This week brings the last races of the summer series.  We are involved in tight battles on both Tuesday and Thursday nights.  Assuming I have computed this all correctly, here’s how it stacks up*.
Tuesdays, battle for third
Because of cancellations this summer (freighter traffic and high wind), the Tuesday series will only include 7 races including the one coming up.  As a result, we can only drop one race from our total scoring, even though we’ve missed three nights on the water.  Clearly this hurts us in the standings:  Top Gun is assured first place (going into the race with 5 points) and Battlewagon is assured second place (13 points), followed by Remarkable (17 points) and then PERSPECTIVE (18 points).  So, to tie for third place, we have to beat Remarkable.  It’s a tough challenge, but we have beaten them before.  Let’s do it again!
Thursdays, battle for second, third
On Thursdays the situation is quite different.  After this week, there will have been ten races, which means each boat can drop the lowest three scores over the weeks.  This helps us a lot, since we have missed exactly three races.  Going into this weeks’ race, and removing the three worst scores from each boat, we have the following:  Sabotage is assured first place (6 points), followed by Battlewagon (13 points), Perspective (15 points), and Big Yellow (16 points).  Yes, 2nd, 3rd & 4th places are up for grabs. So how do we win second place? We need to finish ahead of Big Yellow and two places ahead of Battlewagon.  We’ve beaten them both before (June 30th).  Let’s do it again!
*Note: Sandpiper and Eclipse have not sailed enough races during the summer season to qualify, even if they show up this week. Â So, although we would like to beat them, it won’t affect the series score. Â In all the point tallies above, I’ve adjusted the scoring to reflect results as if neither boat showed up all summer.