We're back on the water again - this time in Auckland, NZ for the Grade 1 Auckland Match Racing Cup. We're sailing MRXs, which are an old Farr design that are used for one design and match racing here in New Zealand. They're a bit slow, like our Catalina 37s back home, which makes them great for match racing, but difficult to get used to in the massive tides here in Auckland Harbor.

We have a crew of 5 which includes two kiwi guys we hooked up with thanks to some friends of ours: Nick Bastow and Logan Fraser. They've been a huge asset so far, and have really helped us to understand the boats and the harbor much better. David and Payson are here, as well, trimming and pulling main respectively.

Today was our first race day, and what an odd one it was. The wind was between 6 and 10 knots for most of the day, which made the 3.4 meter tide almost unbearable. In the morning, the tide was against the wind, which wasn't too bad. It made for long downwind legs, and made maintaining a lead downwind a little bit tricky, but the racing was good. When the tide switched, things got tricky. The main game plan when sailing upwind against the tied is to get to shallow water and out of the tide. This meant that today you had to go to one side of the harbor or the other (where the water is shallow), and rarely does it make sense to follow your competition. When you follow another boat into tide relief, you usually end up dead behind, because the lead boat is able to use that tide relief to lift up in front of you. In other words, there were a lot of splits this afternoon, and rarely did we see a close finish.

We had a rough start to our day, dropping three quick ones, including two to the top two seeds, Mathieu Richard and Ian Williams. We led Williams almost entirely around the track, until I made a mistake in a crossing and drew a penalty for tacking too close. Chalk that one up to rust from the 3 months away from competition. In our fourth race against the Russians, we had a dismal start after misjudging the current, but found some very favorable current and breeze on the right. We built a huge lead, and sailed to our first win. We then went on to beat Adam Minoprio and lose to Simon Dickey.

We're 2 and 4 with 12 more races to go in the round robins. A long way to go! Tomorrow will be a very tough day. More light winds are forecasted, and we are scheduled to sail against 4 or 5 of the top teams here. Check out the event website with up to date results at www.aucklandmatchracingcup.co.nz.

We had a frustrating day today. I can't say it was all bad, but when you only win 1 out of 6, it rarely leaves you in good spirits. We didn't sail too poorly, but it seemed like every time there was a decisive moment, things went the wrong way.

In our first race against James Spithill, we held good control at the start and held James away from the line. We had to battle a strong tide to get back below the line to restart, and when we made the turn to go upwind we saw that our flag had not gone down and that we had not completely crossed the line. A bit of a shocker, but certainly not the first time something like that has been misjudged. We did well to stay in the race through the first lap, but James sailed strong and held on for victory.

In our 3rd race, against Takumi Nakamura, we had a close first lap and we were just behind approaching the bottom mark. We came into the mark overlapped to the inside, but the umpires ruled that we established the overlap too late, and we were given a penalty for taking room. We also received a second penalty for hitting the mark, and the race was basically over right there.

We did pull out a solid victory later in the day against Spithill. We did well to win the side that we wanted at the start (the left) and after surviving a very close cross on port, we took a lead and held it to the finish. It was nice to get on the board after a tough day, and it certainly helped lift our spirits for tomorrow. We're only sitting on 3 wins, but we have every chance of advancing as far as 6th place. That will be our goal for the day tomorrow.

We'll have good news for you tomorrow...

We're now through sailing for the week. We had a good third day and went 3 and 3. All three losses were quite close, and each were against teams that made it through to the semis.

We had a good match against Ian Williams, in which we lead off the line by about 2 lengths. Right off the line we had a bit of a tangle with another match, and were forced to split to the left for about 6 lengths. When we came back together, Ian was slightly ahead. Later in the leg, we both approached the top mark on Starboard, and although Ian was just ahead, he was slightly shy of layline and would have to make a close cross to round ahead. When he made the tack we were quite sure that he wouldn't cross, and we had to duck his stern to avoid a collision. Unfortunately, the umpires gave him a green flag, as they ruled that our duck was only an act and that we could not have hit him. After a hard duck and a long turn around the mark, we were now a couple lengths behind, and although we kept it close, we could not find another passing lane. Ian went on to win the race.

We had an interesting debrief with the umpires at the end of the day. Many of the best umpires in the world are here for this regatta, and the incident brought up some interesting questions about close port-starboard crossings. This was the third incident of the regatta where a port boat seemed to be lined up by a starboard tacker (on one occasion we were that port boat), and although the Starboard boat had to avoid, a green flag was raised. The problem for the Starboard tack boat, is that they will always have to alter to avoid the collision. Quite often, the alter is misinterpreted as an attempt to create a collision course, rather than an attempt to avoid. The question is: should the port boat receive the benefit of the doubt in a close crossing because of the alter of course by the starboard boat; or should the power be with the starboard boat, which would force the port boat to be a bit less aggressive in a close crossing. Further, you have to consider that many skippers will go out of their way to make a crossing look closer than it really is by altering hard at the last second - much like a "Flop" in the NBA. In doing so, many skippers force the umpires to give power to the port boat. After all, good umpires don't want to penalize someone unless they are certain that there has been a rule broken. So many skippers have over-acted crossings over the years, that the umpires can't help but be a little defensive. I don't have a solution, of course. I tend to favor the empowerment of the starboard boat, but I'm sure there are many out there that disagree.

On day 4, we were scheduled to sail off with Simon Minoprio for 7th place. We had tied in the round robin, so we were looking forward to grudge match, but the wind never filled and racing was canceled for the day. We finished the regatta in 8th overall.

Thank you for all your e-mails and support over the week! It's always great to hear from everyone.