"Capt. Rob" wrote in message
oups.com...
Same here. I usually DNS the last race as my throwout if my finishing
positions in the others are sufficient to hold my place, or if a win
won't
advance me in the standings.


Which was NOT the case with the race we were discussing. The 35s5 beat
the C&C 99 boat for boat, though it's rated 99 in many areas.
Pretty much the end of the story. If our comfy boat can pull that
off....and the other wins I posted....that's cool with me!
The 35s5 hangs with some fast company...and wins!

In fairness, the 35s5 probably can hold its own in such company. But you
and all your detractors are overlooking the most important part of any race:
the skipper and crew. You can have the fastest boat and lose, and you can
have a relatively slower boat and win. It happens all the time. Generally
when boats are relatively equal, and this would include boats in the PHRF
range of 90 to 140 as in the case of your boat, the reason one wins over the
other is seldom related to boat speed, rather to the abilities of the
skipper and his crew, and how many mistakes and blunders each crew makes
during the race. If it just so happens that the 35s5 had a better crew
complement, it would likely beat the C&C, despite any boat speed
differences.

Two examples: 1) In a small annual regatta on Lake Michigan each summer,
the same skipper has won the race all but two times over the past 25 years.
And he's done so with 7 different boats, ranging from a Sabre 30 Targa to a
J44. Ironically, one of his losses (he placed second) was sailing a J35
which he'd just acquired. He simply didn't know how to sail it at that
point. The following year he won with it, which is no small task
considering the difficulty of sailing to that boat's rating. Bottom line:
no one was better than that skipper. Faster boats with lesser skippers lost
to him year after year. 2) I won more weekend Snipe races with my older,
slower Lemke Snipe than I ever did with my later, faster Chubasco boat.
Reason: I took my racing very seriously when I owned the Lemke, but really
didn't care about racing much after buying the Chubasco. I was a far better
skipper during my early Snipe years than later, when I become more
interested in the social end of things (read: my new female crew who
subsequently became my wife).

Touting the speed of your new Beneteau is akin to bragging about penis
length--it's all about how it's used.

Max