Course: A2
Sails: i Elliott/Pattison Sailmakers 169LP genoa and Interrupt main. EP Sails spinnaker. Backstay at 2.

Very good start at the committee boat without a boat below us. Starting run from upstream of Horn Point near EYC. Turned at 2 minutes to go. Reached back to the line, arrived about 15 seconds early, headed off a bit, then hardened up at five seconds to go onto close-hauled.

Tacked over onto port quite soon after the start, as did most boats in most of the fleets ahead of us. Argo arrived just a bit late to the start and may have started on port. Found Argo below us as we headed toward R"2E" at the entrance to Back Creek. Tacked to starboard as we approached that mark. Argo tacked immediately with us. Argo had a good tack. Our tack was veryt slow with a winch override that Meredith had to clear. The result was that Argo come up to speed far sooner than we did, sailed through our lee and placing us as if they had lee-bow'ed us. Had to drop down several boatlengths to find clear air. Never caught back up to Argo from that point on. Argo sailed higher and faster using her "racing" sails (only suit of sails) while we had the everyday main. Believe that the everyday main prevents the boat from pointing as well as Argo or the Pandora mainsail.

Barely cleared mark "A" on the way out. Continued a bit then tacked back to port. Had stopped tracking Argo by this point as our performance was such that tracking Argo would be a source or unrelieved frustration. While on port passed close ahead of White Cap without warning. Ray did not mention that White Cap, on starboard, was closing our course and could have been a problem. Headed toward the shore between Chesapeake Harbour and Lake Ogleton till we started to get close enough to the green marks that discussion ensued. Tacked back to starboard. On this board, White Cap crossed ahead of us.

Argo rounded the weather mark far ahead of us. We cleared the mark with very little room to spare and gybed for the return leg. Error in spinnaker setup with the guy brought to the outboard jaw of the pole through the bow pulpit. Christian caught it and called out the issue for correction before the hoist. Tried to furl the genoa but the spinnaker halyard fouled in the genoa...had to unfurl to free it. Hoisted and then furled, this time without the halyard or the sail catching in the rolls.

Used the second port tack board to explain to all aboard the use of a hand bearing compass to determine when to tack for the mark by taking a reading of the boat's course, sighting from the companionway to the headstay, and a reading of the course to the mark, to determine the angle to the mark. Need at least 90*, if not 100* before taking and taking into account any effects of current. Eric Prag used the compass to take the readings and announce the courses to the crew. I did the math and asked whether or not we should tack based upon the angle to the next mark.

Ran close to dead downwind on port tack, gybing once on the way, both to make the R"8" mark and for a better angle to the breeze which had backed to a broad reach on starboard at this point. Picked up significant boat speed from the gybe to starboard, confirming the ORR-EzHandy Guide (Polar Table). On the starboard board, we maintained speed and distance on Kobayashi Maru, a J/105 ...never should have been able to do so.

Argo dropped spin before R"8". We gybed at R"8" and made good distance on Argo while falling back slowly vs Kobayashi Maru. Distance gained was nowhere near enough. Standard frustrations with the wind in the creek...gaining speed as the wind passed down the streets between the building ashore and overrunning the sails in the lulls alee of the buildings.

Finishing order: 247, 262. Did not compete: 158, 272, 550.

T2P.tv video.

GPX formatted track started late. Distance: 5.12+nm, estimated average speed: 3.7kts, estimated duration: 1:22+