Wednesday Night Racing 1.1

Bret Mulligan

Maryland. 1-6. Light winds F1-2 S to SE most of the night. Diminishing flood. A great start in race 1 (W1) lead to a bullet in first race! Late start (my fault I should have realized that the boats on start board were far enough away that we, even though we were on port, could have killed time closer to the line). Decent beat and we were mid fleet at the rounding. I had trouble with spin pole (topping lift attached to bottom twisted the pole) which complicated gybes. Eventually fixed it. Went right towards PA which was the wrong choice. It looked like there was more wind but the better wind was near Petty. Remember that when wind is from the east the island creates a wind shadow on the water but there is decent wind above. We experienced this on beat but don’t follow through on run. Lesson learned! Spin shackle detached on first douse at top of mast. Fortunately MD has spare! Climbed mast to retrieve. Will tape in future.