J/30 NORTH AMERICAN MILLENIUM CHAMPIONSHIP

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In Race three, the breeze had freshened to about 10-13 knots. We were now a little more happy with the conditions and we had thought that we had shaken out the kinks in our crew work, driving and tactics. We hit the line bow out with boat speed, one small problem though; our foredeck looks back to brain trust with look of death with five seconds to go before the gun sounds. We had run out of runway to leeward and had no place to go. We were over the line early and locked to leeward and windward by other boats. We were hoping for a general recall�didn�t happen�just us. In the process of getting back to the line we sailed down on and over one of our competitors and he flagged us. We got back to the line and now had to consider what we had to do in regards to the protest. One third of the crew wanted to take a 20% penalty, one third wanted to do a 720 (you had a choice between 720 & 20% penalty for this regatta) and the other third was in denial regarding the entire incident. Our jib trimmer Donnie Brennan held the I Flag in his pocket and gave a hard sell to our driver for the 720 turns. We then proceeded to do a 720 that took at least a minute. I don�t think that I have to tell you what place we were in at this point or how far back we were. It wasn�t suppose to turn out like this� tricked out boat�.kick ass bottom�. perfect foils�cracker jack crew�.new sails�.enough time and money spent on the "CHICAGO ZEPHYR PROGRAM" to bring the entire country out of the CLINTON/GORE millennium recession and here we were in DFL, with an 8^th and 5^th in on our prior races. The only good news is that we have clear air for a change with nice lanes as the entire fleet is launched. We head to the right side of the course with good pressure. We nailed a nice shift and caught the back of the fleet but we were still in last at the first mark. The breeze had now filled in at 15-16 knots and Zephyr really likes this stuff. We set and jibed at the first mark and picked up two boats really quick. We got nice pressure down wind on the opposite side of the entire fleet and were able sail fast and low towards the mark which brought us to the back of the mid-pack-bunch. At the leeward mark, the boats were really bunched up and six boats ahead of us rounded the mark overlapped. The inside boat went for a tactical rounding and really pin-wheeled the other five out wide. We had an awesome take down and got inside four more right at the mark. We decided to work the right side of the course hard as the leaders went left and the right sided had already helped us catch 8 boats. We got lifted on every tack and rounded the weather mark overlapped for second/third. We had a better set than the boat to leeward that we were overlapped with and he jibed out. The first boat place also jibed to cover the third place boat, as they were much closer in points as we were hardly a contender in overall points at this juncture. We sailed on opposite jibes with the leader and were able to grind him down to get an overlap. At this point, if we had sailed the down wind chess game a little more aggressively, we could have won the race, but we got out maneuvered and finished second. Even after a great come back, we were still pretty bummed. After one day of sailing that included three races, we were 10 points out of first. Our outlook for winning this regatta was slim and if the breeze didn�t pick up, it was very doubtful. We didn�t truck this boat 1,000 miles, change every halyard, replace every piece of deck hardware, rebuild the wenches, buy new sails, work on the foils, wet sand the bottom, max out our credit cards and have our wives hate us, just for honorable mention. One wife said it, but all of them were thinking it "I can�t wait for all of this Zephyr in Chicago crap to be over with". Plus this writer hates come back stories�.blow out stories only on this web page baby�..kind-a-like the blow out that is going to happen in Tiger Stadium this Labor Day Weekend.

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