Saturday 10 October 2009

TP52 Worlds: What a Difference a Day Makes!


Preparing Artemis for racing. Image copyright Nico Martinez/TP52 World Championship.

by Paul Cayard

What a difference a day makes!

Artemis scored a 1, 2 and moved into first place over all in the world championships today. We are actually tied with Bribon for that honor, with Quantum Racing one point behind.

Again, we did not get the first race of the day under way until 1500. Light, fickle winds were on the menu again. We had two great starts today and just sailed for clean lanes with little maneuvering.

The first race was very tight all the way. We did a great job of getting to the inside of the one of the gate marks on the first run, as all the boats arrived at the same time. This jumped us out to a bit more comfortable second windward leg. We rounded the top mark second and gybe set as the pressure was on that side. We passed Valars with the gybe set and later, just prior to the finish, put a fake gybe on Bribon and Quantum to shake them off our tail.

Race number two was a bit easier, actually. We had a good first windward leg and rounded the first mark first. Down the run we gybed early with most of the fleet. Matador went straight on starboard and was just ahead of us at the gate. We were neck and neck up the second windward leg. We were in a foot race with them out to the right with us to leeward. As it came time for us to tack near the layline, they were able to just get a lee bow on us and force us away. But the both of us had a huge lead over the rest of the fleet by this time. We had a tacking duel of 4 or 5 tacks each and they were able to stay in front of us. The run was uneventful and we got our second place in that one.

So, it was a very good day on Artemis. Due to just four races having been completed at this point, the coastal race has been postponed to Saturday and tomorrow will feature windward leewards again.

The forecast is for 10-15 knot from the west tomorrow.

Cayard Sailing
TP52 World Championships

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