Team Seacats

What a ride yesterday. We got a good start but struggled early and slipped to the back of the fleet. It didn’t take us long to get in stride and start plugging away though. With the wind out of the north-west, there were huge holes of no breeze surrounded by gusts up to about 18knots. Buildings on the shoreline would also leave big wind shadows to avoid. The way the wind and the holes were working meant that some people could simply just pull away. Team Tybee checked out early and was out of site. We got ahead of Castrol 2 and Castrol 3 and somehow got into a sequence that they missed with the gusts and the holes and we quickly caught up to the lead pack. We worked hard – Frank on the mainsheet and me working the main traveller and we started picking off boats one by one. Tygart was ahead with Castrol 1 when Tygart got hit with a “gonzo blast” that caused them to capsize immediately (we’re guessing it was a sudden gust over 25 knots of breeze). That left us and Castrol 1 duking it out. We actually held 2nd place for a short period. It wasn’t long before Space Coast got on a groove and passed all of us. Then Frank and I got caught in a 5 second moment of letting our guard down and a gonzo blast got us. We had capsized and both of us landed in the mainsail which pulled it out of the luff groove in the mast. We had to lower the main and rehoist it once we righted the boat. That left us in a solid 5th for the day. We’re something like 45 minutes ahead of 5th place and about 20 minutes out of 3rd (Tygart). Tygart would have to have a major problem today for us to get 3rd. We’re going to try and stick with Tygart and keep an eye on Castrol 2 – making sure to make no major mistakes. The wind should allow us to run the spinnaker most of the day today – so it should be a fast run.

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.