4th

Prairie Gold is still racing. Yolande and I were away for two weeks but we left the keys with Morgan, Danielle and Joe so that they could continue the races. You may remember that each season’s race position is impacted by the numbers of races one completes. Our strategy, in addition to going out and trying, is to enter all to help us move up the leaderboard. In both of the two races while I was away the crew got Prairie Gold out racing and finished (still awaiting results). In the last they were persistent and despite drifting for 45 minutes, were able to find wind to finish. It was great to receive text message updates while in Australia and then Japan from the finish line and during post race libation. Thanks for taking good care of Prairie Gold and getting out and racing.

Last Wednesday evening only Joe and I were able to make it to the race. We were tracking windspeeds online from the airport station and could see winds gusting to 20kts. Regardless we put the spinnaker on the deck and rigged her ready to go. The course was #1 twice around which is from near Battery wharf to green #13 (world trade center) back down to a mark near courageous sailing. We had a great start in which we couldn’t have got closer to the line without a penalty. Two other boats had a similarly good start and we were off. We held our position well and it was good to have J boats next to us, at least for a while.



We rounded #13 and came downwind initially with the genoa. Quickly we decided we had to try the spinnaker. Woohoo, we were flying. A great downwind leg, followed by an excellent upwind leg. We were in the thick of it and came downwind fast, very fast. As we finished we were slightly behind Eagle and Uncle Joe and finished ahead of another boat! We look forward to seeing the times since our handicap should help us tremendously.

We have come along way in 1 season with our core crew really clicking and understanding what to do and importantly, when to do it.

Back at the dock other crew were congratulating us on a great race especially with crew of two. We might be at the slow end of the fleet, but we have big hearts.

We sat and realized we were sweating profusely – it was warm out, but we had a serious workout getting Prairie Gold around the course. Next morning I am sore – was it the previous day's gym session or the race?

RESULTS ARE IN: We came fourth in our B fleet division based on corrected time. Several boats were disqualified, some retired, perhaps because of the high winds, and we were able to beat Charisma 2 on corrected time. High winds are where we excel given that it helps with our heavy displacement boat. We also beat Uncle Joe and Eagle from Fleet A. We look forward to the return of Morgan and Danielle to the crew this week and to our final Wednesday evening race.