With a lay day after the Sid Peare Invitation race, all crews rolled up to the Toronto ASC rigging area fresh & ready for some good racing. And that is what occurred. Good, close sailing from all crews. Check out the results to see how close; seconds or less between places in some cases. It might not have been windy, but most crews were mentally drained at the end of the day. A good start to the series…
Heat 1. No local knowledge
After a clear start half of the fleet went left and half went right up the first work. Boats on each side looked famous at times, depending on gusts & lifts, but in the end left won the race to the top mark, with Mick, Rob & Mark on Meeks Real Estate leading a close bunch behind. Again though, which way to go on the run? MRE went right. Col, Adam & Janine went left. It might have been close at the bottom but for a problem on MRE that slowed them on a gybe and cost them a few places. TBS loves downwind in these breezes & picked the gusts well, opening up a lead they comfortably held to the finish. Firestorm were lumping around in 2nd, too much weight in the boat & not enough in the breeze their ailment. But they hung on to finish 2nd, from the quickly recovering MRE in 3rd.
Tim, Mitch & Lyndon on Plan B also liked the light breeze. For a new crew, they sailed extremely well, as high as 2nd at one stage and held on to come home 4th, good enough to easily claim the handicap victory for the day. But as I said the results were close. Steve, Mick & Troy on Range were also looking for more breeze most of the day, but sailed back through the fleet to dead heat with Plan B for 4th across the line.
Heat 2. Still no idea
With the same breeze for the second race most crews still seemed to have no firm idea of which side of the course was favoured. Again the bunch was close around the top mark for the first time, again TBS gybe set & went left, Meeks right. These lighter crews revelled in the soft breeze & opened up a nice lead over the rest of the fleet. Firestorm was again lumbering downwind, trying to hold off lightweights such as Plan B, SFC Computers & Black Diamond. Other heavyweights in the fleet, such as Stowe & Battleship were left in the lighter crews wakes.
Up front Meeks & TBS both had speed to burn so set about their own personal battle. The Meeks boys kept left on the work, whilst TBS were more right. In the end left paid and Mick, Rob & Mark took the gun with TBS comfortably second. Firestorm hung on for 3rd, somewhat lucky as Black Diamond were only a boat length behind at the final mark but decided to go prawning on the kite set. The party boat must have been planning for a fun night.
This allowed Range to slip through to get 4th across the line then it got close again. Black Diamond getting home 1 second ahead of Plan B, who were 2 seconds ahead of SFC. These seconds might be crucial in the overall results. Black Diamond claimed the handicap victory by this 1 second from Plan B and SFC 2 seconds behind in 3rd. A good battle is brewing between these boats…
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