Another race, another victory for TEAM EXLence, in the 2013 Winter Trophy Heat #3; the Lagouses race.
Sunday November 17, as the morning broke the day looked real promising for well seasoned sailors who worth their salt; ideal weather conditions in the Faliro Cove, the wind from the North ever changing between 320 to 20 degrees at a speed from 8 to 18 knots! Is this a sailor’s paradise, or what?
The first of the two windward-leeward races of the day was scheduled for 11 am but it took the Committee quite some time in order to reach a consensus on the golden rule of setting the course.
On MELX II we decided to start leeward of the other boats on the assumption that a NW wind would be ahead for us near the rocks of Hadjikyriakio coast. Wrong! Up to the end of the first windward leg the wind from the NE(!) was prevalent putting us in a disadvantageous position as we sailed around the mark. Our single choice thereafter was to do our best in trying to cut away the distance to our competitors. We finished fourth. Not so good.
Like that was not enough, 4 minutes before the start of the second race, while we were busy changing the headsail to heavy genoa, with the wind blowing close to 18 knots, the left barber gave away with a broken roller of the final ratio. We manage to replace the broken part with a snatch block keeping our fingers crossed that the worst was behind us.
Maybe our bad luck changed as well. A perfect start, flawless tactics and here we are around Mark #1 together with the larger boats JINETERA, OPTIMUM III and ERYTOS. From then on we avoided mistakes, we held on together with the fast boats and…. 1st Place on corrected time!
Overall we ranked 1st in a draw with SUGAR and a step closer to the dominance in the 2013 Winter Trophy.
It’s only one week away.
Next Sunday November 24, we will all know.
For now, what we know is that we will go out of our way, we will pull out all the stops, like there will be no tomorrow.
We want to Win!
RESULTS: