Course: Drop mark course about 1/2nm south of Tolly Point. Marks inshore of Mark "1AH".
Sails: Doyle Sails 169LP genoa and Interrupt main. EP Sails spinnaker. Backstay at 2.
Due to lack of wind, the first warning signal was delay be 90 minutes from 1100 to 1230, per email sent out around 0800.
Race Committee set up in the vicinity of R"2". As we made our way out under engine and perhaps 1nm from R"2", race committee decided to relocate to 0.5nm south of the Tolly Point Shoal. Racing did not begin till about 1330, as we waited for the wind to fill-in and stablize. Used the time available to perform several tacks emulating upwind sailing. Problems with people relocating from the genoa winches to the rail and keeping the "shelf" located just ahead of the genoa winches and area immediately inboard of the "shelf" clear so that I could sit there and drive. Have to be sitting on the "shelf" to see the genoa telltails.
Found early on that we could not point with the fleet. No idea why we lost point. During the 2023 Annapolis Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta , we had point on nearly the entire fleet. Lost point sometime before the last Wednesday Night race. Very frustrating. Neither Matt nor I were able to determine the cause. Monday morning, Pat Seidel stated that we had a lot of headstay sag and that the sag could have been the reason for poor pointing.
Tacked over to port. On this board, we had to duck a J/70 Progress. Hard duck requiring us to head down quite sharply. Was not made aware of the situation till quite late. Neither the genoa trimmer nor the crew chief spoke up early enough. Progress protested us. We sailed further inshore to clear the fleet and perform two penalty turns. Evidently not far enough inshore. Skybird was below us, approaching on starboard, passed us, continued some five lengths and tacked to port. We began our turns, clockwise, as Skybird tacked. As we continued our turns, SkybirdConstance and Skybird ended up turning fully downwind to prevent a collision. Protested. Lost the protest hearing. DSQ'ed for the race. Had finished mid-fleet.
Similarly, at the windward mark, perhaps the first rounding in the second race, as we tacked from port onto starboard to fetch the mark that was not distant, found Windswept coming in above us with no prior warning. No one of those positioned to monitor for boats below the sail noticed Windswept. This lack of information and an inability to describe the location of the boats that were seen persisted throughout the day.
Good crew work during spinnaker gybes. Reasonble, a bit slow, during the douses. Poor, slow, during the hoists.
Matt called very good tactics by having us alter course in the downwind legs to be inside Skybird on one rounding and to be in front of Skybird and slightly inshore coming into the finish. Both times we were able to get a favorable position. In the first instance, I made a poor rounding of it and lost ground due to coming up to close-hauled too slowly.
Four Albergs finished the second race within 10 seconds of each other, leaving Constance and Rinn Duin as stragglers.
GPX formatted track of second race. Distance: 4.0nm, estimated average speed: 3.9kts, estimated duration: 1:09