The good news is that he was in good spirits, and was more worried about missing the upgrade for his work trip next week than the possible affects the boom may have had on his good looks. We hope the nose mends nicely, and that the upgrade can be moved over to his next flight if he has to postpone it.
Trent, you get high marks for your pain tolerance, and your sense of humor. And Eli, you get Wingman of the Year award, thanks from all of us for taking care of Trent. We felt better about going out and racing knowing that you were with him.
As far as race results go, don't hold your breath. 3 days later and nothing posted. We finished in the dark, and they didn't get our sail number or anyone else's. The race committee called this morning, and I gave them our recorded finish time, but they are still trying to sort this out. So here is a quick summary.
After a killer start at the pin end (good call Stu!), we lead the fleet down the course with the A-sail flying off the new custom mini-prod. It proved to be a powerful weapon in the 10-12 knots of wind we had. By the time we reached Alki we were showing our transom to the J-35s and C&C 115s, who started 5 minutes in front of us, and who owe us something like 12 sec/mile.
The beat across to Blakely Rock with the two J-35s hot on our tail was an interesting one for me. The wind was starting to go lighter and lighter, and it felt like they were pointing higher and sailing faster but we tried to work every puff by taking an extra bite to windward and managed to hold them off by the skin of our teeth, tacking round the rock with Absolutely not far in front of us and the two Js pressing up on our transom. Our fleet was no where to be seen at this point. If only the wind had held...
A couple of miles after we rounded it went really light. For a couple of hours we drifted, watching the Olsons re-appear and coast by us on the outside while we struggled to make headway along the coast. Eventually we were able to set the A-sail again on a very close reach. This allowed us to gain back some ground on the Olsons, but we couldn't carry the a-sail long enough, and we were back to a light upwind beat to the finish, just behind the last Olson, who we owe 15 seconds a mile to.
Not a great result for us, but it was good sailing, it hardly rained at all, and our crew work was rock solid in spite of being short handed. Well done, all of you. Can't wait to show Trent and Eli the new weapons though, so get healthy and we'll get back on the water.
Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75869001@N00/sets/72157625664288151/
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