The postponement flag finally came down at noon and we headed to the race course where we found a very light lake breeze trying to happen. The RC set up the course on a 110 deg axis and we went into sequence. In no particular order, the lake breeze died, the wind clocked to 220 deg and we had a general recall.
The new cold front wind built to 15kts or so and we all changed gears -- GM jibs, crank down on the rigs, etc. We lined up pretty well for the start on the reset course. About 30 seconds before the start, we got hit -- hard by a boat tacking onto starboard. The contact was right at the starboard chainplate and we ended up with a trashed spinnaker pole, two bent shroud studs and some cosmetic damage to the hull.
We flagged the protest and went on to recover our race. We sailed about 10 minutes of the 3 mile weather leg in the 12-15 kts and then the wind became really unsettled -- light, then a gust, then a shift, then a big wave set. We made it to the mark in something like 62nd place.
The broken pole fitting made the spinnaker work tough. Craig had to put the pole in the mast fitting upside down and then crank down the foreguy to hold it there. Somehow it worked. We changed jibs to the LM and unwound the rig to get a little more punch upwind. We picked off a couple more boats and finished 57th. --- That's the good news.
Since there was considerable damage to the boat, we filed the protest, gathered a good witness and Blaine went to the jury room. This jury is a full-on ISAF team, so we were confident that
our well-reasoned argument would prevail. GACK!! We were both disqualified!
We spent about a half an hour hating the sport, hating the jury, hating each other, hating Chicago
, we regained some clarity over a cocktail or two and are ready to get back on the horse.
The final race(s) are set to go this morning.
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