Lady Van wins the Alexandra Cup

by Ladyvan.com on 20 Oct 2010 Day 3 of Alexandra Cup competition started with a whimper. While the sunny skies were welcome, the lack of wind was a concern. After an hour delay ashore, the breeze finally started around 11:10 and filled in to 9 kts by the time the first race was underway at 12:30. With a 5 point lead going into Day 3, clearly Don Martin and the Lady Van was going to be careful and not let events overtake them.

Race 5 had Lady Van entering on port tack on the south side of the course at the same time as Pirate coming in on starboard on the Committee Boat end. Pirate immediately headed downwind about 5 boat lengths with Lady Van chasing. Pirate then turned to the right and gybed onto starboard, allowing Lady Van to take a position between Pirate and the start line. Lady Van then circled behing Pirate trying to get a leeward overlap, but Pirate circled again to prevent this. At 1:00 before the start Pirate did a final gybe onto starboard and headed for the line. This allowed Lady Van to tack onto starboard and have the windward gauge as both boats leaded for the starting line. A small shift to the north helped Lady Van make the line, while Pirate had to shoot into the wind to make the pin and avoid having to tack. This left Lady Van ahead by 15 sec crossing the line and 2 lengths to windward. Both boats proceeded on starboard tack to get relief from flood current on the south shore with Lady Van pointing higher and keeping Pirate in trouble. Lady Van tacked on the shoreline and was lifted all the way to the weather mark easily leading Pirate to had to make 2 more tacks. Lady Van lead by 1:01 at the weather mark and Pirate closed to 0:52 at the lee end. Lady Van then stretched out her lead and won the 3 loop race by 1:50 and gained a further 2 points.

Race 6 saw the breeze 7 kts. Lady Van had the advantage of starboard entry and immediately attacked Pirate. It was obvious Pirate was going to decline the encounter and Lady Van passed Pirate to the windward side as Pirate repeated the tactics of previous races by driving downwind on port gybe allowing Lady Van to follow on her transom. Pirate started circling to the right to shake off Lady Van, but she matched Pirate tack for tack, gybe for gybe. After 5 circles with Pirate not allowing Lady Van to gain a lee overlap, Pirate led to the starting line with 1 minute to the start, but was obviously too early and bore away at the pin rather than crossing the starting line. Lady Van was also early and was over the starting line at the gun. Lady Van quickly turned back and recrossed the line on port tack. Pirate had also tacked onto port and crossed the line, but a little slower than Lady Van and therefore behind. Pirate tacked onto starboard, but Lady Van quickly followed suit and got into Pirate's wind. Lady Van lead to the south shore in a repeat of the previous race and lead to the windward mark by 0:52 and more less maintained that lead the rest of the race. Lady Van crossed the finish 1:25 ahead of Pirate to take 2 more points and an insurmountable lead, allowing her to claim the Alexandra Cup in a successful defense.

Unofficial results: Lady Van 9; Pirate 0