Today marked a first for team Loco, we raced against other C&C 30's, and it felt good. We had a steep learning curve and learned a lot as we figured out what mode was working best in the conditions handed us. Yesterdays wind and weather left some steep chop which proved tough to negotiate.
Our first race was up and down as we tried to match the other boats around us and see where we needed to improve. It was tough going in the beginning but we rapidly improved and had a great last leg to get into 6th place. We were happy with a mid fleet finish and went about making some tuning adjustments. The breeze was on in the first race and all the boats elected to use their heavy short hoist jibs. We found it a bit tough upwind but made some more adjustments and kept it together well on the downwind to finish 5th. Good start to the day.
Second race we had a mix up on the clock and started late.... We passed some boats but were unable to really get back into the mix. Good learning lesson.
The third race saw the wind die to about 15kts and we had a great start at the leeward end and enjoyed fantastic speed out to the left side of the course and a nice left shift. Third around the first mark felt good and showed our adjustments were truly helping the boat speed. Downwind we felt even better and held onto the third spot as we rounded the right gate. Once again a shift from the left came through and we got in front of Extreme 2 and rounded the weather mark in first. Extreme 2 was fast downwind but had trouble on their gybe. We held onto the lead and had one more upwind to go. As the fleet behind us split we tried to cover the closer boats but the wind ended up going further left than before!
Close finish with Checkmate gave us second place and even though we were a little disappointed we still felt good!
A few more rig tune adjustments this morning and we will be back at it. Breeze on today and the weather is cold!
Keith Magnussen
