Exabyte 2 (IMX 40)   Warsash Spring Series Race 3 March 30 2003 With sunshine and less breeze than previous weeks conditions were close to ideal for Race 3 of the Spring Series. Aboard E2 we were looking forward to racing in the lighter breeze and sailed upwind and downwind prior to the start in a breeze of around 10-12 knots. At the start we identified the pin end as biased but elected to start towards the committee boat out of the melee of bigger boats and quickly tacked onto port to stay in clear air and head towards the deeper water. We rounded the windward mark in third place ahead of many much larger rivals. Down the run we showed excellent speed with our Series 2000 VMG spinnaker set and held our position among the larger boats. The third leg however was a bit of a disaster. After a scrappy gybe we got rolled by about five boats and ended up behind the other IMX40 Magnum 2 at the leeward mark and only just ahead of the Prima 38s. We showed good speed for the rest of the race and by the end we had overtaken Magnum, pulled well ahead of the Primas, and eventually finished ninth on corrected time, beaten by all 8 boats who were ahead of us on the water. Fingers crossed for a small boat race next week! Back to Exabyte minisite