We tried something different for this year’s Egyptian Cup. We split the team.

We’ve been having some challenges “breaking through” to the next level, settling in to the top third of the fleet in general. So we asked our friends to help us. David Ames and PJ Buhler agreed to come to Lake Carlyle, site of the 2025 Flying Scot North American Championships, and give us some pointers. Dan Leech provided a Scot for us to borrow, courtesy of Commodore Decatur Yacht Club, so PJ and Kendall took Gadzooks! and David and Kevin sailed Kentucky Lady (#2262). It was a battle of Crews vs. Skippers!

Kendall and Kevin sailed Gadzooks! on Thursday before the regatta and we were pleased at how our boat handling progressed. Still not super smooth, but better. David, PJ and Dan all arrived on Friday. We got Kentucky Lady rigged and did some sparring, showing that both boats were pretty evenly matched in boat speed.

No wind all day Saturday, and RC called off the races at about 3:30. Wind picked up around 4:30, so we went back out to do some figure eights with a drone following us. Most of that footage we’ll keep for ourselves (sorry!). But if you want to see a great example of excellent boat handling on a Scot, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kv8_M4-E2U. It’s less than 20 minutes and shows you roll-tacks, roll-jibes, bear-away sets, jibe sets, and windward and leeward take-downs.

Sunday had wind. Gusty but not very shifty. We only got one race recorded on Kentucky Lady, but 2 races aboard Gadzooks!. I’ll end the suspense: the crews had it, taking 2 bullets. And with that, we must now stop blaming the boat. Kentucky Lady should have finished second overall, but had some challenges in Race 1, bumping into a bunch of boats. Not all was our fault, but a clear violation at the bottom gate led to 2 circles (and probably should have been 4).

The picture was taken from the Tiller Cam on Kentucky Lady, and shows Gadzooks! in the yellow spinnaker, and the Mariarty’s with the orange kite. Here’s a summary video. Kentucky Lady only had enough battery for 1 race, but this video summarizes both races:

Here are the results:

One thing was great to see: Jennifer Colgrove returned to sail with Jim after a year hiatus due to health issues. We were thrilled to see her return.