« Day 1 Race report | Main | Day 3 race report »

Day 2 race report

Well we managed to get in course racing today!!

I finished the day off with a 3rd, a 1st, a 1st and a 4th!! Well you can imagine that I'm just super stoked right now!! I'm pretty sure I'm in first place right now, or maybe tied with Barney Huycke from Neil Pryde who was racing on an RSX. Cool eh!!
Race 1: I had dropped my sail a couple of times and went too far on my last downwind reach to finish 3rd. I could have placed second I think, but these little mistakes just made me more focused for the remainder of the day.
Race 2: I had a perfect start and was first to the windward mark, then rounding the downwind mark I was trailing behind Barney. He dropped his sail and I caught up to him then we had a good ol' fashion drag race upwind. I was racing my Prodigy like a Formula board with my daggerboard up, but he was out pointing me with his 65cm fin on the RSX, so on my first tack I dropped the daggerboard, shot the mast track forward and tacked on every wind shift. I can say that Wed night racing at the Dryden Yacht Club has given me good judgment in reading the wind! By the time we got to the windward mark for the second lap I had put about 100 board lengths between myself and Barney, so that great upwind leg gave me a good lead and never looked back after that. Great race!!
Race 3: It was a good battle again with the RSX guys (6 of them in all) and I had better upwind legs rounding the windward mark first and really putting the pedal to the medal on the downwind legs too. I finished a good three minutes ahead of the second place guy, so another great race for sure!! After three races we went in for a break. I was on a screaming reach and when I was going to tack while coming out of my rear strap, I was chucked over the handle bars and put my head right through my 10.4m sail!!! 2 panels blown out and really of no use anymore, so I had to rig up my new 9.8m V8 for the rest of racing. After getting some of the kinks worked out of rigging a new sail, I was ready to go.
Race 4: I just barely made the start with the long sail from the beach area to the start line. I also had to undo my sail from my board and let off some downhaul because of lighter winds with around two minutes before the horn!! I had a good start again, but when I was going for my middle strap with my back foot, a gust of wind threw my balance off and I ended up wiping out into the Pirate himself Wellsy!! We both were flat out in the water untangling our boards and sails while the rest of the fleet sailed away. With a long course and shifty puffs, I knew I had some time to get myself back in the thick of it, but in the end, with dying winds I crossed the line in 4th with the Pirate ahead of me getting 3rd, so a great race for Wellsy!!

Some stats from my gps:

Max speed: 46.3km/hr!!
Distance sailed: 52.7km!!

Tomorrow looks like slalom will be on tap for the whole day, so it should be fun!! We're off to supper at an Italian restaurant now to fuel up for another big day tomorrow!!

Stay Cool

Posted by Brad at August 25, 2006 6:50 PM

Comments

Wow......awesome performance. Good luck tommorow,
and enjoy that Italian.

Posted by: Big Al at August 25, 2006 8:22 PM

Way to go Brad!! We are soo proud of you! Keep up the great score tomorrow. We'll be thinking of you guys again!

Posted by: Woodette :) at August 25, 2006 8:34 PM

Way to tgo Woody! Get out there tomorrow and kick some butt!!

Posted by: Shan/Surfy at August 25, 2006 9:56 PM

Way to go Woody!! Get out there tomorrow and Kick Some Butt!!

Posted by: Shan/Surfy at August 25, 2006 9:57 PM

Oops.......work computer@?@?$?$?!!

Posted by: Shan/Surfy at August 25, 2006 9:59 PM