Kotuku Gets Clobbered!

We had a great weekend of sailing, just not great results.   The weather was a bit of a mixed bag, but we learned a lot despite the adverse conditions (lots of rain, little breeze).  Results weren't pretty, but they are telling.  The little guys beat us up pretty good in the light stuff, but then we give away 4-5 tons to most of the fleet.  Occasionally we surprised them--beat most of the boats boat for boat at some point--and that was fun, at least.

Saturday, we had a lot of new faces in new places, and we had a tough time with boat speed and tactics.  Sunday, Bob brought leadership that we'd been lacking, helped us find the pointing groove with the new #1, and got us into the thick of it with some good tactical calls that put the fleet behind us.  Temporarily.  When we had breeze and room to stretch our legs, we made back some of the ground we lost by being OCS in 3 of 9 races.  Who was driving, anyway?  Apparently we thought it was better to be aggressive than good.

To win against good competition and overcome PHRF's rating challenges, we need to be consistent, and maybe consistently brilliant.  PSSC showed just how far we have to go as a boat, and as a team.  But we learned some things and we got better, even over the course of a 2 day regatta.

Consistency will come to us.  

Brad, Al, and Stu will eventually come back to the PNW, we hope...

The boat is a work in progress but she will get lighter and she will get faster.  

And she will race with a clean bottom next time too.