AHMEN II

It was NYC's day to host the race. The course was 4 (windward floater), 5, 9, Dufferin, Gibraltar, 4 and 3. Buoys were to starboard. It was a great course: no long leg across Humber Bay from T1 to 5; windward start and downwind finish.

On the way to the start we decided on positions. Nick who was more familiar with my boat did foredeck; Sarah mast; and Claudiu sheets. Nick and I were the the only two with experience in these positions on my boat.

The start was good. We had no problem finding the floater nor 5. We were uncertain about 9, but being in a slow division we had boats ahead to lead the way. The fleets had caught to each other at Dufferin. there was a lot of traffic and we put in perhaps an unnecessary tack to keep clear. Rounding the marks to starboard meant we had to be on port tack as we rounded.

At Gibraltar we ran into further traffic from another race. They were using Gibraltar with buoys to port so as they rounded they were on starboard. We rounded the mark with a bit of ducking and weaving.

I made a big mistake about our course to the next mark. At this point we wee ahead of Windlight. However with the nav error we sailed off course and had to put in an extra gybe. As we converged on the penultimate mark we were now clearly behind. There was no way we could make up the difference.

I assumed we had a good race. Balance, who owes us time was not that far ahead. I was wrong about that too. There were also a few boats that I hadn't been tracking. As a result we finished 4th.