Practice Race

Written by: Brad

I rigged up today in the usual warm temperature we have been having here. The breeze was slowly, but nicely, building on the sail out to what seemed to be the race area.

I have been sailing with fellow Canadians, Sam Fuller and Rob Hemming, who are both from Ottawa. We sailed upwind for a bit to get warmed up and then downwind to the starting area to get ready for the practice race. There were only about 45 boats taking part in the race. By now, the wind was starting to blow fairly strong - about 20 knots from the southwest.

Looking from the start line up the race course, the windward mark was barely visible. It was a long way up there. After the start, I decided to try the right hand side of the course. The upwind leg was so long that the separation between boats on the right and the left sides was huge. The breeze seemed to be building more as we sailed upwind. I was pleased when I decided to tack back across the fleet and was clearing most of the boats. I rounded the top mark in 6th place and started flying on the reach. The boat was humming as I was slicing through the large waves.

By the downwind mark most of the boats were deciding to call it quits to have healthy legs for the start of the competition tomorrow.