Antigua Sailing Week Day 2 began at 08:00 for us on the committee boat again. The winds were a bit stronger today and that meant that the race officers could set more aggressive courses. When a regatta has sufficient races, the competitors can discard one or sometimes even 2 of their worst scores, so Neil planned on doing 3 races for all of the classes while the conditions were conducive to good racing.
09:00 On station
We motored downwind to the second start location at “Rendezvous” and proceeded to set up shop after grabbing our mooring ball. The foredeck crew is getting better and we weren’t quite at Formula 1 pit-stop levels, but we did make some good time.
After mooring the start line was set, and our finish boat set up the finish line about a kilometer downwind of us.
10:00 Starts
The starts proceeded well until CSA2, the largest and most aggressive fleet. There were enough boats over the line early to warrant an AP, then they did the same thing on the second start! So Alec put up the black flag.
Nature’s way of saying “beware” is bright colors on some plants and animals, or a rattle on a snake, or a loud hissing sound. The black flag is the racing equivalent. It means that any boat over the line early is automatically disqualified from that race. This warning seems to have worked, as the third attempt at starting the class worked like a charm and they were much better behaved.
Afternoon
We did manage 3 races and both the competitors and our crew were well exhausted at the end of the day. We returned before our other committee boat and had the inner slot at the dock. The afternoon of Antigua Sailing Week Day 2 dragged on in the heat of the cockpit and foredeck, but once the sun approached the horizon things cooled down quickly.
After the daily prizegiving, we walked to a fine local Indian restaurant, Indian Summer, for a very tasty meal to finish off our day.