Today I had the opportunity to sail a VX ONE today on the beautiful Sarasota Bay. A couple of teammates and I triple-handed this boat in the medium breeze which ranged from 10 knots to the upper teens with mildly choppy waters. We raced in the One Design Midwinters, temporarily taking the place of some Sarasota Youth Sailing coaches on the boat for the day, and we ended up winning both of our races today, maintaining the lead that the SYS coaches built the previous day. This boat provided a relatively new experience to us in the realm of monohull sailing: high speeds planing downwind! As soon as we rounded the top mark we were able to send this boat flying downwind at speeds that about matched the windspeed. Today I learned how different newer concept boats are becoming and how to sail a larger, flatter-bottomed keelboat efficiently and I'm happy that I was able to work on tactical situations with my teammates and the other competitive sailors on the water.
