Greetings Race Fans!
When you are sailing in a fleet with nearly 100 boats, the start line has to be at least a mile long. It took nearly an hour to get the start off for Race Four in shifty 18-20 knots winds with short chop and when it finally happened, the boats on the right were in a big righty, and the boats on the left were in a big lefty and were able to tack and cross the fleet. We were on the pin end (left) of the line but were far enough down that just after the gun a pack of ten boats, led by John Dane and Austin Sperry, were able to cross us by 100 yards just seconds into the race.
We spent the day chasing down the pack of leaders and were able to round the last mark in the top ten, only to miss a 60-degree righty, dropping us back to 14th. John and Austin led all the way around the course but got a good scare from Team Too Tall (Erik Lidecis and Mike Marzahl) who hit the right side and moved from out of the top ten to second on the final beat (editor's note: Erik and Mike were later disqualified from Race Four).
Last night was the the mid-week awards at Coral Reef YC and the final two races will be run Thursday and Friday. We get to drop our black flag disqualification from day two after race five and hopefully with a good result we will move into the top ten overall.
Bacardi does not allow the competitors to display advertising during the regatta. Our supporters are a very important part of our success as we campaign towards the Olympics in 2008 so we will be dedicating each day of racing to one of our supporting companies. Thursday is Stormboarding.com day. Former Olympic coach James Lyne, head of Stormboarding, has been coaching us all week and doing an amazing job (despite our performance). Stormboarding is a Burlington, Vermont company that specializes in snowkiting, kitesurfing, windsurfing and unique summer adventure camps/trips for kids, families and adults. Check out the hottest new wind-driven adventures at Stormboarding.com!
Thank you all for your support.
Andy & Brad
Horton-Nichol 2008
HortonNichol2008 at gmail dot com
Coming soon! http://www.hortonnichol2008.com/
