We sailed 3 races today in winds of 10 knots and under. To be honest, I can’t remember every race in every detail. Our scores for the day were 2,2,2. So better but not enough to win. We tied for second but lost the tiebreaker so we finished 3rd overall, with Numbers winning and Shockwave in second. We seem to have been able to make the boat go a little better in the light but this is still our weak point. Our mark rounding’s were clean. One leeward mark rounding was a small struggle when we had an issue with the string system. The string system has been quite reliable this week allowing us to take the kite down 1-2 boat lengths from the bottom mark. Our sets also improved this week, which had been a weak point for us. How did we make them better? Lots of little things: better turn downwind, less friction in the kite going up out of the hatch, better sneaks on the bow.
Overall, we sailed better as the week went on but we know we could have done better. A few mistakes here and there cost us a few seconds which in some races was all that kept us from winning.
However, now we are off to distance racing. Pirate and the boys are taking the boat back to Palm Beach right now where it will get modified for the West coast. It will have a scoop added to it and then shipped to Driscoll’s in San Diego. We will reassemble the boat over February and March. The rig will get shipped separately where it will be maintained, checked and reassembled in February. Our first event on the west coast will be the Cabo race in March. We have plenty of work and mods to do before then.
Stay Tuned,
Doogie

https://bellamenteracing.com/bellamente/164/

We sailed 2 races today in very light air.
For both races we again sailed with a reduced crew, taking 4 people off the boat.
The first race we started at the right end and were a little late but got to the line at full speed. We sailed well on the beat and rounded the mark with a clean set. We sailed clean and were able to keep the boat moving through the light air. We worked on some better staysail furl timing to improve our inside gybes. We were able to hold our time and finished second in the race behind Numbers.
Second race we had a good start but struggled to find our way. For most of the race we seemed to hold the same position. Shockwave hit the top mark at the first set and they fell behind us as they did their penalty turn. The race course was a 5 legger and on the last beat we went left while the rest of the fleet went right. We found some better pressure and came from behind to win the race!
So overall today was better but we still have some work to do. Tomorrow will be a good battle and hopefully we sail 2 races. The forecast is still for some light air so we will have to work hard.

We only had one light air race today.
We made some small changes to the boat and sailed with 4 less crew in order to lighten the boat. We started at the pin and were lucky we were not over. We sailed all the way out to the port layline and followed Titan into the top. We had to duck Numbers on as they rounded the weather mark. We went ok on the run but were still not able to pass Numbers. We had a clean leeward mark rounding and worked our way up the beat again. Shockwave seemed to struggle in this really light stuff, a little like we were yesterday.
Our gybes were costly and we probably gybed too much on the first run. This is probably where we lost our time on Titan. We finished third in the race. Better but still not good enough.

https://bellamenteracing.com/bellamente/158/

Well, today was a rough day to say the least.

First race of the day we started towards the leeward end of the line. We had a good start being nice and close to the line. On the long sail out to the port layline, we seemed to hold our own against Shockwave but Numbers was also keeping up. All 3 boats tacked almost simultaneously heading for the weather mark. We rounded right on Numbers tail but were unable to capitalize and they stayed ahead of us for the rest of the race. We had a poor result and finished 4^th.

Second race saw us with another decent start on the right side of the line with Numbers just to weather of us and Titan to leeward. We had decent speed and quickly tacked, ducked Numbers and headed for the right. We again rounded the weather mark right on the heels of the Numbers but they seemed to slip away from us downwind. We definitely seem to struggle in this wind condition. We feel underpowered and we struggle to get to our numbers. The results show another poor result with a 4^th. The boat handling went well but we had a small hiccup on a set when a kite sheet wrapped itself around a lifeline and piece of spectra on the bow. Nothing a quick swipe of the knife could not solve!

The forecast for tomorrow looks grim with not more than 5 knots forecast. Hopefully it’s wrong and the breeze will cooperate.

Doogie