Results are not posted yet but there is no doubt that we were at the very bottom of the fleet. The wind recorded at Thomas Point was a steady 18-23 knots from 160-170 during the full race. It looked like the last day of the NOOD, but, even though we were at a perfect crew weight this time, a breakdown in communication and teamwork at the back of the boat prevented us to have the better result we were hoping at the start of the race. We have also tried to use a takedown line and this was another failure, with the spinnaker floating freely twice and only the wonderful damage control skills of Paul saved our new spinnaker and prevented a much larger ground loss at the leeward mark. Fortunately we had decided to douse early. Unfortunately Paul injured his bicep in the process. Paul, you have a big heart and I wish you prompt recovery. Let me know how you are doing.

For the first time in 7 years of racing, I did not enjoy the race. The wind was on the strong side but this was the kind of weather where J105s are known to excel. Well, not us, anyway (my partner John has good success in this kind of weather). We had major main trim problems, it gave us a narrow or nonexistent groove, we were constantly falling into boats below us and I constantly overcompensated on the pinching side which also gave relief to the unusual weather helm we had most of the time. The synergy was negative between Bill, Barbara and myself in the back of the boat.

Bill, you wanted to be given the full responsibility to trim the main but when it did not work out you refused to cooperate with me in finding what was wrong. Your attitude is disruptive. I believe now, thinking clearly about it, that our major problem was that the backstay was too tight. Your solution was to ease the cunningham, which had for direct consequence to pull the draft aft and to reduce the steering groove to negative numbers. You had so much trouble with the traveler's lines, the coarse and fine mainsheets that your weight was often too far off the rail.

Barbara, the experiment with you as a full time strategist and part time helm reliever might have been better if we did not have our problems with the main. You have, correctly, focused your attention at times on improving our main trim but did not contribute much to a possible solution. You focused on the minor problem of the bubble at the luff of the main when our major problem was that the leech inverted along the head to clew diagonal. You refused to cooperate with me in solving the problem and kept nagging me about my steering. In the past, I thought that I could live with your overcritical attitude and that we will have to learn to cooperate and get a good synergy out of this cooperation. But yesterday's race showed that you were guessing as much as Bill on main trim, that the synergy objective was a long way off and that above all it was not going to be fun.

So, Barbara and Bill, you have been with us, on and off, for a year or more. I have enjoyed most races with you and you have made efforts and sacrifices for the week-end races of the team, for which I thank you sincerely. I think however that it is time to take advantage of the July break to rebuild the core team around Janet, Tim and Paul in order to improve its cohesiveness.

Janet, we will give up on using the takedown line. The wind was unfortunately a bit too strong before the start to practice well this time, but next time, we will work on the takedowns in order to facilitate your job, a critical one.

Tim, we had turned the engine on and were ready to leave when you arrived. I know you are one of the steadiest team member, but next time try to give me one confirmation before the race, either by email or phone so that we can comfortably wait for you if you hit some unexpected problem the morning of the race.