Daredeviling on Lake Geneva
The Melges 24 Nationals taught me some good lessons that I should have already known. First it's tough for a team to perform well when it has been dieting to make weight and conditions are windy and cold. Second to be prepared to race you need more than one day of practice between events that are 6 months apart. These are a couple of insights that are pretty obvious in hindsight. But even after a disaster on day 1 that included 2 over early starts a ZFP penalty and many boat handling errors that left us in 24th place after 4 races we managed to put together 4 solid races over the last 2 days that along with a drop of one of our premature starts gave us a respectable 11th overall finish. Our first event on the Daredevil, Charleston Race week was very similar; a slow start followed by improving results as the event progressed. In Charleston we finished 10th overall.
We spent extra time after racing on Friday working on our boat handling and we were early off the dock on Saturday morning to work on our starts and time and distance. This extra time sailing really paid off and we were able to go 6, 12, and 5 on the day moving us into 14th place and within striking distance of the top 10. The last race on Sunday proved to be the hardest as far as finding the pressure and staying on the proper side of the course. We sailed to a 10th which was good enough to move us into 11th place overall. In my mind prior to the event I thought we would be able to improve on our 10th place from Charleston however I think our result showed how important it is to continue to log time in the boat for the crew and helm in order to make improvements.
I am confident that with a little better preparation we can consistently sail in the top of the fleet. Thanks again to Tim Anto for giving us the oppurtunity to sail these great Melges 24 events.
We spent extra time after racing on Friday working on our boat handling and we were early off the dock on Saturday morning to work on our starts and time and distance. This extra time sailing really paid off and we were able to go 6, 12, and 5 on the day moving us into 14th place and within striking distance of the top 10. The last race on Sunday proved to be the hardest as far as finding the pressure and staying on the proper side of the course. We sailed to a 10th which was good enough to move us into 11th place overall. In my mind prior to the event I thought we would be able to improve on our 10th place from Charleston however I think our result showed how important it is to continue to log time in the boat for the crew and helm in order to make improvements.
I am confident that with a little better preparation we can consistently sail in the top of the fleet. Thanks again to Tim Anto for giving us the oppurtunity to sail these great Melges 24 events.
