Star NAs
Thursday - Miami, FL

Today was pretty interesting. The wind was 15ish for 90% of the day. We struggled a little because we are a bit lighter than max (quite a bit) so we were in “higher” mode where the bigger teams could foot and send it. It made a difference in the choppy stuff.



Our first race was in the 30s. Not very good, but we were as good as the teens and as bad as the 40s. Not hard to fall, but extremely hard to climb.



The 2nd race we were in the 20s at the top and ended the run in the top 5. Not sure why, but everyone gybed and we were nearly fetching the bottom marks with a bear away rounding. Worked for us and for NZL (Pepper), who went from the 20s to 2nd.


About ½ way up the last beat a big growling cloud worked its way from south to north. It was big and black. With it was a thunderstorm and squall. I’ll bet the winds were in the upper 20s at the top mark. We gybed. I didn’t ruin the mast with the backstays! And whoa man!!! We had a major ride!! The wind got up to 30 and we were ripping down the bay. It was super fun! We couldn’t see 100 feet ahead, so we did the inverse compass number/navigation and the RC boat was right there. We lost a few on the previous beat and watched George Szabo shred the fleet downwind (he’s the only one we lost). George went from 18th to 8th (maybe?!). Pretty impressive to watch him sail the boat in that stuff. They sailed through Horton’s leeward side (ours too!). We did all we could to keep the boat on a plane, but lost some of the pressure as the storm passed. Lots of lightning and lots of very loud thunder!!!


Tomorrow calls for less wind.