What a night to kick off the summer series!
July 2, 2025
Summer Series Race 1
Race Report
Maverick #33
What a night to kick off the summer series!
With conflicting forecasts calling for anything from 5-7 kts, to 10-18kts, to rain, & even thunderstorms, the race committee had their work cut out for them. But they delivered—a solid, tactical race that kept everyone on their toes.
Pre-start, we were sailing around the course area trying to get a read on both the rig tune and the shifting conditions. The contrast was pretty striking: dark clouds looming to the south while the north and west gave us sunshine and lighter skies. With current pushing out, we settled on a game plan to hit the port layline early and ride a favorable shift across the bay.
At the 4-minute mark, we decided to stick with our original plan: aim for the top third of the line near the boat end. The start was crowded but clean across the fleet, and we managed to stay in clear air long enough to extend toward the port layline. Boats around us peeled off to the right, giving us space to commit left and use the outbound current to our advantage. We rounded in 3rd, a good position.
Downwind, the focus was on defending our lane and keeping clean air. We aimed for the right-hand gate with a clean approach, and it paid off.
On the second beat, we tried to mirror our first upwind—hugging that left again—but a late shift gave the edge to 107 and a few others who came in strong from the bottom right. The race committee threw in a change mark, so the goal shifted to holding position and making sure no one could sneak inside at the rounding. Once around the bottom mark, we found a spot to get back on starboard in the sea of spinnakers and into pressure on the left side where we had clean air.
From there, it was a matter of staying smart and loosely covering the boats behind us to secure a third-place finish. Hats off to the RC for making it all happen in such tricky conditions.
Well done 156 on the win!
Looking forward to the next one!
Respectfully,
Team Maverick #33
