SSA provided the race committee and the race course southeast of Whitehall Bay. Two windward/leeward races of two laps each, each leg 0.9nm set about 150d and 190d from the start. Rain fell from before leaving the dock throughout the first race and into the second. Rain tapered off and ended about during the second race.
At the start of the first race, we were "on course side" (OCS). Latika #11, was to windward and coming up from behind as TC worked to slow the boat to prevent us from running out of line and going past the pin. Latiak was well onto the course side of the starting line and came down into us making contact about amidships. Their sails blinded TC to the location of the pin. After starting and mentally coming to grips with being over early, we gybed to port and restarted. Due to this error, we placed third in the race, behind Lingin #244 and Asylum #308. Lingin finished three seconds, perhaps 5 feet assuming 6 knots of boat speed, ahead of Asylum. Asylum had lost a halyard up the mast and chose to wing out the jib in place of switching halyard between jib and spinnaker. By finishing third, we lost control of our results being dependent upon a boat finishing ahead of Lingin, in addition to our having to win the last race, in order for us to win the regatta by maintaining the same score as Lingin due to having been first twice vs once.
Nonetheless, Patrick Dodson, on Asylum, sailed a very good regatta for a first time out.
We started again at the pin end, nearly running out of room and maneuvering around the pin by poking up and then failing off as we passed the pin. After that, we hardened up and outsailed all boats on the first leg, gaining steadily, about 10 boat lengths by the windward mark. Over the course of the next three legs, we stretched out our lead, but to no avail. While both Laughing Gull #197 and Asylum were ahead of Lingin at the second rounding of the weather mark, neither was able to finish ahead of Lingin. Asylum choose to fly a spinnaker on the last leg, but flubbed the set and had to re-set. Laughing Gull sailed out to starboard, banging the corner before gybing, and knocking herself out of contention for second or third in the race. She maintained third in the regatta.