Day Two Racing goes from Little Steam to Extreme, by Judy Krimski Although the day started out with a whiff of breeze; Boston Harbor—true to it’s history of showing international events a good time—did not disappoint its sailing visitors. After a flurry of events including a daily Red Bull parachuter, an outbound tanker and demo races featuring youth laser sailors from Courageous Sailing Center, racing got underway promptly at 2:00 pm. The hallmark of Extreme 40s race organizers; start on time no matter what the breeze is doing. Conditions on the course where light and shifty with a westerly gradient fighting off the forecasted sea breeze. PRO Phil Lawrence elected to make the best of a tricky situation and set up a race course which featured a downwind start right off the Fan Pier site. The course was short, about 300 meters, so boats would stay in close-quarters. When the breeze doesn’t cooperate the call of the day is to keep racing going but keep it tight. Although the boats aren’t sailing at mind bending speeds, spectators get a treat from watching close boat-on-boat action. For the first race views from the bow of the RC boat showed just how frenetic this type of racing is. Cats set up to the right of the RC and with 30 seconds to go hit the gas pedal. Even in the light breeze they accelerated, hitting the start line at 10+ knots and forcing RC to “hit the deck” when Oman Air barged and was forced into the bow of the committee boat. Fortunately there weren’t any injuries but Oman Air had a heck of a time getting off and running again. Several races were run with downwind starts. The only adjustment to the starting line was when PRO Phil skewed the line so more boats would start on the Fan Pier side. Again, making sure that spectators got the best view of the action. Finally, as race three got underway the sea breeze kicked in, filling the harbor with 12+ knots of breeze and making for fast and furious racing. These cat’s apparent wind enables them to reach speeds more than twice the true wind speed. Race legs on the short course were as quick as 1 min. 30 seconds. Race organizers have perfected this “stadium style” racing which brings extreme action within close reach of spectators. They are constantly looking to push the excitement envelope. At one point the fan pier crowd was treated to cats Artemis and Luna Rossa screaming at speeds over 20 knots to a downwind finish not 30 yards from shore. While the course on Boston Harbor is small Extremes have raced in smaller venues. “We ran a series in Amsterdam’s grand canal a few years back,” states Phil Lawrence, PRO. “It didn’t go well.” When asked to illuminate he replied, “Let’s just say someone’s mast ended up in someone’s bedroom.” Now that’s close quarters sailing! Team Artemis and The Wave Muscat continued to sail smart, finishing the day in first (114 pts) and second place (107 pts). But with up to 20 more races to go it’s still anyone’s game. Only 13 pts separate the top 4 teams. Racing continues today through the 4th of July. To learn more about this action packed race event go to http://www.extremesailingseries.com/
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