The winds backed off even more on day 3 of the US National Championships from the previous 2 days blow out!
An unstable westerly made it's way through the gorge corridor to deliver a 12-15k breeze for 4 formula course races on Saturday.
I managed a strong start with 2- 2nds in the early day but struggled to find my stride as the afternoon progressed. A few costly mistakes took me out of the top spots and into the middle
pack of racers. Luckily with some smart sailing I'm still sitting in 2nd overall behind Bruce Peterson.
Race 1 started with me being caught on the course with my 10.0 in a dying breeze. By sailing smart I was able to hold onto 2nd but barely as the pressure was one from the fleet behind.
Race 2 was pretty much the same getting around effectively on the 10.0.
I called my downwind laylines well enough to pick off CRad and Wells on the last downwind
for another 2nd behind Bruce.
Race 3 saw things lighten up and I took the 11.0. I was looking very strong coming into the top mark and 2nd or 3rd behind Eric who nailed the start but things come to an abrupt halt with a port/starboard collision with Wells. I was on the port layline, not thinking I could cross Wells who had the right of way on statboard. I went to duck but so did he and fortunately we both bailed and the last minute and our boards went crashing into each other.
Realizing we were both ok, I went on to round and did my circles but couldn't recover enough to
place well. Thank god for the throw out!
Eric's lesson in the previous race didnt go unnoticed and in Race 4 I nailed the starboard start and got to the port layline just behind Prior and Bruce. Then on the 2nd upwind, I made a
series of costly mistakes that set me back to 7th. My upwind angle just wasn't there as I got stuck in some bad air and miscalled the top mark and had to double tack to make it around.
With some fast sailing downwind, I managed a 4th just behind Bruce, Prior and Eric.
That did it for the day as the winds lighted up and we were unable to race anymore races for the day.
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