At the start of the last day of the 2017 Annapolis NOOD , the standings Alberg 30 class had Argo and LinGin tied at 7 points apiece. LinGin in the overall lead with two first place finishes.
Strong, sustained winds at the dock. Raised the main with a single reef in Back Creek and headed out to the race course. The Alberg 30's were assigned to the northenmost circle located partly within and party to the East of Whitehall Bay. Developed sea state of two feet waves. Clearly, it would be a "sporty" day. So much so, that Wicked #267 decided not to race, and the Cal 25's, the J/35's, the J/105', the J/111's, and the Farr 30's did not race. The previous day, an Ensign took on water and was towed back to the dock in that condition. The only reason that the boat stayed afloat is the positive floation installed in several areas of the boat. Cool and windy enough that I wore five layers up top and foul weather gear bottoms. My foul weather gear top had delamintated; must be replaced.
The first start was delayed twice due to general recalls of the J/22 fleet. Viewed from soon after the start, the windward mark and offset where located just to the north of the three radio towers on Greenbury Point. Windswept #562 flew a working jib. LinGin #244 flew a #2 Genoa. Everyone had a single reef in the main. At one point before the start, Laughing Gull #197 tried a second reef, but decided to change back to a single reef. First race consisted of four lengths of one nautical mile, windward, leeward. Argo got an awful start on port behind the entire fleet. No spinnakers today. Each boat use the jib, flying wing-on-wing with the spinnaker pole. Even that was difficult to set up at times due to the strength of the wind. Lost some ground downwind due to the course chosen. Finishing order: 562, 197, 244, 247, 11, 484, and 550. Due to the finishing order, the path to victory required that Laughing Gull finish ahead of LinGin and behind Argo.
The second race consisted of three legs of one nautical mile with an indicated course to the windward mark of 300 degrees. Viewed from soon after the start, the windward mark and offset where silhoutted again light gray rock on the shore line, markedly north of the radio towers on Greenbury Point. Again we started on port passed behind the entire fleet which started on starboard tack. Argo was able to sail, between 270 and 290 degrees, per the Tack-Tick. We remained on port tack headed towards the North Shoal south of Hacket's Point. After some distance up the course, perhaps a quarter mile, the rest of the fleet began to tack to port. Without the GPS functioning, we were unsure of our position relative to the shoal and tacked to starboard, perhaps earlier than necessary.
Finishing order: 11, 247, 197, 244, 484, 562, and 550.
Whenever we were in close quarters and on the same tack as LinGin, TC was able to sail higher, faster, or both. Forced Tim to fall off and sail a line below us, more than once. This proved critical in improving our finishing position in both of the day's races.
Several times during the day, at what seemed like critical times, coming into a mark, coming up to speed after a tack, settling the boat down for a downwind run, there was some commotion in the afterguard with the sheet or traveller being trapped. Need to figure out a way to address these issues.
Final results for the 2017 Annapolis NOOD :