Ok, here goes…
With a little over 2 months to the next Worlds, Carl and I figured doing the ECC’s was a good opportunity for some practice time, we have done almost no sailing together this year and were in need of some hours. With Curtis very kindly lending us his boat we were all set. I spent the week before working in New York and caught the train down Thursday night.
West River was a new venue for me and reminded me of Sailing clubs back in the UK with a very casual and friendly setting. The weather also reminded me of why I live in California! With a pretty long sail out to the race track we had plenty of time to look at the spaghetti in the boat, a typical Holger fitted out Ovington. I just have no idea how people sail these boats when it gets windy! However, if you put everything in approximately the right position they go just fine!
The racing was fairly typical of the area, puffy and shifty and you needed to be on your toes, you were never out of contention and you were never sure of a win. Keep plugging away, minimize losses and don’t panic when bad things happen! The racing was extremely tight with everyone having their moments at or near the front and at or near the back! In our boat, we focused on where the wind was, trying to stay in pressure as much as we could and keeping an eye on what way the gusts were traveling, often it seemed that one tack kept you in the breeze longer than the other.
Macy and the team at West River did a fantastic job of firstly getting boats to the event and then looking after us while we were there, the food after sailing was delicious and the post-race debriefs very interesting and valuable, we learn as much from these as everyone else and it is interesting to hear differing choices that result in going around the race track at the same speed. It was a real shame that the wind did not cooperate on Sunday, it would have been good to have a breezy day of sailing, but he right call was made to not sail on Sunday, it would have been a handful!
I will be back!
Cheers,
Mike
