2012 NOOD Day 1

The first day of the NOOD had a slow start.  Fog socked us in, followed by breeze, no breeze and massive shifts.  Finally, in the early afternoon the race committee felt the breeze was steady and stable enough to send us on a race.

Waiting in the fog

This had to be the strangest start I've ever seen...I wish I had time to grab my camera.  We were the fifth class to start and by the time we started, the J30s were heading back downwind under spinaker.  Moments after the start our breeze shifted roughly 180 degrees, turning our upwind beat into a downwind leg.

Most of the Albergs quickly set our chutes and for about 5 minute we were heading straight toward the windward mark, and the J30s were under spinaker heading straight at us (and their downwind mark).  Very strange.

Ultimately, Argo took the lead and by the first mark, Windswept had us too.  For a bit on the downwind leg, we had Windswept, but by the rounding he had us again.

Heading back up to the windward mark for our second lap, we went right along with Argo and Laughing Gull.  Windswept decided to head left, but at the windward mark it was clear that the right had been significantly favored.

This leg was very frustrating as Laughing Gull came up from behind in a lane of pressure and simply drove over top of us.  Adding to the joy and excitement of the moment was Ray, who while trimming jib for us, kept blurting out, "Here comes Laughing Gull and boy are they fast".  After the third or fourth mention of the Gull's superior speed, I politely suggested he zip it.

Rounding the windward mark for the last time, we saw a window open up.  As Argo and Laughing Gull bore off to round, we caught up to them a bit.  The course has two marks that you have to round and as we followed them to round the second, they rounded tight and then wide, leaving a space for us to sneak inside.

Well, you don't have to give much of an invitation, and I took this one.  Garrett, Ray and Glen did a great job executing a quick gybe to get us a very nice angle on the mark.  We poured all of our focus on going as fast as we could for the rest of that leg.  When we reached the finish, we had a nice lead on the others and took the gun.

We had a great time in a hard fought race.  It was nice to see everyone out for the season and look forward to the next two days of racing.

The storms brought some crazy clouds