Yesterday we started our new race season at Saint Aubrey again on our course B22 – 1 with wind from North East and 21knots. Nicci (with crew Valeisha), Lucy, Erica, Rugger, Moon, Jack, Ella and Lisa came for the race.
The conditions all over SL became after the holiday weeks and no restarts quite bad and laggy. That was the reason i asked LL in the support chat to restart our race area some hours before. The sims and the crossing behaved pretty good and only Jack lost his boat in the last quarter of the race. But i don’t know yet what happened to him.

The start with wind from North East is a downwind start and is done best with spin. But that means you need a good timing and it is not always the best to start in the first line. The second line can use the wind shadow and can catch up or even pass the start winners on the first leg to buoy CS.
Yesterday Aymalie was a bit too early at the start line and needed to slow down with jib to avoid crossing it over early. She was successful but at a low speed. That gave Jack (watch his perfect “rocket start”) and Lucy the chance to pass her right after the start. Ella and Lisa followed Aymalie with more speed and passed her as well.

Lisa found the best line on the first leg, used the wind shadow to pass Lucy and Jack as well and arrived first at buoy CS.
You might say “Lisa again?”, but well she found the best line and yes she did it again.
Jack and Lucy were in an exciting spin duel. Lucy changed a bit late back to the jib for the following upwind leg to buoy OE, but Jack reacted fast and fair and gave her enough room.
Ella and Aymalie arrived parallel at buoy CS and Ella passed Aymalie on the inside.
Moon and Nicci had a close duel as well and Moon won that on the inside line.
Rugger and Erica followed the fleet after their little slower start.

Lisa took the advantage of her first position at buoy CS with one of her normal quick and fast turns to find her undisturbed line for the upwind leg to buoy OE. All others were slowed down a bit during their duels. The fair, but much wider turn of Jack let him fall back behind nearly all others.
Aymalie chose a little more northern line to buoy OE and Ella (not on the picture) a more southern line. Lucy were in the middle of the two.
Rugger in the middle between Jack and Nicci started his “upwind turbo”, passed first Nicci and then Moon.

On the following downwind leg to buoy CN Aymalie, Lucy and Ella sailed first side by side and started to change the sides. In this triel Ella found the best line and arrived as first Lisa hunter at buoy CN followed Aymali and Lucy.
In the background you see already Rugger aiming for Lucy.

On the following upwind leg to buoy ON Ella defended her little lead to Aymalie and arrived at buoy ON before Aymalie.
Rugger did a lot better turn at buoy CN than Lucy and because of he took more speed into the northern line he caught up with Lucy. Lucy tried to tack earlier away from Rugger, but unfortunately too late. She nearly blocked Rugger who needed to sail around Lucy’s back. Lucy was in this case already on port tack and that meant a penalty circle for her, which she did right after that. Rugger and Moon passed Lucy during her penalty.

The duels and positions stayed now all the way to buoy CN via the long downwind to buoy OW, the upwind leg to buoy IN, the downwind leg to buoy IS and the upwind leg to buoy CN. Aymalie tried to catch up with Ella and Moon with Rugger. Lucy could sail a bit away from Jack and Nicci and caught up slowly with Moon. Jack unfortunately lost somewhere on his way to buoy CN his boat and left the race and Erica caught up slowy with Nicci.

The duels stayed about as close as they were at buoy CN. The second one tried to catch up but the first in each duel defended the lead.

Congrats to Lisa for her win of the first B22 race in 2022. And congrats to all others for their exciting duels in the first half of the race and then for their great defending of their positions into the finish.

Here is the result from yesterday:

Race 1: 2022-01-04-ST AR- B22LTE-1 -NE21:

1: Lisa Hyandi IDBS2145 – Race Time: 0:28:47-12points
2: eleanorvelvet Resident IDBSbccf – Race Time: 0:29:17-9points
3: Aymalie Resident IDBS336d – Race Time: 0:29:40-7points
4: ruggeromare Resident IDBSf78d – Race Time: 0:30:02-6points
5: moonglownight Resident IDBSbf2e – Race Time: 0:30:12-5points
6: LucyInTheSky Afarensis IDBS3536 – Race Time: 0:30:21-4points
7: Nicci Neox BSa594 – Race Time: 0:30:59-3points – (edited by RD)
8: EricaMusashi Resident IDBSaf13 – Race Time: 0:31:25-2points
9: Jackal Hotaling IDBSd6aa – Not Finished-1point

Lap Times:
Lisa Hyandi IDBS2145 – Start: 0:00:06 – Last lap: 0:28:41
eleanorvelvet Resident IDBSbccf – Start: 0:00:07 – Last lap: 0:29:10
Aymalie Resident IDBS336d – Start: 0:00:01 – Last lap: 0:29:39
ruggeromare Resident IDBSf78d – Start: 0:00:12 – Last lap: 0:29:50
moonglownight Resident IDBSbf2e – Start: 0:00:10 – Last lap: 0:30:02
LucyInTheSky Afarensis IDBS3536 – Start: 0:00:04 – Last lap: 0:30:17
Nicci Neox BSa594 – Start: 0:00:08 – Last lap: 0:30:51 – (edited by RD)
EricaMusashi Resident IDBSaf13 – Start: 0:00:14 – Last lap: 0:31:11
Jackal Hotaling IDBSd6aa – Start: 0:00:02 – Last lap: Not Finished

Last year we did 46 races for the championship and because of that i will count this year not only the best 30 but 35 races.

Standing overall St AR 2022 B22LTE Championship (after 1 race):
Sailor-points (number of races)
Lisa-12(1)
Ella-9(1)
Aymalie-7(1)
Rugger-6(1)
Moon-5(1)
Lucy-4(1)
Nicci-3(1)
Erica-2(1)
Jack-1(1)

Stay all safe and healthy and hope to see you all again next week on the same course but then with wind from South East and 21knots.

hugs and kisses
Bianca