This was a very light air race. It was blowing 6 knots from the southeast. The current was slack at the start. We had been planning to take a pin end start, but just before our start, the wind backed so that you couldn't make the pin on starboard tack after running the line with all of the boats fighting for it. We decided a middle of the line start with clear air would be our best start. The Alberg does not  accelerate well, so keeping up speed is critical in light air.

    Ron was driving as he is a much better light air helmsman than I. We hammered our start, and got away cleanly with speed. We were instantly in first. as we were to windward of our entire fleet, and were first to cross the line. This nullified the leward boats' advantage at starting at the pin end.

    We watched the fleet ahead of us and found that the left side of the fleet was favored in both windspeed and with a lift toward the mark. Our starboard tack speed was superior to the rest of our fleet, and we caught boats in other fleets.

    We went left until we had to come out for the spider bouy. We were sailing in a header and into less air. We had few puffs coming through... the air was basically light and steady. We tacked on a wind line that was fairly constant. We were again lifted and in relatively strong air.

    We watched as the fleet kept going right...going early to the layline. We decided that we would take the high risk option of staying left. It was enticing to stay left, but we knew that the safer option was to go right. One of the major tenets of sailboat racing is that the boat that takes the least risk wins more often. Taking a flyer is a high risk option. We knew this and decided that we had tanked the series so that if we won, we would have bragging rights back at the clubhouse that night. If we lost, it would not hurt our standing or be disappointing.

    Now you know where this is going. We kept going, were lifted beautifully up toward the mark. We had better wind and were going to get to the mark one half of a mile in front of the second place boat. The rest of the fleet had overstood the mark and were on a beam reach to get to the mark. Then the wind died. Not for the rest of the fleet, but for us on the left side. We watched as the fleet to the right passed us. We ended up having to tack onto the headed tack to get into the wind line. We watched as one by one each of our competitors appeared on our bow. We looked at eachother and grinned. We had lost our gamble. There was not much of a chance of us catching anyone on the leward leg.

    We finished last...The downwind leg being pretty much a parade, though we closed the gap. When you leverage yourself that much, you win big or lose big...more often than not you lose, but this series was a right off, and we enjoyed the gamble. It was like buying a lottery ticket...