Final day at the HPR Midwinter Chsmpoinships

Team Premier was 4 points behind fellow Farr 400, Chessie Racing and Spookie, the Carkeek 40 sailed by Steve Benjamin, with his wife Heidi calling tactics.  It was a big ask to get the 4 points in four races, but we decided if we sailed well and won all three we still needed some help from our friends in the other boats.  The conditions were perfect, 10-18 knots from 25 to 66 degrees.  Big sheers in the wind both in direction and pressure.  We got 3 good starts.  But we were in faze with the shifts all day.  Don't think we missed one.  Spookie would get away with their speed but we kept cutting into their lead with a better shift that went our way.

We did get our three wins on the last day.  Good starts and called some great shifts.  Boat was going well and it was a lot of fun to get the boats up down wind over 15 knots in 17 knots of wind.

In the end after looking over the results for the series, a painful fact came up.  Int he first race we lost 3 place by one second.  If we had that third we would have won the regatta on a count back.  Very close I would say.  Of course you can look at the last race and see we won the race by 4 seconds....  Karma?

Results: http://www.transpac52.org/news/year-2013/Results-Gaastra-52-World-Championship.html

How do we like the HPR rule?  Very much.  It was the talk on the dock that the boat that sailed best won the race.  It was great to see the Farr 400's win 6 out of 8 races.  This happened because in most part, we got good starts and shifts.  The Carkeek's match races a bit and slowed each other down.  We would cut the corner.  Nobody said a boat won because they rated better...  I think this is the first time I have heard this on the dock durning a series...

Here is a site with more info:  http://www.hprsailing.org/hpr-media/press-releases.



more pictures from Rick Tomlinson: