Race Report 11/12/2010 by Ben

Well I thought Skinny might have gotten around to a race report by now :) so you get my version.

Terry and Richard bailed so as usual it was Squid and Tuggers. Was a long morning with the weigh in (PB: 51.5kg (??? not sure about this), Squid: 46.5kg) and then I found our Board repair stopped it fitting and I'd forgotten to bolt up the rudder pod, a bit of angel grinder action etc. got us going, also had to fiddle with backstay tension again etc.

Put in third rig, strong Northerly but at least the tide was in this week. Bit anxious about what was going to happen with waves on the dropping tide..
Before the start, could have even been 4th - but dropped a little on the first leg. Neither of us got a great start, both a bit late on the line and we had a 505 right in our way. PB smashed us getting to the top mark, starboard tack was a killer against the chop running down the inside of the islands. Lucky for us, their pole launch block tore off the front bulkhead at the first hoist and we went past shortly after. Think it was fixed by the bottom mark but I wasn't waiting ;) and we were pretty happy with our race, fairly clean and didn't make any major mistakes. Except for me getting hooked up at the first gybe which tristan had full view of!

By the start of the second race the wind had dropped to barely 1-wiring and it was pretty lumpy off the start- we were on PB's lee bow after Tristan tea bagged and so they tacked off early.. We had our eye on the line of clouds coming across and stayed on starboard, another minute and the start of an awesome wind change was with us.. took the header for a long time, then tacked and reached across to the windward mark, rounded it with the Hobies who had started 5 mins earlier :) A leg of sloppiness ensued which saw us back on the wind to get to the bottom mark (and now finish line). 2 bullets for Squid, yeah!!

Just after the finish a good southerly squall (maybe maxed at 30 kt?) came through.. so we got to test our re-jigged 3rd in all conditions, running nicely now. No more 1 1/2 strings for us! Wanted to put the kite up for a blast but it went as quickly as it came..

Ben