Gerry Browne Regatta
April 12, 2003
The Gerry Browne Regatta was our first chance to get out and race since the February Winter Series race and we showed a lot of improvement. Jim Forbes was able to come in and substitute last minute for Lisa Marie who was not feeling well.
We time and got a great start on the first race and were right on top of Silhouette and ahead of our other rival, First Light.
Gary and First Light tacked early and gained on us. We followed Warren closely, but our boat speed just isn’t what Warren is able to keep and we were behind the Beneteaus at the mark.
We did pace well with Malificent (the Beneteau 42),...
Falcon,...
and El Sueno, as well as others.
Our practices really started to pay off as the crew began to really perform.
We made a nice set and stayed in the races....
...even gaining ground on Ratso and Malificent downwind.
We were getting very smooth with our jibes...
...had a good first douse and managed to stay with the fleet, despite finishing 10th of eleven.
In race two, we performed much better, even though our start wasn’t as good as the first one. We stayed ahead of at least half of the other boats most of the way though we lost it all when we were not able to raise our jib for the last douse and had to point away from the course before eventually getting things right.
By then, we’d given up a lot of our position, but we felt like we sailed two decent races. Much better then anything in the past with our developing crew.
Click here for race results.