Monday, 27 April 2009

An Exciting Climax to the Spring Series

The final race of the Spring Series took place yesterday and provided everyone with an exciting climax to the series. Saturday’s training day gave the team their 1st opportunity to experience some strong winds sailing. With the wind gusting to 27 knots the team’s ability was fully tested. Everyone loved it and did a brilliant job, executing some complex manoeuvres in tricky conditions.

Feeling well prepared, the team was cautiously confident going into the final race. We could possibly finish 2nd in the series or we could feasibly drop to 8th! We had a conservative start at the committee boat end of the line, not wanting to risk an OCS. Puma very quickly found clear air and worked the 1st beat exceptionally well, being rewarded with a 2nd place at the 1st mark, just one boat length behind Premier Flair.

For the rest of the race the team worked extremely well, with only one crew error, which resulted in the spinnaker’s premature hoist (we were still sailing upwind toward the windward mark). The problem was very quickly resolved which was clear evidence as to how the team has developed throughout the series.

In the end Puma finished in an excellent 4th place, just ten seconds ahead of Premier Flair. This was to be the 3rd consecutive race that Puma has beaten Premier Flair (one of Britain’s Commodores Cup teams). This in itself is an incredible achievement and one which everyone is very proud of. What is better is that Puma finished the series on equal points with Premier Flair!

The spring series has given Sailing Logic’s teams a great start to the season with a real confidence boost. Puma Logic finished the series in 5th place (on equal points with 4th place). It was an extremely competitive fleet of twenty five boats. Well done everyone, top performance. Posted by Philippe Falle at 8:43 AM Leave Comment