We had a fantastic start to our GHYRA campaign today, sailing a blistering fast race mostly on a close reach. AVERAGE speed was 8 knots, with a peak of 9 knots absolutely flying from the burlington bridge to Newport.
With resident tutor Doug on board, we got the boat trimmed beautifully after a good start and pulled away from everyone except “Don’t Panic” who told us later of a peak speed around 11 knots in a gust. Our course was a little above the mark, and we lost some ground to the rest of the fleet approaching the turning mark, but were still well ahead of them all. The last stretch was a beat in gusty wind, and here’s a new record for heel angle:
Upwind we pushed past Don’t Panic to take the gun for our fleet. After handicaps, I’m not sure where we placed, but for certain we were well ahead of Big Yellow and Battlewagon 🙂