Race Area
Start
Perfectly set line, so it didn’t matter that much where you started, as long as you were able to get going well. On the pin side, Jelvis did well. In the middle Euro Voiles and Porco Rosso.
1st Upwind
Boats starting full at the pin got headed and lost some distance. Jelvis was the best out of the start going left. Porco rosso did well and tacked a bit under. Good to Go did great job of recovering. They were a bit behind, but found the lane to the right just below Porco Rosso and then nailed the right layline while others went too far over. Once again, some boats ended over the left layline pretty early and some sailed way above the right one, too.
- The easiest place to sail on port towards the top mark
No big shifts. Looks like a bit of left at the very end (take with care since on top boats are over the laylines so angles might not be the upwind ones)
Top Mark
One thing that pops out is many boats sailing way above the marks. All the meters you go up, you need to sail back down. It doesn’t feel that bad since you luff gradually, but it ends up with your upwind and downwind leg longer than it should be. Porco Rosso is a good example, YC Monaco, too.
1st Downwind
Stable wind and once again, is a lot about finding a place to sail. You can be the fastest boat, but if there is slow boat ahead of you, you cannot gain. This, together with the fact that wind shadow is not that big anymore, opens up opportunities for gybe setting boats or the ones that sail alone. Noticia gained the most with the gybe set. Elvis also did great through the middle of the course as did Liquid Sun. Good to go had some issues, losing a lot at the bottom. Sail Racing sailed pretty high and slow. Jelvis managed to extend even more.
green where there is no crowd
Leeward Rounding
Some bias, favoring right turn by 10m. It was also important in these conditions to round as close and with not much speed loss which was tricky task to do.
2nd Upwind
Finally the upwind with a few small shifts to be played. Sassy got them all right and had the fastest leg of the fleet. Arete sailed similar path through the middle and gained too. Boats going left got lifted, but had to sail against that rightie for a while after the tack.
Sassy’s path. Left boat faced the right shift when tacking to port tack.
2nd Downwind
More space as the race stretched so left was also a solid option. Good to Go did well. Also Liquid Sun and Elvis. Interesting is that the fastest boat of the leg was Disco Volante, sailing much better angle in the back of the fleet.
The simplest version of going left and gybing a bit earlier paid.
