First Day of NAC Championship Had Some Great Moments

It's true that the morning got off to a delayed start. The weather was perfect but the software gods were being persnickity. Apparently, again this is third hand, when the race committee tried to apply a 20% penalty to four boats that false started when the Z Flag was flying, the software applied it to the whole fleet.Whoops! 

Deb, Ben and Ryan. The back of the shirt is better...

So we spent some time on shore, admiring, as I mentioned, all the activity generated at Sail Newport. Then we spent some time admiring all our various Glow tshirts all being worn by Midwest District sailors.  

The racing finally started about noon I guess and the first race had great conditions. The wind was out of entirely new direction, about 315-330. There was definitely pressure but it was so much less than yesterday that it felt like a walk in the park. Ben and I, counting on the power of the current, went right. For a while it looked like we were going to come out looking like heroes, but between a few wind shifts and a group of boats that found an even better way to stay out of the current, we were in the back of the pack at the first windward mark. After that we went back to playing the shifts and caught a few boats. Frank and Marianne had a great finish, with an 8. 

Chris Tesdal and Eric Bussell wearing Eric-designed shirts

from left, Deb, Chris, Frank, Eric, (?? someone photo bombed us!), Ben and Ryan. Photo courtesy of Marianne Gerry

Here is everyone helping everyone else get their boats in.

The second race the wind seemed to have many more holes in it so there was a lot of gear changing, which can be tricky. Sometimes I was in the boat when I should have been hiking, and sometimes I was hiking when I should have been in the boat. Ah well! We finally got the hang of that and, thanks also to some great wind shifts in our favor, managed to catch about 10 boats after getting a third row start. Ryan Malmgren had a great finish at #5 and is currently in 9th place. Here are the latest results.