Yesterday was a long day! In Division 1, we had three races in a very tricky east-southeast breeze. Lots of little streaks and current lines. The common refrain I heard on the dock at the end of the day was, “Man, that was a hard day.” Onboard the TP52 Quantum Racing, we took a fairly conservative approach to the day, knowing we were going to have three races and lots of opportunity.
We had a couple of short-term goals on the day: smoother upwind, better team technique downwind, and better communication. It all sounds fairly straightforward, but in the heat of the moment, it’s always tough to execute. As a group, I think we did fairly good work, but we still have some room for improvement. Tactically, we coughed up the lead in Race 1 and Race 3 on the last leg, which was incredibly frustrating. It drives me crazy to give up the points. Conversely, in Race 2, we passed through on the final run to the finish to win the race. I would like to claim tactical brilliance, but that was not the case. Chalk it up to great downwind technique by Doug the rest of the team to get us into a strong position for the final gybe to the finish. The team aspect is without question one of the greatest aspects of our sport. When you get the teamwork right, it shows itself spades. Conversely, when the teamwork breaks down, things spiral out of control.
Results-wise, we’re hanging tough. We hold a 6-point lead over Power Play, which won the first race, and we have another 10 points or so on Bella Mente, which won the last race. Lots of racing to go, though, so it’s a matter of one race at a time, chipping along, saving each second.
Today was a no-show, as the wind gods didn’t want to cooperate. We have a lot of work ahead of us on Quantum Racing. As there was on Monday, there’s still a lot of meat on the bone for us to chew on in order to sail consistently. While we’ve had our moments, we’ve also had not-so-good moments. It’s continually a matter of working towards more consistent performances in all areas—tactics, boathandling, and smoothness. Looking forward to another light and tricky day tomorrow.
_ Access SW‘s complete coverage of Quantum Key West 2012. _
