AYC WNR Series 3 Number 1 on 24 July 2019

Date: 24 July 2019 18:00 till 24 July 2019 21:00
Endpoints: Yacht Haven Annapolis to Yacht Haven Annapolis
Purpose: Racing
Complement: TC Williams, Dave Butta, Christian Douglas, Rick and Annabelle Chambers, Debbie McKean, and Jonathan Bresler
Weather: Force 2 at start, 15 to 20 knots from mark 'D' to 'B', ~10 knots from 'B' to R'8', 3-6 in the harbor.
Engine Hours: 215.2 to 21?.?
Chart: 12282 Chesapeake Bay Severn and Magothy Rivers

Course: B4R
Time limit: 2040.
Sails: Interrupt mainsail, Interrupt genoa and Interrupt spinnaker.

Wind out of the north to north-northwest. Earlier fleets flying spinnakers. Bit of a tight spinnaker reach. Decided to start near the pin to obtain a better angle. Laughing Gull started closest to the committee boat. LinGin started about the middle of the line. We started about one quarter of the way from the pin to the boat. Not a bad hoist ... not crisp, but not bad. Nonetheless, ended up well behind by mark 'A'. Laughing Gull got to mark first, and to mark 'D' first. Guessing, that in the light wind its better to sail the shortest distance rather than the better angles.

TC telling me to 'heat it up', sail higher on port tack, as we made our way to mark 'A'. Had to ugly gybe before mark 'A', spinnaker not gybed, uncoordinated, in order to leave the mark to port as required.

Gybed the spinnaker to starboard; separated from the other two boats for a while, then gybed back to port. Sailed dead downwind to mark 'D'. Wind filled in behind us, hoped to close the distance, but did not. Must have been about ten boat lengths behind at mark 'D'. Considerable trouble raising the 170LP genoa. The sail and foil needed to be downwind in order to ride the groove, but the crew was trying to make it go up normally with Rick trimming a bit to increase the pressure on the luff and the resistance to raising the sail. Finally got it up, turned to near close hauled for mark 'B' and drug a portion of the spinnaker in the water while Debbie tried to handle the spinnaker halyard and starboard sheet ... managed to mix the lines with the first reef and others.

During the close reach from mark 'D' to mark 'B', gained markedly on both LinGin and Laughing Gull. Decreased their lead from 10 to 15 boat lengths down to six. Saw as much as 20kts of wind on this leg. Boat well heeled over, rail in the water at times, moving well, showing above six knots most of the leg. At mark 'B', LinGin was able to overtake Laughing Gull and round the mark first. Lost a bit of distance in our rounding, but gained again on the reach from mark 'B' to Y'A', again seeing six knots much of the time. After honoring mark Y'A', and moving into the area south of Greenbury Point, the wind began to drop as did our speed down to five knots plus.

On the beat to mark R'8', both LinGin and Laughing Gull kept closer to Greenbury Point, perhaps to stay in the flow of air down the river(?), whereas we headed towards Horn Point to minimize the number of tacks required. LinGin must have tacked four times on this leg.

After rounding mark R'8', we continued to gain on LinGin and Laughing Gull as the wind dropped a bit more. Got quite close to Laughing Gull by the time we reached G'1SC', so much so, that TC was providing commentary regarding the amount of room between Laughing Gull and the mark and whether or not and how we could fit in there.

Wind dropped away severely inside Spa Creek, speeds dropped to three knots, less at times, Laughing Gull was able to hold us off and even gain a bit in this leg.

Finishing order: LinGin, Laughing Gull, and Constance, all withing a minute which at three knots works out to about 100 yards.

In summary, we were fast but disadvantaged by poor starting position and slow evolutions. Need to add velcro ties to the pushpit or lifelines just ahead of the pushpit to hold the spinnaker sheets ... get them off the deck and out of the cockpit, securely stowed, but easy and fast to release.

GPX formatted Track , estimated distance: 6.0nm, average speed: 4.8kts, duration: 1:15