Day 2 = Spectacular Capsize!

Day 2 at the GP14 Nationals at Brixham was notable for two things; my GP 13941 probably went faster than she had in her life, and the most spectacular windward capsize I have ever experienced. 

Winds were 15 knots with gusts. Quite strong, but as the wind was south westerly, the waves were not as bad as yesterday, and it was possible to pick up transits from the land. Nevertheless, it was a tough day. 

The first race we had a reasonable gate start, and finished around 40th. 

Second race was a line start. Thanks to Chris tactical calls we made reasonable progress up the right hand side of the course, and had half-a-dozen boats behind us at the windward mark. We kept a reasonable (for us) pace, despite some scary moments with the spinnaker. At the last leg of the final lap we caught a gust, bore away too fast, and the boat collapsed on top of us. 

Chris was able to right the boat, but the spinnaker was trapped around the spreaders. Boats shot past us as we tried to recover. We limped over the finish line, with Chris gamely holding on to the trapped spinnaker to prevent it filling. We ended up second from last.  

The photo shows the repair to the torn spinnaker. 

Just for the record, this was our boat going out at the beginning of the day. 

Tiring day - real learning curve. 

Still enjoying things.