Crew: Brian, Dan, Pete & RW
Winds: SW at 10 kts
Weather: clear, Baro: 29.66, 68 F
Current: ebb - 1721 North Hill
Start/Finish: GLP Starting Area
Course: s/f-V-I-N-I(s/f); Distance: 6.4 nm
Shrouds: +1,+3,+2
The wind blew like stink most of the afternoon then began to fall off the last hour prior to the start.
With the wind averaging around 300 degrees & 8 to 10 kts, the RC chose Vixen as the windward mark, yet two minutes prior to the gun the wind backed 75 degrees & dropped from 8 to 6 knots. We were running down the line on port towards the RC with the class approaching on starboard. Within a couple a seconds after tacking I realized the shift & drop, as we were down speed and not making the pin. We tacked back to port, but not before Cosmic, Sans Souci and Jolly Mon had made good starts.
We nearly caught Sans Souci prior to Vixen, yet blew the rounding in traffic and severe current, and it took us three tries to get around. The downwind to Intrepid was good and we crept up a bit, only to blow the 270 degree port rounding, and had to extend on port to finally make it.
I imagine we lost 30 seconds at the start, a minute and a half at Vixen and a least a minute at Intrepid.
The rounding and set at North Hill was smooth, far too late to make up any time. And the wind dropped off significantly the last five minutes to the finish at Intrepid. We missed placing 4th and 3rd by 11 & 43 seconds respectively.