1, 2

Had some of the best Shields racing ever today, very challenging and close. A great day for the fleet as well, as we had 10 boats out racing despite the sloppy conditions.

First off though, yes, it was damn cold. According to someone on the RC boat, it was about 48 degrees. Add in the 10-15kt wind, and the waves over the bow and we were quite chilly. When I was handed a beer out of the cooler, it felt warm compared to the rest of my world!

Race 1 was about 10-12 kts, slight pin bias, with the breeze around 350. We started about a length off the pin with 150 tacking in below us. Not a whole lot of shifts in the first race, so we hung in for a while noting very little speed/height difference with the other boats around us. After some time on stbd we took a little hitch back in, which unfortunately cost us 150 who made good out left. It was a real battle for the top third of the beat, with us, 150 and 90 all in close contention. We ended up in a real odd hole and lost both boats in the last couple hundred feet. Kevin rounded cleanly ahead, and 90 tacked just below us on layline, but we were able to roll them to round second. Some nice trim and boathandling let us get to new breeze first and rolled 150 downwind. We rounded the bottom mark with a nice lead, and extended up and down to finish with a good delta over 150.

Second race we started pin again, and quickly ended up in an upwind match race with Kevin. We had a bit of speed on him, and were ahead enough to plant a leading leebow on him, but as it turned out that one move cost us the race, as he went back right and gained a couple lengths in the right shift. Pretty good racing when you can look back on one screw up and say it decided the race! Today showed that there's not a lot of speed difference between the boats, and that the boat that sails cleanest will probably win. We hung in there and kept attacking, but they held us off up and down to win by about 6-8 lengths. We had some fun match racing action when they luffed us a couple times before coming into the leeward mark. Pleased to see how quick our crew reacted, and that both the boats can play aggresive but clean. Also happy that despite the double luffs, we rounded a couple feet behind. If only we had been able to get right!

We used the newer main today, after checking it out on thursday. It's working fine after north midwest did their work to it, although we changed out to an even softer batten (actually the one from the old main since we forgot to bring the original!) and the sail looks even better. Hard to really feel tune today, since the waves were so big and sloppy, but we didn't feel slow. Headstay was around 48.5", with 350 on the lowers and 850 uppers.

Kevin's got 6 points to our 8, and theres one race left in the A series. Days like today really make having the boat worthwhile, as the racing is really intense and fun.