Bissell Racing

Hurry up and wait, then go home.  This has been the theme of the last two days.  Yesterday, there was supposed to be a practice race and everyone was treating it as a trial run for the big dance. 

We all rushed down to the club, got our boat in racing form, and waited for them to hoist the “D” code flag which means you are allowed to leave the dock.  A fog rolled in that was so thick, the Race Committee couldn’t see 20 ft.   After waiting and waiting, they finally hoisted the AP over A which meant no racing for the day.  So we went home.

We came back to the Opening Ceremonies that started at 7pm.  The US Team decided to wear blazers and ties for a team uniform.  It was pretty cool.  Each country marched in lead by a local Portuguese opti sailor holding a sign displaying the country’s name.  The teams would march in, walk up on stage, and stand there for pictures while they played the national anthem and raised the country flag.

We woke up this morning and I looked out the window of our hotel.  It was breezy and there was no fog.  My hopes were up for a great day of racing.  However, as soon as we reached the shore line on our way to the club, the wind was blowing very light from the East.  We’ve seen the Easterly many mornings since we’ve been here, only to see it die around noon or one and switch around to the North. 

The first race was scheduled for noon, so they let us leave the dock at 11.  Henry Filter, Peter Commette, Danny and I were the first ones out.  The Easterly, sure enough, died and actually filled in from the South, a direction we haven’t seen yet.  Henry and I are tuning partners, so we promptly got together and did a 3 minute split tacks upwind to check the course.  I went right, Henry went left.  When we came back across, we were way ahead.  So Danny and I start to form our strategy and going right seems to be the way to go. 

Right before the five minute gun, our coach comes speeding up to us and says in broken english with a cigarrette in his mouth that he thinks it will definately be a left favored first beat.  Danny and I look at eachother and decide to trust what we saw during our split tacks.  It wasn’t an easy decision though because our coach is from Portugal and was hired for his local knowledge. 

Well, as luck would have it, we had no other option but to go right after a horrendous start.  I totally choked the start and I could tell that Danny wanted to strangle me, but we kept our cool and found a lane to go right.  When we tacked back we were crossing the entire fleet aside from a couple boats that went right with us.

We were about to round the windward mark in about 4th when they decided to abandon the race.  Not sure exactly why, but maybe they saw me go from a 5th row start to about 4th overall and decided it wasn’t fair.  Oh well.  I should also mention that our tuning partner was about to round the windward mark 3rd.  Way to go Henry!  We’re both the lone rangers on the US team using North Sails and we both felt super fast today.

So our speed is good, luck is good, starts bad.  I think it was nerves, but I have it out of my system now. 

We drifted around for the rest of the day and they finally called it around 5pm.  So hurry up and wait, then go home.  Worlds will hopefully start tomorrow and we are more than ready.  Thanks for tuning in.