As we arrived at Chichester we saw what we were going to be confronted with tough conditions and as we were rigging the wind steadily built, we raked the mast well back and tensioned the jib halyard and headed out for an exciting ride to the start line .
We crossed the line towards the pin on Starboard and headed up the left side we had a good start and just won the 1st mark ahead of a 4.7 we were racking our brains on the py of a 4.7 to gauge how were doing the other Fevas were behind us so we were happy.A couple of laps round and we maintained a lead on the Fevas . As we tacked close to the windward mark I think we picked a gust spike and a swimming we went. We righted and managed to claw back one Feva space. It was a little frustrating but we were not the only sailors taking a swim.
Waiting for Race two start we hove to and were very aware of many boats being knocked over so we thought we were prepared only to be part of the swimming team it must have been one of the F7 gusts swishing through.
We got a good start and kept the lead for the race but we couldnt shake off Alex Butler in his RS Tera Pro who kept pointing higher and made us scratch our heads.It appeared that the jib tension had slipped this affected our pointing.
Of 41 starters only 16 in slow medium and fast
were able to finish. We had great fun and enjoyed some of my Nan's super tasty Christmas cake when we got back to shore.
Here is the Yachts and Yachting review of the Snowflake race 1 and 2
http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/167381/Chichester-Snowflake-Series-day-1
Thanks to the Chichester Race team who put on a great event.
I think the gust at 13.35 is when we tacked!!!
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