Texas 200 - Day 2 recap - Or How I Lost 1st Place

So after my first day and a screaming sail through the land cut (picture included) I decided to start a little earlier this time and maybe have a shot at finishing towards the top 10. I left about 2 hours after most had already left including some of the other multihulls. I knew it would be a challenge catching them but I was curious to see what my boat and I were capable of so I was up for it.

I pushed hard through the morning and around noon is when the winds really picked up. 20-25kts from the SE and they really created some challenging chop when in the open bays. I had to surf around them carefully and sail somewhat conservative to avoid a capsize and possible damage to my boat. I was blowing by boats left and right and having a great sail when I finally saw the front 5 boats. A quick check of my charts showed I had roughly 10 miles until the finish, a measly 1 hour or less at the rate I was sailing.

I was hiking out all morning trying to keep the boat on her feet so I decided to rest my back a little and save it for the last miles where I knew it would count the most. As I was resting/sailing my damn hat blew off and I quickly jybed around to grab it. A Texas200 with no hat is just short of suicidal so I really wanted that cap back. I sailed close to the wind with the mainsheet loose, effectivly hove-to (about as much as you can on a hobie cat) and forereached back towards the fleet looking for my hat. As I was looking and I wasnt paying attention to my sideways drift and I drifted out of the channel and hit a shoal, kicking up both my rudders. This is an issue with hobies, especially mine as it is extreamly difficult to get them to lock back down if the cams dont pop properly. The boat was trying to sail too much for me to jump out with a screwdriver and re-open the cams for the rudders so I decided to sail on, no rudders and no hat. BOOOM! Thats the sound of the boom, a part of the rig on a sailboat, slamming against my head. It almost knocked me out so I sat down before I fell off. I finally got her turned around and headed back for the yacht club after giving up vital positions and watching my victory get away. Upon entering the yacht club channel I blew a tack which caused me to backflip in the high winds funneling through the channel.

What a day right???? Thats how I blew my first place (at least top 5) finish.

the image of landcut shows its amazing position to top speed a sailboat. perfectly flat water in a deep channel cut through the low lying land. winds @ 20kts from the SE. PERFECT!