Space Coast Invitational 2021 Racing Recap (Wildcard)

Regatta: Space Coast Invitational 2021.

Crew: Greg Florian.

Finishing Place: 3rd Place out of 11 boats (Results Here).

This would be my first time traveling with Greg Florian and we had a ton of fun driving down all the way to Florida for a weekend regatta.  It was a solid performance where we were the fourth best boat and we finished third.   I was hoping we'd have something for Jeff Linton and Bill Bruss and Tom McNally and Andy Hayward after doing so well at Lake Monroe but we just didn't.  There was a Robby Brown racing who I've never met before and he was very good and sailed 3-up so he had some extra weight.  The wind was blowing 20+ and my hands were barely functional after the first race.  Greg was not used to crewing on a Flying Scot and he was battling a learning curve.  I was trying a new brand of gloves and a new mainsheet. They just weren't working.   After the first race, the next two races were pretty much survival and we hung in better than everyone except for the top 2 boats.  We had joked on the drive down that we hoped the PRO had some guts and would send us out in higher wind.  We didn't want to drive all the way there and not race.   Not only did he race us in 20+, he had us race 4 races because Sunday wasn't looking promising.   My hands and back were feeling it for a few days after the event.  Wow.   Be careful what you wish for.  :-) 

What we did well 

We generally sailed great with good starts and without any major mistakes.  

What we could have done better

Should not have tried new gloves and new main in those conditions.  Did not have a great handle on the boat when I needed to.   Andy Hayward mentioned I needed to keep the boat flatter and that was a function and my hands hurting and not having the responsiveness on the main sheet I needed to have to be competitive with the top two. 

Eric Bussell
FS#6135