap Times:
vivipezz Resident _>i> – Start: 0:00:07 – Last lap: 0:14:28
GinPhx Resident 18AI S – Start: 0:00:25 – Last lap: 0:14:41
moonglownight Resident moon – Start: 0:00:17 – Last lap: 0:15:14
emiliopc7 Resident EM69 – Start: 0:00:03 – Last lap: 0:16:18
NYC 328
Race Results:
1: vivipezz Resident _>i> – Race Time: 0:15:49
2: GinPhx Resident 18AI S – Race Time: 0:16:16
3: moonglownight Resident moon – Race Time: 0:16:30
4: emiliopc7 Resident EM69 – Not Finished
Lap Times:
vivipezz Resident _>i> – Start: 0:00:01 – Last lap: 0:15:48
GinPhx Resident 18AI S – Start: 0:00:01 – Last lap: 0:16:15
moonglownight Resident moon – Start: 0:00:12 – Last lap: 0:16:18
emiliopc7 Resident EM69 – Start: 0:00:09 – Last lap: Not Finished
NYC 317
Race Results:
1: moonglownight Resident moon – Race Time: 0:10:26
2: vivipezz Resident _>i> – Race Time: 0:10:57
3: GinPhx Resident 18AI S – Race Time: 0:10:59
Lap Times:
moonglownight Resident moon – Start: 0:00:09 – Last lap: 0:10:17
vivipezz Resident _>i> – Start: 0:00:20 – Last lap: 0:10:37
GinPhx Resident 18AI S – Start: 0:00:03 – Last lap: 0:10:56
Nantucket Yacht Club 
Thanks for hosting and reporting, Justin. Fun and exciting regatta as always. And warm welcome to Cooter! Always nice to see new sailors, and he seems to enjoy the 12M very much, so he must be a cool guy, eh?
Anyway, as Justin mentioned, the first race was pretty eventless for me: well-timed start, flawless sailing to keep far enough ahead to avoid suffering from my fellow competitors’ wind shadow on the way back. Indeed, at each mark, from #2 to #4, you do feel the boats behind on this course and you can get into trouble if you let them close in!
Race 2 had a busy start: Gin had decided for a port start so she had to tack early, barely avoiding a foul as she ended alongside my boat, nearly touching. Despite starting earlier, we ended slower and fell behind Moon and Emilio, tangled in a duel of their own, after both tacked to port. Tacking to get clear from Gin, I was on a good angle upwind, while Moon and Emilio kept battling, both sailing slower, too close to the wind. At one point, seeing I was about take over, Moon tried to luff up to hinder me but ended nearly head to wind and fell back onto close-hauled. From then on, I could extend my lead, sailing a very fast reaching leg towards mark #3. Gin managed to stay close, catching up a little on the way to mark #4. I am not sure what happened to her then, but all of a sudden she had disappeared from my nearby radar, falling more than 100m behind on the next upwind leg. That was enough for me to sail a worry-free final run, without the menace of her wind-shadow.
In the final race, I started slowly, lingering in Cooter’s wind shadow during pre-start. I thus had to leave the optimum route from the committee boat side of the line to Moon and Gin. The two battled out all the way to mark #1 which gave me hope I could tack and cross ahead of them before mark #1, but it was too close and I had to duck behind them, suffering from both their wind shadows at the start of the next leg, a long close-reach towards Travertine. I did fell behind quite a bit as a result, but steadily built excellent speed (14.5 knots by the end of the leg) to almost catch up at the mark. However, since Gin went on to defend her position, Moon escaped ahead, extending an already strong lead. The final 2 legs were very interesting tactically: I had an opening to take over Gin by positioning my boat to her windward, but she expected that and defended valiantly, keeping between me and the line, without suffering too much from my wind shadow, apparently. The key point for me was to build enough speed before converging with her, so that she wouldn’t be able to luff up and prevent me from passing. I guess I got a little lucky, in an exciting finish with our boats side-to-side under spinnaker, with a final gybe to complete: I had just enough speed to pass in the final meters!
Thanks to all again for a fun regatta. IMHO, the 12M remains, by far, the best boat to sail in SL. Until next time, on this beauty or another, for more exciting sailing. Cheers and Fair winds!
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Race 3 mark 2 was in Turnbuckle, not Travertine, obviously! But you all had corrected me 🙂
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