On June 4th we finally made it out to the racecourse (to the SS Bell Buoy and back) for the our first race of the season. The seas were 1 to 2 foot with winds steady in the upper teens and gusting to 22 mph. We had to reef the main and the head sail to control the boat and had a decent start but things went downhill after that! Just after the start the winds died down to the low teens and we were able to keep up with the fleet with shortened sails but soon knew we would have to shake out the reef. We bit the bullet to readjust the sails and fell far enough back that we could not recover. We finished the race second last but had a great time anyway. Better luck next week.