Well done to the whole team and thank you very much to all the other competitors and officials who made it a great event. The score line shows a much smoother road to victory than reality.
We arrived Last Wednesday so that we could train for thursday and friday before the event and thankfully that paid off very well. On thursday morning we started training with the other boats and out of the 5 teams there we lost to all of them through the tacks up wind which immediately took its toll on the team hopes for the weekend. Downwind and gybing we were very confident and we gained on most of the teams. By friday afternoon we were holding our own on most of the other teams except for one team who were to compete against the next day.
We did not get a chance to practice very much pre start in the training so it came as a great surprise when we discovered that it was our greatest strength against the other teams. I believe this was the main reason why we were fortunately successful. We constantly improved through the weekend and by the final the team was running like clockwork through every manoeuvre and pre-start which stood us in good stead for the best of five against Gareths Team.
As a result, we have been invited to the match racing finals in october and the governors cup in california next year. When we find out more about these events ill be sure to let you know.
Sam
This weekend was very successful at the NSSA Match Racing Championships which ended up with our team taking the title, but not as straight forwardly as it sounds. Seven teams turned up on the Saturday morning to start racing and after the briefings and a few delays we started racing. We had a good days racing, winning all our races, some by a big margin, and others only slimly, having to come from behind at the start, at the end of the day we were in pole position just in front of Magdalen College who had one all their races (but one) to us.
On the Sunday Morning there was much more wind and we started the day with one reef and no spinnakers. Through the morning and early afternoon, both magdalen and ourselves continued to win all our races. Due to various technicalities our last match was against magdalen, which acted as a Final, with the winner taking the title, now with spinnakers allowed. From our previous race we had noticed we were weaker in the pre start but faster up wind so than they were. With the nerves running high amongst most of the crew we entered the pre-start with the intention of starting ahead, as we did. Over the first lap there was not much change but, up the first beat we ironically started to loose in the tacks. Going round the last windward buoy we were just ahead and managed to keep it down the run as we rolled across the finish line, going very deep to avoid gybing in the strengthening wind.
Overall, we had a lot of fun this weekend and are obviously very pleased with the final result!
Sam
