Sailing isn't supposed to be a contact Sport

This last weekend was the Resin Regatta hosted by SFYC. Results are posted here.
Race 1
We were looking for a pin third of the line start, unfortunately, so where the other 11 boat out there. We ended up with good speed but too close to a boat to leeward, and they ended up pinching us off and we were forced to tack away to the right side of the course, which was not favored. By the time we had a clear lane to tack back to the left we were bounced back towards the middle of the course and unable to get to the pressure on the right side. We rounded in 8th at the first windward mark. We had a slow downwind which is basically due to me not keeping our momentum up. We recognized our errors, adjusted the rig a bit for the upwind, gained one boat back, and then had a great downwind going to the left side of the course and ended up sixth at the finish (about 7 seconds behing the next boat). The good thing is that the fleet had gotten pretty divided during this race, and we were with the lead pack. We were excited and ready for race 2.

Race 2
With a square line we opted for the boat end and had a good start with clean air. We were able to sail a clean upwind, go to the pressure on the right, and were sailing well. I don't recall were we rounded this race, but it doesn't really matter because it ended short. Coming into the leeward gate we were set up with 2 other melges 24 ahead of us. We saw two Alerion Express 28s going to the other gate. We assumed they were going to round the starboard gate and head off in the other direction. Unfortunately, they were a little confused and rounded from the outside the gate in and hardened up on the wind directly towards us. By the time we realize what was going on, I spun the boat as hard as I could, and since the Alerion is a heavy cruising boat that is double handed and much less maneuverable (especially when your main is still hard on) they plowed into our starboard bow. Race abandoned. I will post some more pics right after this post. When we got in the accident we were in 7th, but had been faster upwind than the two boats in front of us, so we figure we gave away a 6th, or maybe a 5th place.

MANY THANKS TO ASHLEY PERRIN WHO WAS ABLE TO MEET US AT THE DOCK AND PLACE A PATCH ON THE BOAT TO ALLOW US TO RACE SUNDAY. YOU ROCK ASHLEY!

Race 3
This was a rough race for us. We had the rig tuned a little too tight for the breeze and the chop, and I was trying to point too high, which in the end resulted in a poor finish of 9th place.

Race 4
This is the way you want to end your regatta. Although we new we had to abandon the race early in order to get the boat to the yard to be ready for next weekend's Pacific Coast Championships. We had the best start of our regatta. Crossed all but one boat, and although we were slow for a bit were set up to round the top mark in third. Unfortunately, I screwed up a duck of the SF fleet captain (I was still a little spooked by the fresh patch on the side of my boat) and we lost two boats right before layline. We ended up rounding in fifth and kept sailing upwind back to SFYC.

We are rounding the marks clean, we have the basic boat handling down. Unfortunately that is not all that is required to sail a melges well. The 24 is an extremely demanding boat that if you aren't giving it 100% you will not be going fast. That is why I love this boat. We are able to keep up with the top boats in the regatta, we just need to learn to shift gears more quickly and we will be moving up in the standings. We showed great promise, and great improvement during the regatta. Considering this is the first one design regatta we have sailed as a crew we are looking great.