Friday, December 3, 2010

Team Confidence rules...

The Melges 32 Circuit has started off again and the fleet has regathered in Fort Lauderdale for the Gold Cup. It's a three day event and we have a solid 21 boats on the starting line. There have been a few crew mix ups since the Worlds and our two teams, Volpe (Dick and Ryan Devos) and Delta (Doug and Dalton Devos) were able to pick up some really good sailors. Sam Rogers has joined Volpe as a trimmer and on Delta we have Morgan Reeser doing Main and Willem Vanway trimming. Yes, some really good people....I have switched into the tactician spot and now have to carry the blame if we go the wrong way. :-)
Unfortunately Doug and Dalton couldn't make this event and we've had to scramble to fill Delta's driver's seat. As a very worthy helmswoman we today had Linda Lindquist and for Saturday /Sunday we'll have Bob Hughes (Heartbreaker) filling in. We also have a new bowguy, Roy McPhail who has his hands full with the massive Melges32 kites. That said, we have 50% new crew on our Delta team, not our regular driver and are also currently working on a new Kite retrieval system (Take down à la 49er style). We did have two days of practice but our confidence in executing tight maneuvers under pressure is obviously not where it should be, yet!
We sailed three races today in glamorous wind conditions and Linda did a great job. We put her in some pretty tight spots and she stayed cool through out the whole day. We even pulled off a pin end start perfectly! With an 11th, 9th and a 12th we are now currently in 11th place overall. Volpe, with Ed Baird doing tactics and Ryan Devos on the helm, had a really good day and are currently in 2nd overall. Full results can be found here.
So for tomorrow Bob Hughes will be on the helm and we're looking forward to some more tight racing in sunny Florida.
Chris out

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