Log of Alberg 30 #262 on 10 September 2016

Date: 10 September 2016 07:30 till 10 September 2016 16:23
Endpoints: Case & Cutts, Inc. to Muller Marine
Purpose: Racing
Complement: TC, Liz, Austin Williams, and Yoni Bresler
Weather: N wind Force 3, rising to Force 4, good number of whitecaps. WU
Chart: 12266 Chesapeake Bay Choptank River and Herring Bay; Cambridge
Chart: 12270 Chesapeake Bay Eastern Bay and South River, Selby Bay

Downwind start, even with Wicked. Laughing Gull, with Jonathan and Ally aboard, did not fly a spinnaker, but rather sailed wing and wing. Upon reaching the first mark, R "14", Argo had pulled several boatlengths ahead of Wicked, and well ahead of Laughing Gull. The next leg to the second mark G "13" to be left to starboard was a beam reach.

After G "13", R "10" was to be left to port, making us sail closer to the wind and increaing the side loading that the spinnaker places on the boat. Increasing winds, evidenced by many whitecaps, made spinnaker work very demanding, too demanding for Liz and I. Had the pole banging the headstay repeatedly. The pole would be a foot off the stay, the wind would load up the spinnaker and crack the pole into the stay. Unable to trim without a grinder. Grinding in that manner would not be possible for Liz. Several times the boat was far enough over that I had my left foot on the bridgedeck, right foot on the side deck, and right tight against the cabin side to counter the force of the wind on the spinnaker sheet. Wicked dropped spinnaker soon after rounding R "14". We dropped not long after that. Drama free recovery as TC controlled the halyard, making sure that the sail did not get away from us, but rather largely stayed behind the main.

While we doused, we lost ground to Wicked. Both of us past an intervening buoy, R "12", together. We gained a bit heading to R "10" and on the leg to G "7", but then lost all advantage in our rouding of G "7", leaving us a number of boat lengths to leeward of Wicked, both of us on starboard tack. At the first of three or four fish traps, we went outside on starboard tack, while Wicked chose to the inside by tacking over to port and back to starboard. The first time this happened we gained little on Wicked, the second time, we ended up on port tack a couple boat lengths to the good.

Wicked chose to stay closer to the shore and split from us. In doing so they lost more ground and we ended up winning easily.

This year is the first that TC has won the Hammond. He does not count the win two years ago when the only competitors were Harry Gamber and TC.

TC had me sail from the finish to Thomas Point...clearly lagging Wicked, not so much in boat speed as in point. In part, sailed to make the trip more comfortable, at the cost of it being longer. We reefed along the way to further lessen the heel of Argo. Returned to Muller Marine under power.

Finishing order: Argo, Wicked, and Laughing Gull.