I promised Judy I would write something about the race, but I first want to thank her and all the other good people who gave such a warm welcome. I truely felt as if I were an old member of the group.  We just flat screwed up the start of the first race. We were on port tack and set up for a good start but when we tacked over to Starboard just prior to the start we made a horrible tack, backwinded the jib and were in irons for a moment. When we finally got it sorted out there were only three (+/-) boats behind us. At least we were in clean air after the start and were able to pass a few boats on the short leg to windward. It became obvious that the two other M17s and Redwing ( Judys' P19)would round the mark just ahead so just as I turned the mark, I swung across their sterns, trying to keep momentum up going into the downwind leg. It was a close race and I was able to work ahead a bit and could see the the bows of all three boats slicing beautifuly through the water. I wish I could have taken a pic but they were sailing their boats too hard to take any time for pics. I wanted to work as far ahead as possible so that when they whole group came near the mark, I could carry speed through the disturbed air the other boats were creating. The last leg was a reach, and I had trouble locating the committee boat so I followed the boats ahead, but stayed to weather a bit just in case. Something happened on the last leg that suprised me. At the start of the last leg, I estimated the three boats still ahead were about a third of the way to the finish line. By staying high, the genoa blocked them from view, and when I finally peeked under it, we had closed in on them by quite a bit. But not quite enough and we finished fourth.  The second race we got a very good start, on starboard and only three boats back but in clean air. We all stayed close for a few tacks, until it was time for strategy decisions, mainly to go outside or inside to the first mark. Before the race there was some talk about which was the best approach, and some boats went each way. In this case a lack of local knowledge actually helped for I kept my eyes on the big boats who started five minutes ahead and were making their way to the bouy. The ones I could track went inside and didn't seem to have many problems with being headed, so I followed them. In the process we were able to work out ahead of the medium boats and started to close on two of the big ones. Doug, my crew, worked hard and as we played the shifts fairly well, we were able to pass one of them. It was a good thing that they started ahead of us, because I had only a vauge notion where the mark was and was very glad to see where they turned to go downwind.  The downwind leg was just a great ride on starboard gybe and the 150 genoa poled out. I sentenced Doug to the head of the v berth not for any bad moves but to balance the boat better. When the winds picked up to 15 + we took off like scaulded dogs. The GPS read 6 knots once when we surfed down a small wave. It was a great run. On the last leg we paid a bit for hanging onto the 150 when one hard puff pushed little past 40 degrees, but the rudder that Jerry Montgomery is so passionate about (and Bob Eeg provided last week) stayed in the water and we could actually keep the boat from rounding up and sailing towards the finish line. I couldn't see Dougs face when the rail went into the water, but I sure wish I could have.  There was one last concern: we couldn't find the committee boat! It was small and hard to pick out from all the background stuff. We headed towards where we thought it was, but it wasn't there. Luckily, we located them before we were too much to leeward, and had to just tack onto port to cross the line.