Wind & Comparable Races

True wind ranged 3.7–22.4 kn (avg 12.6 kn) — a gusty, puffy night with a wide range. The closest comparable by average wind is race 2 (2026-07-20, "WoW", avg 13.1 kn, similar strength).

This was a strong boat-speed night: 79.9% of polar target upwind, 75.5% on the reach, and 75.7% downwind — ahead of race 2 on every point of sail (75.3%/68.2%/67.2%), despite race 2 being sailed with the same crew count in similar breeze. The note's "hit over 10 knots" checks out in the telemetry: boat speed through the water peaked at 10.1 kn, with speed over ground touching 11.1 kn, almost certainly in one of the stronger puffs near the top of the 22.4 kn range logged.

The race ended in a withdrawal after missing a course change, so there's no fleet result to compare against tonight — this report is boat-speed-only. Eight tacks lost 40.0% of speed on average (in line with race 2's 40.6%), but recovery took noticeably longer — 11.1s versus race 2's 7.2s — consistent with the gustier, more variable breeze making it harder to settle back into rhythm. Two gybes lost 24.1% on average. Only one rounding-turn was logged all race, quite late (21:56, roughly 57 minutes into the ~65-minute session) — timing that lines up with a course-correction attempt around when the missed change was likely noticed, followed by a final gybe eight minutes later before the boat came off the course.

Coaching Recommendations

1. Boat speed was a genuine strength tonight — beating a similarly-windy race on every point of sail — so the missed course change wasn't a speed problem; it's worth a quick crew debrief on how the course/mark sequence gets confirmed and communicated on board, since that's the piece the data can't fix directly.
2. Tack recovery time (11.1s) ran noticeably longer than the wind-comparable race's 7.2s — in a gusty 12–22 kn range like tonight, consider calling tacks slightly earlier to give the trimmer more margin to settle the boat before the next puff hits.
3. No fleet result to react to tonight, but the pace shown (79.9% upwind, mid-70s elsewhere) is a solid data point worth carrying into the next race in similar breeze — this crew and boat combination held speed well in a genuinely tricky wind range.