It Doesn’t Get Any Closer Than This

With two evenings of racing behind us and two to go, the Delta Force were ahead, but it was known that they would miss evening three and so put themselves out of contention. That left things to us, the Matts a couple of points behind us, and Clay a couple of points behind them. (“The Matts,” by the way, are two guys who usually sail together and who both happen to be named Matt.)

It was a tricky evening — another one with strong current and moderate wind that lightened as time passed. With the current against us on the upwind leg, the right side was heavily favored. That’s because the course was set up so that “the right side” constituted a narrow corridor along the Harbor Island shoreline, and the current there was relatively weak owing to friction with the land. You’ve all been there, and so I trust you can picture the very large rocks along that shore. I hope Tom (the Harbor Sailboats owner) wasn’t watching.

Because one side was so heavily favored going upwind (and, for that matter, the other side going down), tactics were reduced to a minimum. You were either on the correct side with clear wind, or you weren’t. Which meant either you got a good start or you didn’t.

We didn’t. No excuse to offer; I just wasn’t reading the line right. To clear our wind in the first race, we initially went left, and every time we tried to go right, someone tacked on top of us and we had to go left again. We battled with the Matts, but somewhere way, way ahead of them and us was Clay. He had gotten to the right. The result: Clay first, Matts fifth, us sixth.

We actually sailed quite well once we got off the line and found some clear air, particularly downwind, which turned out to be a pretty good thing in the second race. Again, a good start for Clay and a mediocre start for us. We were somewhere in the middle of the fleet (eight boats this particular evening, by the way) at the upwind mark, but then we passed boats on the downwind leg. Clay ended in first, but we were second, with the Matts perhaps a foot behind us. Very tense!

Then races three and four were really between Clay and the Matts. Somehow I wasn’t hitting the starts well and that threw off each entire race. But in each, Clay and the Matts were feet apart, doing everything they could to press rules advantages and gain an edge. Both races ended with the Matts first, Clay a hairsbreadth behind in second, and us in comfortable third (not threatening them, but no one else threatening us either).

And so, with one evening’s racing left, we have three boats within one point — the Matts are ahead, Clay is three-quarters of a point behind them, and we’re one-quarter of a point behind Clay. It all comes down to Tuesday!