Ullman Sails Newport Beach's new Production manager, Ryan Davidson, is racing on the new J-111 "Picosa" and here is his mid-regatta report.
"Awesome day today on the sweet J-111, Picosa! We had a rough start in the first race, being forced over early at the gun. However, we were able to escape freely to the left side of the fleet and hooked into a nice left shift to bounce us back to mid fleet by the first mark. Out boat speed was great all day. Since it's PHRF, it's often hard to get exact bearings on other boats in the fleet since everyone has different modes for their boats. But overall we felt like we were gaining all the time. Every downwind it seemed like we were able to hook into nice pressure and soak just a few degrees lower than the competition. This helped us rally back in our first race to 4th across the line, and 3rd on corrected time for the race.
Our second start was just we wanted. We were able to hold a lane off the pin and tack on to port as soon as we wanted. With the breeze as far left as 185, we knew port tack would be the long tack. We hooked into the left shift and pushed out to starboard lay line. We rounded the top mark in 4th. From there, the tight fleet covered each other around the course, leaving us with another 3rd place, corrected.
The third race was quite similar. The race committee postponed the start after the warning to reset the line. This left us with a boat favored start line. We started in the middle of the line with great speed and a great lane. We were able to tack to port and progress up the course while crossing bows. We continued out right while the leaders crossed us and fought each other to the middle left. We rounded close behind in 4th at the top mark. We chased down 3rd place to round even with them, but had a rough douse around the mark. Unfortunately we all know how important boat handling is! We rounded the top mark just behind the other J111 in the fleet, Stampede. It was quite the battle downwind with them, but we were able to narrowly beat them out at the line to finish 3rd, (yes...again) corrected.
Ryan DavidsonIt's a three way tie for first currently with us, E Ticket, and Mexican Divorce. Should make for some great racing tomorrow!!"
