Australia's champion Mumm 30 Foreign Affair campaigns at the Verve Cup

by Richar Perini on 17 Aug 2002 Verve Cup Mumm30 Day 1: Team Foreign Affair continues the tour, this time in Chicago, the Windy City. Our normal team has one change, Cap has
been replaced with Chris Cook, who'll stay with us for the rest of the rogramme. The Verve has 11 Mumm 30s, with the usual good boats and the Chicago locals.

Day 1, Race 1.

Light NE around 8 knots. We started at the boat, tacked off
early and led early up the first beat. The wind went a bit dodgy,
and we got around the top mark on the transom of arch-rival
Intermec. Good downwind leg, had us around the leeward mark
with about the same gap to Intermec. We split tacks up the second
beat with Intermec making a gain late in the beat. We made good
gains down the final run have a close tussle with Intermec, but
7th place 'Furry Creatures' banged the right corner, found pressure,
and passed both of us to take the gun.

Race 2.

The breeze died, and clocked steadily around to the SE. After a
lengthy delay, we got away in the second race winning the boat.
The left payed, and the two local boats were 1 & 2 around the first
mark, with us and Intermec close behind. Things stayed close for the
rest of the race, with Illusion winning from Intermec, Contender
and us separated by 5 seconds.

So at the end of day 1 there are only 2 points between 1st and 4th,
anyones regatta at this stage.