On Friday the wind was blowing from the northwest at 5 to 15 knots. The tangerine fleet were the last to start and were doing the inner trap. On the first race with a favourite pin, I started at the boat because the upwind mark was set far to the right and the wind was very puffy with huge shifts. Left seemed a little favoured but it seemed the fleets were overplaying that side as most of the full rigs overlaid on the port lay line. Apparently I was wrong as the wind shifted left and it had greater pressure. I came out in first from the right side but I round the mark around 20th -30th. I had a great downwind passing 15 boats by playing the shifts downwind (have been practicing this last couple of weeks) and a little help from a gust. The rest of the race was all about going left and I ended up 9th.
After the first race, the race committee moved the top mark to the left. They also moved the pin down to make the boat favoured. I was starting at the boat when I heard my number called by the line sighter. The I flag was up, so after some fancy boats manoeuvres I rounded the boat end. At this point of the race, I was about 40 boat lengths behind everyone so I decided to bang the right corner even though my prerace strategy was to go left. I went 50 boat lengths on port tack and then tacked. Just like magic I rounded the mark in 2nd where I ended up finishing. I guess I was a little lucky. Even though I would like to think the fleet was distracted by my great looks.
The third race was very similar to the second, as the puffs were rolling down the right side along with a nice lift. I ended up in 7th after some troubles on the first leg. My problem in the third race was I did not go right fast enough, even though I won the boat.
Once again, in the fourth race I won the boat and this time tacked right away. I sailed for about 40 boatlenghts and tacked back. It looked like I was king of the world for about a minute. Then a huge left shift came and I ended up in midfleet.
With a poor last race I ended the day in 13th.
Isaac Bussin is a member of RCYC high performance team where he sails the laser radial. In 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, he won the Nathan Cowan award for Queen's University male skipper of the year.
