Frustrating Times

15 May 10:30

Well the good position didnt last long... For a (very) brief second after the start, we managed to get ourselves up to second place. But then we dropped and dropped and dropped some more.

It seems that since the forestay problems, our rig is not capable of pointing high on the wind. We've known we were a little slower going up wind, but on this race it's shown by how much; a LOT.

We find ourselves going slow and watching the boats around us not only be ble to point 5 degrees higher, but doing so AND going 2 knots faster!! They simply all sail around us, and no matter how much trimming we do, we can't get her to move. The sails are too fat, and she's not responding as
she should.

As you can imagine this is frustrating to say the least. Especially since we are running a new (and much tougher) watch system. All in all it's taking it's toll on the crew. Morale is a little low, but we're struggling on.

Since we clearly can't outsail the other guys close hauled, we are changing tactics to see if we can get a better wind angle. It's a bold move, but then quite frankly we don't have a lot to lose :-/