Absolutely was the class of the fleet all weekend. But when the breeze built Kotuku has a waterline thing, and a Farr thing that makes her tough on the old IOR boats, especially down wind. We snuck by Absolutely a couple of times in drag races to the finish, including a photo finish in the last race on Saturday where boat boats finished beam to beam, one good roll from doing damage to our not-so-lovely 80s era spinnakers and boats. Good fun though.


Sunday started with a bang for us, as we rounded down on the way out to the commitee boat. Who needs coffee? Wake call has just been served. We ended up going with a reefed main and a #4 and that worked for us, as we got out ahead of the fleet and stayed there. 2nd race started like the first, but then went light as they sent us to the hamburger mark. Not ideal #4 conditions and we had managed to cross our halyards, so we were hosed. Got it sorted at the windward mark and our tactician (Al Hughes) found a hero shift for us inside that let us slip through to the front of the pack.


After 7 races, we thought we had a 2.5 point lead on Absolutely. So we sailed fairly conservatively and tried to hang with them. Unfortunately they are faster, a lot faster in the 12 knot stuff. Boats that gybed out early found a bit more win eventually, and we watched helplessly as Corvo, What a Tripp, and Shoot the Moon went scooting in front of us. Absolutely needed to put 4 boats between them and us, and they did. Shit.


Luckily for us, help arrived in the form of a Big Red boat, who was not about to be left out of the fight. Shoot the Moon had sailed an incredible race, and actually corrected over Absolutely to take the final bullet. Leaving us the win, by a half point. Go figure.


Great racing though. SYC team did a wonderful job, and I look forward to PSSC and Grand Prix. Keep the fleets big, the lines short, and the racing interesting. The fall season has started!