Artemis Racing ahead of Gitana. Image copyright Mark Lloyd/Lloyd Images/OC ThirdPole
by Morgan Trubovich
Act 4 of the Extreme Sailing Series started today in Boston, USA. This is the first time the series has come to USA to race. The first day of the event couldn’t have been much better. Sunny skies, perfect temperature and 5-15 knots of wind. Really nice. Our day started off in a positive way too. Thirty minutes before the start of the first race we were taking a break to leeward of a big Boston Firefighter’s vessel. Terry said; “Hey guys why don’t we sheet on and get out of his way!” We did just that and about 30 seconds later they opened up about 10,000 gallons of water in a huge water display! We avoided being completely drenched by about 30 seconds. I looked back at Terry and said; “No WAY you saw that coming – you just got lucky!”. He just smiled and said “Let’s hope the rest of our day goes like that.”
And it pretty much did. The breeze was blowing straight out of the city so the buildings were making for some very random wind shifts. It was all about staying calm, never giving up and focusing on our processes not the results. It seemed to work. We sailed really well as a team and kept cool heads in tough situations. After seven hard races we ended up with a score line of: 2,9,1,3,2,2,5. This gives us a narrow lead over the fleet. But as we all know there are a LOT more races to come!
Today we also paid tribute to Olivia Constants who lost her life last week in Annapolis when her 420 capsized during a sailing camp. She was only 14 years old. We were all touched by her story. Terry lives in Annapolis and is very active in local sailing there. So we cut up a bunch of black sticky-back and gave a black ribbon to every Extreme 40 team. All 11 boats sailed today with a black ribbon flying off the back of our mainsails in memory of Olivia.
We will be racing again tomorrow from 1400-1700 and for the next three days. The event ends on the 4th of July which is a huge celebration in the USA. We will be working to make sure we have our own celebrating to do as well!
Artemis Racing
Extreme Sailing Series
