It was a familiar day on the river. The morning started with a nice northerly breeze, became increasingly unstable and then died, and finally picked back up again from the south. The tide was ebbing the whole time and the current got stronger and stronger.
When the wind was northerly, it was easy to see the patches of stronger wind and there were 20+ degree shifts only part of which could have been due to velocity changes. So the classic strategy of connecting the puffs or trying to sail in stronger and lifted breeze as much as possible consumed our attention and was successful in race 1 and most of race 2.
However, as the wind started to die and become unstable we made a classic mistake. We rounded the windward mark for the last downwind leg in the lead. The wind had shifted right and the wind looked better in the middle of the river so we gybed to port immediately. The fleet behind us did not gybe as quickly and so we were the furthest right (looking upwind). As the wind died we had to sail hotter to keep the boat moving, thereby moving further right. Initially, I was happy with our speed, but I ignored the fact that I was giving the fleet behind more and more leverage to catch up if the wind shifted even further right — a header (and downwind headers are good, especially for boats on the outside of the header, just the opposite from upwind). And that is exactly what happened. Despite the header, I was too far to the right of the course and had to gybe and come back on the unfavored starboard gybe while my competitors sailed deeper and directly to the mark on the favored port gybe. One boat (Aaron) passed us and another (Will Summers) arrived at the mark at the same time.
Lesson: When the wind is unpredictable and you are in the lead, cover the boats behind, i.e. stay in the middle of the course to take away their leverage and minimize any potential gains they can make from a wind shift. Plus that puts you in the position to adjust your course right or left to take advantage of a finger of wind coming down the river.
A big thank you to Yates Dowell, Ben Arthur, and Marc Carre who stepped up on Thursday to join Melissa Morgan and save us from having no one to run the races.
That is the last of the Spring Series but next Sunday there will be a fun Distance Race which is open to all.