THERE WAS SOME spectacular competiton on the second day of the Mount Gay Round Barbados Coastal Series organised by Barbados Cruising Club in association with Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc, and Mount Gay.
Although it was an unusually damp day with rain squalls passing through for most of the race, the wind built under the clouds to 15-16kts, which made for really exciting racing along the west coast of the island.
According to Steven Kern, tactician aboard Whistler (J/105), winner of yesterday’s CSA Racing division, this week is one of the most competitive he has experienced in the event’s recent history.
“The starts and the close racing throughout have been fantastic. It has been consistently competitive, which is what we love,” he said.
Kern, sailing with skipper Peter Lewis and team, who are seasoned Caribbean circuit sailors, added yesterday’s win to their race win yesterday and are now looking good for an overall Coastal Series win. They say their secret weapon this week is a new flat spinnaker.
“The new spinnaker worked beautifully going up the west coast. It is a smaller spinnaker we can fly for longer. I think we also managed to stay focused even when we dropped up the coast. The wind dropped to less than two knots at one stage off Holetown, but we popped the kite and gained a lot.”
Fair job
The local team on Conviction (TP52) also sailed well yesterday but had to settle for second place in CSA Racing. Clint Brooks, skipper, said the team sailed well and had better boat speed.
“I think the key to our success was getting back close inshore after rounding the top mark off Holetown. Instead of heading on a straight course to the next mark, we went hard back inshore because the wind was in the north, built our angles, hoisted the kite and took off. That’s where we gained a lot.”
The big shift off the start kept the tacticians on their toes and made for a fairly crowded committee boat end start. From there on in, it seemed to pay to play the shifts up the right-hand side of first beat and those with local knowledge including Mark Hioens and team on Tropic Bird (Hunter 35) in Non CSA class, sailed well once again to lead at the first windward mark. (PR)
