| Match
Game Flag Day So Cal homies King Harbor Match Racing are in Auckland, NZ for the Grade 1 Auckland Match Racing Cup and sent in this report. We had a frustrating day today. I can't say it was all bad, but when you only win 1 out of 6, it rarely leaves you in good spirits. We didn't sail too poorly, but it seemed like every time there was a decisive moment, things went the wrong way. In our first race against James Spithill, we held good control at the start and held James away from the line. We had to battle a strong tide to get back below the line to restart, and when we made the turn to go upwind we saw that our flag had not gone down and that we had not completely crossed the line. A bit of a shocker, but certainly not the first time something like that has been misjudged. We did well to stay in the race through the first lap, but James sailed strong and held on for victory. In our 3rd race, against Takumi Nakamura, we had a close first lap and we were just behind approaching the bottom mark. We came into the mark overlapped to the inside, but the umpires ruled that we established the overlap too late, and we were given a penalty for taking room. We also received a second penalty for hitting the mark, and the race was basically over right there. We did pull out a solid victory later in the day against Spithill. We did well to win the side that we wanted at the start (the left) and after surviving a very close cross on port, we took a lead and held it to the finish. It was nice to get on the board after a tough day, and it certainly helped lift our spirits for tomorrow. We're only sitting on 3 wins, but we have every chance of advancing as far as 6th place. That will be our goal for the day tomorrow. We'll have good news for you tomorrow... Best, King Harbor Match Racing 01/26/07 |