Double Hander Race- 28 October

Sadly Class A seems to be continually plagued by poor starting numbers... Sad that with the introduction of ORC the class split could not have been better resolved... using the Class A and B to sail under A for Double handed events.. which would have slightly helped numbers... and at the same time giving the Class B Double handed guys a more even fleet... We note that Class B also struggles to get regular starters.. with the score sheets peppered with DNC's in both class's. We hope that this will improve. Nonetheless Team Yolo were there for some sailing.

Although out of our control, we knew that later in the day there would be a wind shift as forecasted and that the course should not have been set where it was as that was in the transition zone. The finish line was also set outside normal World Sailing recommendations... ie. you finish in the direction of sailing from the last mark.. in this case we had to finish withe the Finish boat to port and then technically bear away around the anchor chain to finish.. the wind transition made this slightly better to accomplish..

And onto the Race:
This would be the first Double handed race in a while to have a bridge start... a refreshing change...
Getting what can only be described as a cracker of a start.. best start of the season... sailing over the entire fleet seconds later... and onto the beat to Barker Rock... a nice breeze setting in with a flat sea... nicely powered up.. trying to find the correct switches, but there was few to be had... often losing out in the process... tacking up the coast to Barker rock, rounding a bit behind the lead boat, a much faster 42 footer... then kite up.. and settled down.. but the breeze was already dying, which had us attempting to find the puffs putting in the odd gybe.. to no avail... eventually getting a nice puff which took us to Landfall, the leeward mark.. and around this and a few hundred meters where the breeze died off... leaving us there for around 40 minutes crawling.... and tacking on the odd shift without any dividend... all this while the lead boat eeeked out the last of the breeze and finished... Eventually the Southerly started to push in.. and we were able to hook onto it... and sail down the wind line to the finish in a rapidly increasing breeze...  Overall a Second.. Really great sailing on the water.. for the most part, some nice conditions.. Aboard: Dale and Ian.