POETS Series Begins at NFYC

Friday the 13th - now I know why our luck ran out on the race course last night. The first night of the POETS series (Piss On Everything, Tomorrow is Saturday) was held on a short, SW/NE course, with the wind in the single digits, but puffs coming from the SW as high as 20 knots.

Maniac won the start, and we started to leeward and behind, not exactly a position of strength. Maniac covered us to the weather mark as we fought to get out of the cover, tacking toward each new puff. We rounded directly on their stern. They cut it a bit short and hit the mark, which was the break we needed. We were finally free and ran down, trying to connect the puffs together. There was a bit of excitement when Brian and Terri on their new to them, yet unchristened J24, got into a death roll and went down to leeward in one of the big puffs. They had a good recovery, but only after Brian took one on the head for the team. We had a good douse and headed back to weather, putting a loose cover on Blew by U and Maniac.

Back at the weather mark, we got away with a few lengths to spare and headed back to leeward. We moved left to catch a puff, and be inside at the mark. Oops! We forgot that the start pin was the new short leeward and had to douse and sail back up to it, giving Maniac the opportunity to slip in there before us! Dang!

We were now in the same position relative to them as we were at at the start. Not exactly a position of strength! We started a bit of a tacking duel. It's always easier to attack than defend, and we made gains on each move. According to the RC, Scott, we finished 2 inches behind them - DANG!

Keys to success last night were: rig tune - set up for the lulls, we were at 24,21, boat handling, driving in puffy conditions - keeping the boat as flat as possible and easing sheets in the puffs to let the boat squirt forward as opposed to lay over on its side and go sideways, connecting the puffs as much as possible to stay in the bigger breeze and covering as much as practicle when ahead because you never really knew where the next puff was going to come from. Good job Maniac on all the above. I hope there are no more Friday the 13th's this season!