It’s getting harder to put a positive spin on things as we end day two on 5 wins, 6 losses. It was a cold wet day today with a light easterly that slowly built throughout the day and swung round to the north. We had the morning off so spent the time staying dry at the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club before heading out onto the water and into the gloomy wet weather to check out the conditions and get a feel for the racecourse.

We had 6 races to today to complete the round robin so we needed to make sure we notched up some more victories to ensure we progressed to the next stage of the event. Our first match of the day against the in form Phil Robinson had us starting to the right off the line, as we sailed to the left side of the course were both hit by a big left shift, this enabled Phil to cross in front of us and lead into the top mark. With the course now being a one-way track it offered no passing lanes and we were forced to follow Phil to the finish.

We bounced back in our next race against Argentinean Juan Grimaldi forcing him into a mistake in the prestart gaining him a penalty. With a big lead off the line and him carrying a penalty we extended around the course for an easy victory.

An unforced error in the prestart of our next race against Taylor Canfield had us over the line early, and even after we feel we had returned to the correct side of the start line the start boat still called us over. We eventually got off the line on our second attempt but by this stage Taylor had a big lead, which was too much for us to claw back on the short course.

Another dominant prestart by Laurie had us leading Chris Van Tol easily off the startline, and even though Chris gained on the first beat we maintained our lead and then extended for another comfortable victory. This left us with 2 races remaining which we really needed to win if we wanted an easier path into the next round.

Our race against Sally Barkow turned into a major disappointment for us as we found ourselves on the receiving end of some tough calls from the umpires. We had Sally on the ropes in the prestart and on the racecourse, but the umpires penalised us twice and all but handed her the victory.

With one race remaining Laurie again dominated the prestart and we lead Jakub Pawluk from start to finish leaving us our 5 wins for the round robin. We have a bad feeling that this possibly isn’t enough for us to progress and we will need to wait out the remaining flights tomorrow to see if results go our way.

These regattas have been a valuable experience for us and possibly show a small lack of experience in smaller yachts with most of our team having come from bigger boat experience. So we will keep moving forward and building our knowledge and hope that some results go our way so that we can keep on sailing here at the Knickerbocker Cup.

Shifty conditions seem to be the status quo so far during our tour of the USA, and today on Manhasset bay for the first day of the Knickerbocker Cup it was no different. We were scheduled for 5 flights this morning before a full crew change brought the other teams out and into the action, so the race committee were keen to get underway on time to make best use of a light northerly.

Our first race against Rueben Corbett eventually went our way, but it wasn’t before a shaky first beat where Rueben lead us right into a slight right hand shift and into a small lead by the first mark. We picked a great shift on the first run and gybed into new pressure which sore us sail around Rueben on the downwind and into a handy lead which we defended well for a welcome win.

Next up was the infamous Dave Perry; we started well and lead Dave around the first lap of the course easily. We split left on the second upwind looking for a left hand pressure but missed a right shift, which Dave hooked into and he gained the lead at the next top mark that he held to the finish.

Third race was against the Swedish skipper Rick Fornandor, we unfortunately missed a right shift up the first beat which gave Rick a big lead at the first top mark. We worked hard on the run and next upwind to close the game right back up but it wasn’t enough.

The northerly breeze eventually fizzled out and after sitting around out on the water for an hour the race committee decided to bring us ashore and we awaited the new breeze from the great facilities at the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club.

We eventually headed back out on the water around 3:30pm for our last 2 races of the day. It was touch and go as to whether the breeze would fill in enough for our final two flights, but the race committee did well to get us underway.

We dominated Keith Swinton in our 4th flight and had built up a healthy lead by the finish taking our scorecard to 2-3. Our last race against Anna Tunnicliffe didn’t quite go to plan and after controlling her easily in the pre-start and leading off the line we slowly fell out of the pressure allowing her a small advantage. Anna had the smallest of margins at the top mark but we were pushing hard and kept the game close down the run. We tried to work the shifts hard up the second windward leg but failed to make any inroads and Anna took the win.

That was the end of our day and as the other teams took over the boats we headed to shore knowing we have some work to do tomorrow. We are confident we have the artillery to improve and look forward to some more breeze later in the week.

Again, thank you to SLAM for their support and of course all our family and friends.