[J22-Fleet 1] 2011 Frostbite

[Lars Hansen]

You missed a great race and a beautiful morning on the lake. Thanks to 
Beth and Craig for letting us borrow the mighty "Parrrley".
The docks and boats were really slippery with a solid coat of frost/ice 
from the freezing temps the night before, but the clear sky let the sun 
warm things up quickly. The winds were very light to start with and 
Blake wisely postponed while the wind oscillated from 165 to 235 and 
back again. Once the wind settled in around 195 the course was set for a 
WL 2 1/2. Looking up the beat we guessed that the wind might go further 
left so we positioned ourselves down near the pin. At a minute to go we 
decided on a port tack start at the pin. We crossed the world only to be 
headed out to the right. When we got a little knock we made our move and 
tacked to starboard. As we worked out to the left we were a little 
concerned at how well the boats that had gone far right were doing.  We 
limped back across the top and still managed to hold on to the lead at 
the mark.
Having seen how well the right was doing we gybed pretty quickly to get 
over there. As we got down the run we sailed into the tail end of the 
J24s almost passing some of them at the gate.
Up the next beat we felt the right was still the place to be so we went 
that way. As we got out to the right we kept looking for a way to get 
back. We saw this one nice puff coming and got ready to tack. 
Unfortunately as we started to tack we turned up and got lifted and 
lifted and never actually tacked. When we did finally find a way to tack 
we were pointed back, away from the mark. The saving grace was all the 
other boats were pointed in weird directions going equally slow.
We limped through the middle of the race course trying to get into the 
long awaited left shift which never materialized.
As we approached the second windward mark only about a boat length away 
we were greeted by a shorten course signal and then the finish gun. 
Another victory for the 865 team!
As you may or may not know the Frostbite trophy is one of the prettiest 
and oldest trophies in the 22 fleet. I used to have it bolted to my 
mantel it now lives bolted to Rod's mantel, it is safe again.
Lars