2019 Ted Osius Memorial Regatta on 23 June 2019

Date: 23 June 2019 08:15 till 23 June 2019 14:30
Endpoints: Yacht Haven Annapolis to Yacht Haven Annapolis
Purpose: Racing
Complement: TC Williams, Dave Butta, Christian Douglas, Debbie McKean, and Jonathan Bresler
Weather: Light winds, upper force 2 out of the northeast, fading to lower force 2 as the wind clocked south
Engine Hours: 210.9 to 212.7
Chart: 12282 Chesapeake Bay Severn and Magothy Rivers

Course: Start one nautical mile south of R"2", leave Hacketts GC"1" to starboard, leave R"2" to port, finish at the start line.
Time limit: 1600
Sails: Interrupt mainsail, Interrupt genoa and spinnaker.

Hull cleaned by Lee Powers A Diver Down on Friday June 21st as Patrick McMahon, Diver for Hire is out for the rest of the season with a diagnosis of esophageal cancer.

Arrived at the boat at 0815. Removed the furling drum. Installed the Harken phenolic prefeeder purchased at APS on Friday. Test fit the Interrupt genoa at the dock. Able to use the sail with the tack connected directly to the stemhead fitting in the hole immediately behind the forestay. With the prefeeder, its a bit easier to raise the genoa, but still slow compared to a hank-on sail, still requires too much effort. But the course is expected to be a distance race and should require very few changes from spinnaker to genoa. Decided to race with the Interrupt genoa. Blew up the Harken 2.25 Classic Swivel genoa halyard block while raising and lowering the sail at the dock. Replaced the block on 2019-06-25 with a Garhauer {25,27,30}-13US.

Horrible start. Carnival Lady tacked in front of and above us just before we passed the committee boat. Wavered between "aim at the pin" and "sail low to clear your air", resulting in achieving neither. Ended up having to tack to clear the pin! Tacked back to starboard after crossing the line and proceeded to chase from about one quarter mile back.

TC ran the boat while I focused, almost exclusively, on driving the boat, watching the telltales continously. Not possible to use the boat angle of heel as a measure since the boat was flat. Given the low speeds, less than four knots of boat speed per GPS, there was no need to heel the boat to lengthen the waterline. Better to keep her flat and minimize wetted surface. As the wind clocked from the northeast to the to the east on the windward leg, we were lifted till we were, at times, able to head as far around as the main span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The change in the wind placed both Prudence and Carnival Lady to leeward of us, ahead but to leeward, so much so that Prudence became visible aft the clew of the genoa and a quarter mile or more to leeward. Sailed high and quickly enough that we were able to make up considerable ground on the Cal-25's that started with us.

The light wind and considerable motorboat induced chop, the "Annapolis Bounce" made for challenging driving. By the time we got the layline to fetch GC"1", the wind was shift as much as thirty degrees further increasing the difficulty of driving. Tacked onto port ahead of the rest of the fleet, and then back again to starboard to leave the windward mark, GC"1", to starboard as required.

Rounded the windward mark in the lead, about 300' ahead of Prudence. Up spinnaker. Down 170LP genoa. Tight reach. Trimmed in too tightly with the resuling loss of power. Prudence was able to catch us and pass us to windward using their new spinnaker from Elliott/Pattison Sailmakers purchased this year. Walked right over us. The size difference between their racing spinnaker and our cruising spinnaker was far too great. Wind continued to clock forcing both Prudence and us to replace the spinnaker with the genoa. The genoa luff tape twisted in the groove during the hoist preventing us from raising the genoa. Foredeck not able to clear is problem. TC was not able to clear the problem. Both the result of inexperience. Had TC take the helm while I cleared the issue by having the pit drop the genoa a couple inches, then stayed on the bow till the sail was fully raised. Lost significant distance to both Prudence and Carnival Lady. Never made up the distance on Prudence.

Winds softened and clock further. Motorboat induced wakes increased. Sailing became rather painful. Fortunately, the race committee shortened the course to finish at R"2".

Finishing order: Prudence, Constance, and Carnival Lady.

GPX formatted Track: None, distance: ~5.5nm