Bright Monday – The Sun Was Shining, Great Wind and We Won the Race 

August 8, 2016

Today was a much better day, which ended with us winning the race both on the water and on the results sheet (on handicap). We started on the fixed committee boat line and we had a downwind start to the east. It was a reaching start and we had a good start but not the best! We decided to take a more conservative approach to our starting, given the black flag that we received on Black Saturday!

We rounded the first gybe mark in 4th and gained on the next reach. We rounded the next leeward mark in 3rd but got caught outside the 2nd placed boat, who had problems with their spinnaker, so we ended up with a bad mark rounding.

While hoisting the kite at the start, we made a small tear in the spinnaker, so upwind Herman went down and did a fantastic job repairing the kite. Judging by the sweat on his face, it must have been hot inside.

On the first beat, the wind gods were not our friends – we were on the left hand-side of the beat and the wind shifted right, so the boats lifted inside us and passed us. However, we kept calm and concentrated and worked well as a team. We rounded the next windward mark in about 7th position. This is where our race really improved! We sailed a great downwind leg and improved our position to 2nd and then we rounded the leeward mark and headed upwind on a beat. We had a clear plan and decided that we wanted to go left on the beat to get out of the tide. We stuck to our plan and headed towards the left hand-side of the course. The wind was quite shifty but we decided to stay on the left hand-side of the beat and this plan really paid off. We sailed around the leading boat in our class and then Harry and Boj picked an excellent layline. This was where we really won the race! We stayed out of the tide as much as possible and then sailed into the windward mark exactly on the layline.

We were now in first and we extended our lead downwind, on our final spinnaker run. Then we had one final long beat to windward, where we consolidated and extended our lead. We again sailed towards the island side of the beat, to get out of the tide and this again worked well. Around Norris and Osborne Point, the wind was very shifty and very patchy but we sailed well and crossed the finish line in 1st position.

The first half of the race was well sailed but quite tough, however in the 2nd half of the race, we sailed very well and this is where we won the race! We stayed positive, communicated well and worked very well as a team today. We also liked and sailed well on the 2 long beats at the end of the race! We did not quite stick to our plan to start first, consolidate, extend our lead and win but we did do this in the second half of the race.

Well sailed to all but we have a long way to go. We now have a black flag, 5 and 1. Hopefully we will sail well again tomorrow in the lighter wind! And hopefully this upward trajectory and positive momentum will continue for the remainder of Cowes Week!

Well sailed and thank you to all the Winsome Crew.

Laura Dillon

And Herman made a really nice movie of Sunday:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPVnApnkY78&w=560&h=315]