Gassed
J/24 Worlds wrap up by Moose Mclintock from Dimension/Polyant.
Whenever I watch an NBA game, the common line is "everyone makes a run". We made our run, but just like the trailing NBA team, we came up a little short, maybe using a little too much mental and emotional energy to get into a position to win. We knew coming into the last day the we needed to make up points in a hurry, we were around 6th with a drop figured, this wasn’t going to win anything. On the motor out we stopped by the downtown Starbucks for some of our lucky Apple Fritters, had a good munch on the way to the course and talked about what we had to do. Basically, get good starts, manage our area and don’t make mental mistakes. Nice plan if you can do it, I’m pretty sure no one else was thinking this.
When we got to the starting area we were met with, as usual, no wind, the forecast was saying a clear sky might lead to an early sea breeze so we held our breath and hoped. The RC moved the course down to the Thomas Point area (which might have been a better option all week anyhow) and were soon rewarded with a slowly filling southerly. With plans to get in as many races as possible, the RC hustled to get the line set, gave us a black flag to try to tame the beast, and we were off. Notable BFD’s were the Threebond and Blitz, both boats were players but this took them out of the series. We chose the leeward end as it would take us into the outgoing current quickly, a good plan but a slight clock in the breeze had us looking at mid fleet halfway up the leg. Though we did get some tide push, we were looking average coming out of the corner. Somehow, with a little wiggling near the weather mark, we were able to close on the group and rounded in the top ten. There were plenty of ups and downs with everyone but we were able to claw our way up the ladder a bit and grab a 3rd and viola, we’re tied for the lead with Rossi Milev. Sort of a shock after the whole week but we’d take it.
