Monday, 27 April 2009

An Exciting Climax to the Spring Series

The final race of the Spring Series took place yesterday and provided everyone with an exciting climax to the series. Saturday’s training day gave the team their 1st opportunity to experience some strong winds sailing. With the wind gusting to 27 knots the team’s ability was fully tested. Everyone loved it and did a brilliant job, executing some complex manoeuvres in tricky conditions.

Feeling well prepared, the team was cautiously confident going into the final race. We could possibly finish 2nd in the series or we could feasibly drop to 8th! We had a conservative start at the committee boat end of the line, not wanting to risk an OCS. Puma very quickly found clear air and worked the 1st beat exceptionally well, being rewarded with a 2nd place at the 1st mark, just one boat length behind Premier Flair.

For the rest of the race the team worked extremely well, with only one crew error, which resulted in the spinnaker’s premature hoist (we were still sailing upwind toward the windward mark). The problem was very quickly resolved which was clear evidence as to how the team has developed throughout the series.

In the end Puma finished in an excellent 4th place, just ten seconds ahead of Premier Flair. This was to be the 3rd consecutive race that Puma has beaten Premier Flair (one of Britain’s Commodores Cup teams). This in itself is an incredible achievement and one which everyone is very proud of. What is better is that Puma finished the series on equal points with Premier Flair!

The spring series has given Sailing Logic’s teams a great start to the season with a real confidence boost. Puma Logic finished the series in 5th place (on equal points with 4th place). It was an extremely competitive fleet of twenty five boats. Well done everyone, top performance. Posted by Philippe Falle at 8:43 AM 0 comments Leave Comment

Monday, 20 April 2009

Puma Clinch Another 3rd Place

As the Warsash Spring Series draws to a close the team aboard Puma Logic enjoyed another challenging race with a top result. There has been a considerable improvement in the standard of sailing aboard Puma during the series, which is endorsed by the good results.

The race was both physically and tactically challenging and the team rose to the occasion. Enjoying sunshine and a good breeze for the duration of the race was a bonus. Puma Logic had a great start and was in the top half of the fleet for the entire race.

The interesting course set by the race committee required some excellent teamwork to pull off some difficult manoeuvres. The mark roundings were very busy with three different fleets converging on a few of them at the same time. Despite loosing out badly on the final rounding Puma stormed over the finish line with an excellent 3rd place.

Puma Logic now lies in 5th place in the series. When the discard is applied to the results Puma is just four points behind 2nd place! It is all very close with just a few points separating 2nd place from 7th! It is all to play for in the final race.

Jaguar Logic was also racing at the weekend. She had a team aboard who were doing their ‘Introduction to Racing’ course. It proved very successful and everyone had a fantastic time. There were many smiling faces at the end of the week and everyone is looking forward to coming back next weekend for more. Posted by Philippe Falle at 12:45 PM 0 comments Leave Comment