Day 4?!? Really? Is that all we have done? 4 days of racing and 8 races completed in the 2013 North American Speed Sailing Championships.
Once again I came up slightly short of my expectations but I am constantly learning and slowly improving both my boards and myself.
Race Director had given instructions for a possible start at 1100 hrs if the wind was averaging 15 knots. Well at 1000 hrs when I was the first one to arrive on station at Cape Poge the wind was averaging 16 knots but unfortunately Race Committee decided to wait until 1230 to start the first race. At that point the wind had been shifting through 20 degrees but the race course did have very good water texture. So with an average around 17 knots we kicked it off. I decided to rig big with my 17 Meter and my Port Tack SpeedBoard. This proved relatively fast for me with some VMax's over 39 Knots but with a right shift some of my runs pushed me to leeward of the finish line. In fact I think one of my fastest runs ended up not counting since I wasn't close enough to the finish buoy. I did have one altercation with good friend and timekeeper Chris as I entered the starting area. He blew a whistle on me claiming I had cutoff Brian Kender. This resulted in a very heated discussion between the two of us as I had been positioned in the lineup well before Brian but he had only seen me enter the starting area a split second after. What was frustrating was that we had discussed this exact scenario in the a Skippers meeting and it had been determined by the Race Director that the Racer in the lineup first had priority over the Racer who entered the starting area first. To me the person who entered the starting area first should have priority as that was very easy to rule on but the RD wanted it the other way. Needless to say I found it very ironic to be whistled on the ruling which I had argued for. Luckily Chris and I were able to work it out with the help and rational thinking from Mike Gebhardt.
Overall I felt pretty good with the first two heats. I scored an 8th and 9th which as I previously stated were a bit below where I wanted but I had a great time. Unfortunately halfway through the second heat I blew up the Harken block on my trim system and had to drop my 17 Meter in favor of my 15 Meter. Then in the final seconds of the heat I came smoking down to the finish only to be face to face with Rob Douglas who had just finished a run and was starting to come back up wind. I skidded out in an attempt to keep from hitting him and in doing so my kite ended up going slack and then reloaded aggressively causing one of my center lines to break. It took about 12 minutes for the boat to retrieve me. Huge thanks to Gebi for helping get my kite wrapped up and tangled lines in the boat. We then were very quick to start a final heat. Unfortunately with two bars with long lines out of commission I opted for my 12 Meter on short lines. This proved a very poor decision as it was late in the day and the wind quickly faded from 17 knots to 13 knots. I struggled throughout the heat even on my symmetric board and I posted a very disappointing 11th place in the final heat. Results
It looks like the last few days of the event will bring some excellent conditions with winds from the SW pushing over 40 knots.
Huge Thanks to my Partners:
The Dancing Turtle Coffee Shop
BEST KiteBoarding
Jamestown Distributors
Gorilla Rigging
Atlantis WeatherGear
Velocitek
Once again I came up slightly short of my expectations but I am constantly learning and slowly improving both my boards and myself.
Race Director had given instructions for a possible start at 1100 hrs if the wind was averaging 15 knots. Well at 1000 hrs when I was the first one to arrive on station at Cape Poge the wind was averaging 16 knots but unfortunately Race Committee decided to wait until 1230 to start the first race. At that point the wind had been shifting through 20 degrees but the race course did have very good water texture. So with an average around 17 knots we kicked it off. I decided to rig big with my 17 Meter and my Port Tack SpeedBoard. This proved relatively fast for me with some VMax's over 39 Knots but with a right shift some of my runs pushed me to leeward of the finish line. In fact I think one of my fastest runs ended up not counting since I wasn't close enough to the finish buoy. I did have one altercation with good friend and timekeeper Chris as I entered the starting area. He blew a whistle on me claiming I had cutoff Brian Kender. This resulted in a very heated discussion between the two of us as I had been positioned in the lineup well before Brian but he had only seen me enter the starting area a split second after. What was frustrating was that we had discussed this exact scenario in the a Skippers meeting and it had been determined by the Race Director that the Racer in the lineup first had priority over the Racer who entered the starting area first. To me the person who entered the starting area first should have priority as that was very easy to rule on but the RD wanted it the other way. Needless to say I found it very ironic to be whistled on the ruling which I had argued for. Luckily Chris and I were able to work it out with the help and rational thinking from Mike Gebhardt.
Overall I felt pretty good with the first two heats. I scored an 8th and 9th which as I previously stated were a bit below where I wanted but I had a great time. Unfortunately halfway through the second heat I blew up the Harken block on my trim system and had to drop my 17 Meter in favor of my 15 Meter. Then in the final seconds of the heat I came smoking down to the finish only to be face to face with Rob Douglas who had just finished a run and was starting to come back up wind. I skidded out in an attempt to keep from hitting him and in doing so my kite ended up going slack and then reloaded aggressively causing one of my center lines to break. It took about 12 minutes for the boat to retrieve me. Huge thanks to Gebi for helping get my kite wrapped up and tangled lines in the boat. We then were very quick to start a final heat. Unfortunately with two bars with long lines out of commission I opted for my 12 Meter on short lines. This proved a very poor decision as it was late in the day and the wind quickly faded from 17 knots to 13 knots. I struggled throughout the heat even on my symmetric board and I posted a very disappointing 11th place in the final heat. Results
It looks like the last few days of the event will bring some excellent conditions with winds from the SW pushing over 40 knots.
Huge Thanks to my Partners:
The Dancing Turtle Coffee Shop
BEST KiteBoarding
Jamestown Distributors
Gorilla Rigging
Atlantis WeatherGear
Velocitek
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