Day 2 - Race 2

The next race started immediately when the last boat finished the last race. Again, we had a good start keeping clear from the boat coming in from the committee boat end just behind the Thais. Again, our boat speed was in the groove and pulled away together with the Philippines team. Again we were first across the first windward mark but once again losing out at the raising of the Spin. We tried covering but they seem to strong to catch.

Tack for tack, gybe for gybe, we tried but the all National SEA Games Sailors from the Philippines seem to always be a first step ahead of us and even threw a dummy gybe at us. Close behind we 2 Malaysian boats closing and trying to cover us.

Going the last leg to the finishing line, we had only a gybe to do to secure our 2nd place. We were to the leeward of the chasing pack, gunning for the line. We spotted a big black gust to our leeward and decided to put in a gybe to intercept that gust to try to catch up with the Phillipines team. That gust was a little stronger than anticipated and we nearly broached when gybing. As they say, when it rains, it pours. Just minutes later, we broached for real. Pinned to the water, spinnaker flapping, mainsail limp, trying to get the rudder in the water to bear off to a dead downwind, it was just heartbreaking to see the 2 boats behind us surge forward. After what seemed like an eternity, we managed to get our noses clean and bear our bow down to the finish. The first boat crossed, as did the second boat. We popped our spin and were in a sprint to the finish with the 3rd boat to the line. But it was too little too late and we crossed the line in 4th. Lesson learnt: broaches can happen anytime and prevention is always better than cure.

This race we scored 4th place. =(