Twenty-eight boats were on the line for last night’s race at South Cerney, which made for a crowded start. Despite the occasional, strong port bias on the line, the wind was fickle in strength and shifty as the line was in the lee of the windward shore and the first beat straight up into its wind-shadow, so I opted for a conservative start on starboard, in the thick of the fleet.
There are two other boats in the Laser Fleet that I need to beat. Monty, if I’m to have any chance at taking the trophy back this year, and Kean, because beating Kean is my measure of whether or not I’ve raced well. Because if I don't race well, he beats me.
It wasn’t a good start. Monty snuck into my lee on the line and timed the gun perfectly, quickly pulling out of my boats shadow before I could get properly moving. Kean, on the other hand, risked the shift and started on port at the pin end of the line, executing the best port-flyer I’ve seen this season, crossing clear ahead of twenty-seven other boats bearing down on him on starboard, and beating us all to the windward mark with ease and style.
That set the scene for the next couple of laps and thirty minutes or so; Kean out ahead, fighting to keep clear of Monty, and me straggling behind, trying my hardest to catch the two up.
It all changed in the last lap. Kean fell back, first Monty overhauled him, and then I picked a better course up the beat and snuck past. Then Monty’s outhaul failed, giving me the much-needed space to catch him. Downwind, he kept the edge, but rounding the final mark and heading to the line, he broke early onto starboard, whereas I held to port. The next tack put me clear ahead of him, and crossing his line, I tacked back onto port to consolidate my lead.
About ten yards from the finish, I remember looking back to check on him. I might even have had a smug grin plastered across my face. Which might be how I missed the wind-shift. I was hiked out hard in the gust, when in a sudden shift, the wind headed me, sucking the power out of my sail and causing the boat to fall suddenly to windward. I pulled myself in, but not in time to completely save the capsize. Out of control, the boat on her side with the mast almost in the water, I scrambled like a ferret up a drainpipe for the high-side, hollering my apologies at Gary as my Laser almost collided with his RS300. And Monty sailed on past.
The time it took me to recover the boat and bring he back under control gave him all he needed to beat me over the line by a clear seven seconds. After a forty-five-minute struggle to repair the damage of my poor start and get out in front of both him and Kean, those seven seconds were a bitter pill to swallow.
Overall, I finished 5th out of the main fleet of 28 boats, but only 2nd out of the 7 Lasers on the water. But it was a good race, and Monty’s win was well deserved.
There was no camera on the water last night, so the photo at the top was of a different race and a different capsize. But it seemed apt.
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