July 1st Canada Day : Go Left Young Man ( or Woman!)

Post date: Jul 03, 2009 5:13:1 PM

In keeping with the revolutionary fervor generated by the brilliant Booth-era T-shirt, the theme for this weekends Regionals, the strategy was definitely leftist for the Wednesday night RTB.  The weather was a perfect summer's evening, spotless sunshine and warm.  The tide was the tail of the ebb, but with a building inshore flood.  With a westerly, this meant that there was only one way to go on the beat - LEFT!  In fact, this was so decisive that everybody jammed up at the pin end of the line leaving the committee boat in their solitary splendour...and their recently changed course unobserved by the fervent few.  Scooter hit the pin, and Cool Breeze was next in line getting the best start.  When they hit the favorable ebb first, their bow was knocked sharply to weather by a dramatic, but heart plummeting ( ie for Owl who was on their hip) 20 or 30 degrees.  The rich got richer, for a while, with Owl tacking short to avoid the possibility of a tight cover at the top of the beat.  Cool Breeze extended their lead in the ebb.  However, with the wind being in Owl's optimum 6 knot range, she lived up to her billing as a downwind flier, closing the gap and putting pressure on John as he rounded the leeward mark, just ahead.  Hardly anything is worse than having a nearby competitor scrutinize a botched mark rounding.  Cool Breeze touched the mark in trying to go LEFT again, allowing Owl to squirt ahead while they did their commedably rapid 360.  There was a bit of a hole at this leeward mark, and Owl opted for a short port tack board before going, where else but LEFT again.  This allowed CB to close somewhat as they hit the ebb first.  Scooter made some big gains at the top of the course as they benefited from a westerly knock.  Fortunately for Owl, the wind held and she opened up on the run, passing some of the Martins and Pocket Rocket in the division ahead.  Even more fortunate was the finish.  While Kolus had completed the course properly by going twice around, and hence 'winning', Owl's ( and the rest) three times around ended up prevailing!  Much to Stephanie's chagrin, they had not registered, obviating their well deserved and clever finish.  My hat was off to them though, because in the spirit of things, you can't help but admire and laugh at the situation.  Well done Kolus!