sdyc.org

TEAM:
Annie Nelson – Helm
Jerelyn Biehl, Stacey Szabo – Tacticians
Sam Treadwell – Main Trimmer
Tammy Fowles, Katie Love – Trimmers
Summer Greene – Pit
Karen Butler –Human Guy, Rules Expert
Julie Mitchell – Bow
Michelle Morgan – Mast

Day 1: Light winds on the outside course favored the left and we could have won both races but finished with a 2,1. We had a 4 minute lead.

Team SDYC won the daily first and I passed it to Tammy who trimmed both sides when Katie Love got sick and had to go below (stomach virus).

Day 2: We were the team to cover and Alamitos and Long Beach teams did a fine job of it. Tacking on us after every start, covering us on laylines, etc. As the day progressed, so did the wind strength, waves came over the bow and down the hatch like mini- waterfalls.

Our speed suffered upwind, and we made errors that dropped us from top finishes to 3 ,4, 6. Having a bilge filled with water was a mistake that killed our speed upwind. The hull has at least 12 separate compartments that have to be individually pumped between races. Put that in the Cat 37 notes.

Day 3: We recruited some major rail meat with a 240 LB man. The idea was to be aggressive and give it all we had. Over aggressive-we were over early. Climbed back to 3rd, and tapped the top mark close to our stern, due to a wave and getting off the rail too early.

The last race we were mid pack and racing downwind when we found ourselves bearing down on two J/105’s that were crossing on port and starboard.

Picture no place to go, no rights, and no way to go between them. Downright scary and we had to head up hard to avoid them. Turns out it was our buddy Shala on Blink. By the time they passed us from leeward, our fleet was gone, and we finished 9th. Later we were all shaking our heads saying Oh My God that was close!

A tough way to end a great regatta and although we made mistakes from bow to stern, we still wound up 4th out of 10.
Overall, we have a great group of women with a lot of talent in SDYC. We just need to sail together more often to get the bugs out.

Thanks for your support and encouragement!
Annie Nelson and the Gang

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Competition Fund, Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.