1.
28 April 2007 — Spring Triton Tune-Up Race:
The race was from the Annapolis area, up to the mouth of
the Chester River and back into the Annapolis area once again. The
wind played havoc with most of the fleet. The anticipated winds
were forecasted to be in the 10-15 range, gusting 20 at times and
everyone prepared for the eventuality that a reef would likely be
necessary. It turned out to be anything but.
The race
started off Hackett's Point at 1030 in a strong ebb current and about
four to five knots of wind downwind. Sandpiper had gone out a bit
earlier and set the spinnaker a few times, so that was ready to go.
The rest of the fleet had to work to get the chute up as soon as they
could after the start as everyone gibed up on port to drift up toward
R-92 and round it before heading to the bridge.
As everyone
made it around that mark and under the bridge, the wind picked up and
the fleet veered off out of the main ebb current of the bay and hull
speeds were achieved. Lots of smiles from a lot of sailors!
Until, that is, about a half-mile from the next mark. The Chester
River Doldrums set in and all wind just suddenly died off. Several
boats set anchors to keep from being set back down the bay, the others
still had a breath of wind, enough for station-keeping. Triton's
Fury went well east after crossing under the bridge and they had pretty
decent air for a while, and many were wondering if they would simply do
an end-around the rest of the fleet. It turned out to be a pretty
big hole and they eventually sailed into it, too. After about 40
minutes the wind gave us a hint of movement and those anchored boats
pulled up and started drifting toward the mark, eventually rounding it.
The next reach was even more frustrating as the winds died for a while
before starting to clock around in all directions.
About 30
minutes later the wind freshened from the west southwest and lots of
smiles were again seen. There is nothing like wind to make a bunch
of frustrated sailors happy again! The fleet rounded R-92 heading
south and, ducking a deep-draft merchant heading up the bay to
Baltimore, turned toward Whitehall Bay and a nice cookout hosted by the
Chesapeake Traditional Sailing Association. It was a great day to
be on the water, even in the doldrums, because of the temperatures and
sunshine. What a nice way to start the sailing season!
2. 26 May 2007 — Annapolis to
Miles River:
The
annual race to Miles River had some weird winds. The previous
three days had great weather and consistent 10-18 knot winds, but the
forecast indicated a lull and late-afternoon building winds. And
they were right!
The Triton
start was scheduled for 0930 and five Tritons were on the line awaiting
the start this year. There was a little wind blowing from the
South backing Easterly with a slight ebb. Most got to the line on
starboard and waited for the gun, some drifted down on port to harden up
and head toward Bloody Point. Right at 0930 the start gun banged
out and then the RC immediately fired another round indicating a general
recall and postponement to wait for more wind. With what wind was
there it was likely that the next starting class would have to contend
with the remnants of the Triton/Alberg start who had not yet cleared the
line!
A smidge of
wind started showing about 45 minutes later and the RC decided to go for
a one-hour delay, starting us at 1030. The boats waiting around
tried to clear the starting area while the boats starting ducked, dodged
and weaved to get there. Sandpiper started on port, ducking
several Albergs who started on starboard and had to tack on the line in
order to cross. Ca Ira crossed about 20 seconds later and Inka
another 30 seconds or so right at the pin. Triton's Fury was about
three minutes late in the very fluky and light air. Sea Deuce got
caught in traffic and was well over the line on course side when the gun
when off, but the RC didn't tell them until about five minutes after the
start. They had to clear the starting boats, gibe around and get
back to the line, eventually starting
almost 20 minutes late. As it turned out, it really
didn't matter!
The fleet
drifted on port tack at speeds of about 1.5 knots for about 45 minutes
until the wind completely died out once more. We all bobbed and
weaved in the building heat, not a cloud in the sky. The nice
thing was that there were mercifully few power boats out so it was
relatively calm! Sandpiper eventually anchored for almost a half
hour as the current was now flowing north and they were drifting back
toward Annapolis. Many boats in other fleets chucked it all in and retired from
the race, dropping sails and starting engines to either go home or motor
to St. Michaels.
Eventually,
two of the Tritons did the same. The first to drop out was Sea
Deuce who had a member of the crew showing symptoms of possible
heatstroke and dehydration and they needed to get off the boat and
cooled off. About 10 minutes later Triton's Fury did the same and
they furled the foresail to motor toward Tighlman Island and set up for
the party at the Kabler's house. And only a few minutes after that
the wind started building to the point where we had speed through the
water again!
Sandpiper
stuck with her game plan to stay on the west side of the bay until
reaching Thomas Point Light and then head across the channel to get out
of the flood and into the shallows on the other side. Inka went
almost immediately to the shallows on the east side, but with building east winds
the air in the lee of Kent Island was not as good as the rest of the fleet
seemed to enjoy, so she dropped back slightly. Ca Ira stayed
pretty close to Sandpiper for most of the race but eventually went back
out into the channel and the flood and dropped back a bit more.
The lucky Inka got another 10-15 boat lengths handed to her when getting
ready to round Bloody Point Light. Sandpiper had to two-tack
around the Light to set up for the beat to get to "L". Just as Inka was getting ready to do the same the wind freshened, lifted them
around the mark and set them up perfectly for the beat! Knowing
that Inka was now gaining rapidly on them, once to the mark Sandpiper
immediately popped the chute to lay her on a hot broad reach to the next
mark, which turned out to be the finish of a shortened course.
Sandpiper finished a scant four minutes ahead of Inka who was still
gaining. A few minutes later Ca Ira crossed and all of us agreed
that it was great that the MRYC shortened the course as the wind died
again on the way to the next mark. As it was, we finished around
1730, making it a long day on the water.
Sandpiper
headed over to Dave Hoyt aboard the Cal 25 Zephyr -- who had
finished ahead of the Tritons -- to take them in tow as they had engine
trouble on the way over and all of us headed to the Kabler's for a nice
swim, dinner and fun. It was a lousy start to the day, but turned
out to be a pretty fun race.
3. 27 May 2007 — Miles River
Race Back:
There was a
lot of promise in the air when the fleet sallied from Tighlman Creek. We all got underway at
0900 to get a good feel for the day, define tactics, identify sails and
generally enjoy the day before we headed back to Annapolis. When
we got out it looked to be a nice eight-knot southerly breeze blowing
with the hint of building. Boy, was that a tease!
The breeze held steady for the early starters,
but just as the Tritons got ready to go it started dying and boxing the
compass. Sandpiper had set up to the east of the skewed starting
line and was now well out of position, forced to tack to eventually
drift toward the line. Sea Deuce and Ca Ira were south of the line
and with no wind could only watch in frustration as Triton's Fury, who was the first to
start about a minute late, and Sandpiper -- starting over five minutes
late -- cross the line and launch spinnakers. But like Saturday,
the late starts really didn't matter much...
This time it only took about 15 minutes before the winds died
to nothing at all and sails were hanging limp from their halyards.
There were hints from almost all points of the compass and sails were
going up and flopping back down on deck with regularity. Faced
with an uncertain day and only two people aboard, Ca Ira dropped her
foresail and motored around to let folks know she was retiring and wish
them well with the day. Unexpectedly, about 10 minutes later
Sandpiper saw Triton's Fury furl her foresail and motor off into the
distance, leaving only her and Sea Deuce in the race.
There were many hints as the wind built and then died off,
but eventually a great south breeze allowed those who hadn't quit a nice
spinnaker run to get -- almost -- to the first mark off Tighlman Island.
Just before the boats got there the winds died down and sails were limp
once more. The hope was that a wind line approaching from the
mouth of the Eastern Bay would get to us in time to let us round the mark and
continue the race. Another 15 minutes was all it took
as we drifted toward the winds which were heading our way.
Spinnakers were doused, genoas raised and off we went at a breakneck
three knots, eventually building toward hull speed as the day wore on.
Sea Deuce rounded the first mark about five boat lengths
ahead of Sandpiper and both boats hardened up to beat down the Eastern
Bay. Sandpiper was somehow able to point higher than Sea Deuce and
eventually take the lead, carrying that to the second mark. As
Sandpiper rounded "L" again the winds allowed them to raise the
spinnaker on a broad reach to Bloody Point Light where they gibed to get
to the next mark ("E"). Sea Deuce waited until almost at Bloody
Point before raising spinnaker and that delay dropped them back a bit
more. The RC had shortened the course to "E" and Sandpiper got the
gun as she crossed the line, Sea Deuce about eight minutes back and both
boats were finally able to relax after a six hour race to the finish.
As on Saturday, Sandpiper set off across the bay to
stay close to Zephyr -- which had dropped out of the race along with all of the Cal 25
fleet -- to be prepared to take them in tow again, but they decided to
sail all the way to the slip as the winds were fair to do that. We
all reached the slips before a squall came through bringing with it very
high winds and lightning coming down all over the place. We agreed
it turned out to be a nice sailing day on the water, but we could have
done without the initial becalming at the start of the race.
4.
02 June 2007 — Shearwater Twilight Race:
Two boats started at 1710, five minutes
delayed by the Shearwater Race Committee to make sure everyone had the
course they wanted us to sail. The course was from Region 3 mark
"M" (Tolly Point) to "H" (the green/red can south of Thomas Point) to
"E" (R"86", the south end of the measured mile) to "B" (R"90") and back
to Tolly Point to finish. It was about a 15 mile course with an
almost directly south wind at about 15-18 knots.
Both boats -- Sandpiper and Ca Ira -- carried a reefed main
and a number two and executed an almost perfect start, hitting the line
together about one second after the gun, both at speed. They beat out into the bay on starboard for the first
leg with Ca Ira tacking first while Sandpiper continued to extend
before tacking, and almost carried Thomas Point. The problem was
the building breeze and the increased seas and chop coming up the Bay.
Shearwater had over 50 boats starting in various classes and it is rare that
a Triton will round the first mark ahead of the later starters, but that
is what happened in this case. Sandpiper managed to take a quick
two-tack to get to the mark first, but that was not to last as the
larger classes overtook them on the second beat over to "E". The
initial tack by Ca Ira caused them to fall back a bit in the building
seas and they rounded the first mark in the middle of the A3 and Cal-25
fleet.
The winds continually increased in speed throughout the race,
in contrast to the meteorological forecast of easing winds and chop.
It was a constant 18-22 knots of wind by the time we reached the second
mark and began the almost dead downwind run to the third mark. It
continued to build through the rest of the race, affecting almost
everyone. The downwind run saw a number of boats in other classes
fly the spinnaker and broach or have severe problems. A Catalina
27 in front of Sandpiper launched and almost immediately broached and
came very close to pitchpoling the boat in the attempt to regain
control. It appeared that several spinnakers had shredded in the
course of the run as remnants still hung from halyards.
In the building breeze and surfing conditions, Sandpiper
dropped her foresail and continued north on a single reefed main alone,
gybing back and forth to keep hull speed. Ca Ira decided to run in
a winged configuration until rounding the third mark and harden up for
the run to the finish. Sandpiper re-launched her number two at the
mark and hardened up, and quickly realized that they were severely
overpowered. They had gone only about a mile in the 2.5 mile run
to the finish when they decided they must to heave-to and take a second
reef. That helped immensely and they came back on a course to the
finish. In the process they thought they had seen Ca Ira pass them
and continue toward the Race Committee.
Sandpiper continued on to see if they could overtake Ca Ira
and finish the race. They were very surprised to hear the report
of a gun through the sounds of the still-building seas and winds as they
crossed the line. They thought something had happened to Ca Ira,
so they dropped all sail, started the engine and motored back until they
were certain that none of the boats they saw that had not yet finished
were Ca Ira, and then decided to run for Whitehall in the dark. In
the process of dumping sails, everything that could get wet had done so,
including the crew. Cold, shivering and looking for dry clothes
and calm waters, they were still wondering what happened to Ca Ira.
As it turned out, Ca Ira had been as severely overpowered as Sandpiper,
but decided that rather than shorten sail, they would retire from the
event and sail a broad reach and run up the Severn and home.
Someone on Sandpiper mentioned that they had heard a cell phone ring
while they were trying to take the second reef, and it turned out to be
Ca Ira saying they had retired and were heading home. They hadn't
heard the call while working the sails...
It started as a fun race, and ended up more a survival event
than anything else. Several Meteorological sites on the bay
indicated 28 knots of wind with 2 to 3 foot seas; one reported 28 knots
gusting 35 with 3-4 foot seas just south of the Bay Bridge. We
would believe the latter one in the seas around 8:30 PM when we
finished. The best part of the day was when we called one another
to make sure everyone was safe, nothing was broken and everyone was
okay. That makes it an exciting and eventful -- but safe -- race
on the Chesapeake Bay.
5. 30 June 2007 — Dun Cove
Pursuit Race:
Five boats participated in the event this year, and that
group included Overdraft with Dave Hoyt at the helm. It was great
to have him sailing with us again! The weather/wind forecasts were
all over the place, with some showing 15 knots of wind to another having
no wind at all. It turned out to be somewhere in the middle as you
might expect.
Mr. Tom Bishop decided, with the
apparently-dying winds at the start, to shorten the course to one leg.
The race turned out to be a slow-motion drag race from G"1" at the mouth
of the West River to G"7" at the mouth of the Choptank, a straight line
course of 14.5NM. The Tritons were first off the starting line at
1100 in a mild SE breeze letting us get to about 3.5 knots.
Overdraft and Sandpiper were at the pin and crossed within seconds of
the starting signal. Sea Deuce was in the middle of the line and a
few seconds back, followed closely by Ca Ira. Triton's Fury was at
the committee boat, but well on the course side at the start and had to
turn around to get going, so they took about a five minute hit on the
start.
The strong ebb current in the bay suggested that we head to
the channel as soon as possible and use the added current to help us
out. All of the boats headed close hauled on port tack across the
bay to the mouth of the Eastern Bay as soon as possible, and we ended up
being set to the north of Poplar Island. Sea Deuce tacked to head
across the bay faster and it looked for a while that she had turned
around and was heading back to the starting area. They got up a
bit higher than Sandpiper before tacking back down the bay.
Meanwhile, Overdraft had fallen off a bit to head farther down the bay
and a separation between them and Sandpiper started to emerge.
Sandpiper maintained a close hauled course to get to a position to fly a
spinnaker as quickly as possible, and just south of R"86" they fell off
sharply and up went the chute. Within a few minutes Overdraft had
raised her spinnaker and away the two boats went. They
outdistanced the other three Tritons for a while, but just south of
Poplar Island they outsailed the winds and sat becalmed, watching the
other boats coming on strong before they, too, got into the doldrums of
the Chesapeake. In the sail to catch up, Ca Ira made a strong bid
to take third from Triton's Fury but they were passed again when
Triton's Fury raised spinnaker before them and took off. Sea
Deuce, who had made up a great deal of time by being as high on the rest
of the fleet as they were, were also running under a spinnaker as early
as possible and eventually took third from Triton's Fury, just before
being becalmed...
When the winds did finally fill back in they came in from the
east, but were south winds. Everyone quickly doused spinnakers and
raised genoas to beat to the mark. Sandpiper had worked her way
out into the channel as much as possible with the very light winds that
were there, and were well out of position when the new winds came in.
The boats to the east got the effects first, so Sandpiper was the last
to get good, consistent winds. Overdraft was the first to get them
and all everyone could do was watch them sail away, wishing they were in
a position to at least threaten them! The only real problem was
that there were several fishing weirs between them and the finish so all
the boats had to figure them out and make their way around those.
The finish had Overdraft in the lead followed about 30 seconds later by
Sandpiper, then Sea Deuce, Triton's Fury and Ca Ira. We all
finished within eight minutes of each other in the drag race from West
River to the Choptank!
The overnight at Dun Cove was great, with great temperatures,
nice full moon and a bit of wind to help everyone sleep. The sail
back on Sunday was in 15-20 knot North Winds. Most of the fleet
headed out through Knapps Narrows and beat back toward Annapolis, but
Triton's Fury ran before the winds heading home south of the Choptank.
It was another wonderful weekend on the water.
6.
28 July 2007 — Corsica River Race:
The day started out flat and without wind, and ended the
same way. Somewhere in the middle a bit of wind filled in, but
didn't last as long as the participants would have liked. The
Magothy River Sailing Association started the race off and did a great
job keeping people advised of the plans for the event. When no
winds appeared at the initial rendezvous they motored off in search of
it, and settled on Region 2 Mark D (G"1UC") to the northwest of Love
Point, and even then we had to wait for it to arrive. When the
intention to start was announced all the boats which were drifting
around started engines and motored quickly to the general area of the
starting line, and just as quickly killed engines to drift in with the
ebb current.
Ca Ira was on the line when the gun went off and was the
first to cross. Sorta. With no wind to even briefly fill the
sails she drifted across with the current. Sandpiper was on the
pin end unable to round it and cross, and Sea Deuce was in similar
trouble at the Committee Boat end. An indication of the fluky
winds was that Sandpiper was able to fill sails very briefly, but enough
to get around the pin and raise the spinnaker. Sea Deuce had to
wait another 30-40 minutes to get around the RC and onto the course!
There was no wind to fill sails, so Sandpiper dropped her main in order
to fully expose the spinnaker to what little was there, and was able to
move slowly across the current and toward the first mark of the course.
Eventually, as all boats ended up on the course side of the starting
line, a bit of air started filling in allowing the boats to move slowly
toward the first mark. As everyone rounded that, the winds filled
in a bit more and that is the way it was all the way down the course.
The farther we went, the more wind there was. All the way to
G"11". The winds started dying from there to RN"14" and all but
left from there to the finish.
Sandpiper led the fleet around the first three marks but eventually was
overtaken by the PHRF-B boat which went by to barely take the fourth
mark, but by then the winds started dying. By the time Sandpiper
fought her way around RN"14" most of the rest of the fleet had found a
hole and stalled, hoping the winds would fill back in. When
Sandpiper finished -- drifting across the line with the barely flowing
flood current -- there were no boats on the same leg of the course.
As it turned out Sandpiper was the fourth and last boat to sail across
the finish line. The Corsica River Race Committee could have
shortened the course at RN"14" and many (if not all who started) would
have finished the race and there would have been a lot more happy people
as a result.
Ca Ira and Sea Deuce wisely decided to motor in to the raft-up as they
would have been sailing in at midnight waiting for the winds to fill
in... The raft-up was fun, but uneventful as most were exhausted
from trying to eak out some forward motion from too little air and too
hot a sun. Many went swimming to cool off, but there were a lot of
sea nettles, more than are usual for that area for this event, and so
others decided not to have a midnight swim as in years past.
7.
29 July 2007 — Corsica River Race Back:
As
the raft was getting ready to break up and head for the starting line
the Magothy River Race Committee came by and said that, as a result of
the lengthy course yesterday, they had decided to shorten the course to
G"11" before the race was event begun. And, as they predicted when
they said it, the day was fair to sail all the way to Love Point!
It began to rain as the raft broke up and motored to the starting line,
but it was short lived. The winds were still a bit fluky as storm
clouds raced by north of us bringing rain-driven wind from many
different directions. Sea Deuce and Ca Ira went for a traditional
start with the Main and Jib, while Sandpiper decided to try for a
full-on Spinnaker start. The problem was that the tactician had
called the wrong launch and winds had shifted a bit, and so they
couldn't launch when the gun when off. Sea Deuce and Ca Ira took
the start perfectly while Sandpiper was struggling to recover, and
eventually crossed the line with Spinnaker full and drawing nicely, but
over a minute late. Sea Deuce had popped her Spinnaker right on
cue after the start while Ca Ira -- shorthanded -- worked to get her
kite up. Both of the leaders decided to go higher to the right,
but stalled, so Sandpiper gibed to get into the center of the channel
and look for more air and a hotter angle to the first mark, and that
almost worked out.
The winds started filling in a bit more and became more stable across
the fleet, and the three boats merged close to the mark with Sea Deuce
in the lead, Sandpiper about 500 yards back with Ca Ira right on her
stern, taking the air from the Sandpiper! So she went a bit higher
to get clear air, but Ca Ira followed and working to overtake.
When the angle and opportunity presented itself, Sandpiper gibed onto
port and made a run for the mark. About 30 seconds later Sea Deuce
rounded and gibed, but had trouble controlling the spinnaker and slowed
a bit, allowing Sandpiper some much needed time to catch up, rounding
the mark about 40 seconds behind Sea Deuce. When Sea Deuce
recovered she was low of the lay line and had to work to get back up
with a forward-of-the-beam wind! She struggled up and got on the
lay line with Sandpiper in hot pursuit and catching up quickly, but
there was not enough course left to fully catch her and it ended with
Sea Deuce taking the gun, Sandpiper a few boat lengths back and Ca Ira
-- who wisely doused the spinnaker before rounding RN"14" crossing
a few minutes later.
It was a fun way to finish the racing weekend and an exciting finish!
The boats sailed to G"3" and around Love Point before the winds started
dying again, and they motored the rest of the way back.
8.
18 August 2006 — West River Twilight Race:
As the boats participating in the West River
Twilight Race got underway to head to the rendezvous location it seemed
to be a glorious day for a sail, let alone a race. The North winds
were kicking in at about 15 knots or so and the three boats leaving the
Annapolis area ran before the winds and enjoyed the sail down. The
boat heading north from the Cove Point area was motoring into heavier
seas and eventually they did a time/distance calculation and realized
that they wouldn't be able to make it to the start, so Triton's Fury
reluctantly turned around and headed back the way they had come.
That was a wise decision in many ways.
The
winds started dying away shortly after the rendezvous at the South River
G"1" mark and the Race Committee motored a bit farther south and set up
a line about a mile from G"1". One by one the classes started and
the next to last was a combined start of five boats. Three Tritons
and two PHRF-CD boats started, and they all rushed the pin end of the
line. One of the PHRF boats rounded Sandpiper up and stalled her
on the line, but she recovered fairly quickly and all three Tritons
started in almost no air and into the teeth of the current. There
were a few back-and-forths between the boats, but it became clear that
the winds were not going to return any time soon. Eventually, one
by one, the boats withdrew from the race. The first was Ca Ira
after sitting becalmed for about two hours about 500 yards from the
starting area. The next was Sandpiper, who had been passed by Sea
Deuce after a 40 degree wind shift favored the inside boat. They
tried to stick it out but about 30 minutes after Ca Ira withdrew and
after covering only about a mile of the now-shortened 5.1 mile course,
they withdrew. Sea Deuce was going to continue on and see if they
could make it up the bay, but even they eventually called it a day and
motored into the West River Sailing Club dock. And for a multihull
boat it was fortunate that they waited a bit as, right at sunset, Sea
Deuce came into sight heading in with a multihull in tow.
The
evening was spent in great conversation and dining. Tow of the
boats had decided to go to Pirates Cove for dinner and one decided to
bring their own, but afterward, sitting in the cockpits and simply
talking, was a fine way to end the frustrating day.
9.
7 September 2007 — CTSA Old Salt's Race:
This was, in reality, more of a "staging" race
more than anything else. The race was put on by the Chesapeake
Traditional Sailing Association on a Friday, and three Tritons came to
race up the Eastern Bay, starting from the mouth of the South River.
The day was blustery with most boats starting with a number two jib and
a reefed mainsail, getting bounced around in two foot seas.
Kristin White, in Ca Ira, was single handing the boat. Sandpiper
offered crew but were unable to affect the transfer due to seas and
time, so at the appointed hour the race began with three aboard Triton's
Fury, four on Sandpiper and one (plus Otto) aboard Ca Ira.
Triton's Fury hit the line at the pin end at speed and took off across
the bay in a beat toward Bloody Point. Sandpiper was late to cross
at the committee boat end of the line because she was looking for Ca
Ira, and as she tacked to cross the bay she was abeam and to leeward of
Triton's Fury. Ca Ira crossed about a minute later.
Eventually
Triton's Fury footed off while Sandpiper crept up by pointing a bit
better and the boats were within a boat length of each other. At
that point a (sort of) tacking duel took place where, at the end of four
tacks, Sandpiper was in the lead followed by Triton's Fury and then by
Ca Ira. This chase continued until Bloody Point when Sandpiper's
crew lost sight of Ca Ira. As Kristin's Father was following the
fleet across the bay in Interlude, they felt Kristin was in no danger.
What they eventually learned was that during a tack Kristin was working
a winch when the handle kicked back and smacked her in the mouth.
Shortly after that she dropped sails and decided to motor up to Tighlman
Creek. Sandpiper continued to the finish line and dropped her
foresail to drift back and forth to wait for Kristin, who passed her
under sticks alone. When they had eventually decided to sail back
down the course to look for her, she called and asked where we were
going as she was almost directly behind Sandpiper!
So
we rendezvoused outside Tighlman Creek and went in to dock at Hugh
Kabler's house as a fleet. He was quite surprised, and even more
so when we told him our objective was to sail against him in the Herring
Island Sailing Fleet race the next day. I think he enjoyed seeing
us out there with him and we enjoyed surprising him with a gift that
he'd been asking for for quite some time. Late that evening Jon
Redifer sailed into Tighlman Creek with an almost-dead engine (the
impellor broke!) and the fleet helped him fix the water pump the next
day. It was a great weekend on the water.
10.
22 September 2007 — Queenstown Race:
The
day started early with all boats getting underway at 7:30 to motor up to
the starting area at Baltimore Light. The forecast for the day
depended upon who you trusted with either light or heavy winds from the
north or south. The three boats checked in and prepared for a
spinnaker run start to the mouth of the Chester River, and would be
sailed in 13-16 knots of south wind. It was a great start with all
three boats popping out the spinnaker as soon as they crossed the line
and it was a neck-in-neck reach over to the first mark. Sea Deuce
rounded first followed by Sandpiper and Ca Ira. Clearly Ca Ira had
the best rounding as she headed up almost immediately into the beat to
the next mark. Sea Deuce and Sandpiper delayed the spinnaker drop
and fell down the course a bit, and Sea Deuce footed off to drop down a
bit more. Both lower boats tacked out to the lay line, but
Sandpiper delayed until the last possible minute because she was
experiencing a lot of lifting, almost taking her to the mark! She
tacked over onto port to see if she could pick a spot to join the
starboard lay line conga line of boats, and somehow managed to find the
perfect opening, rounding the mark and flopping onto starboard less than
a boatlength behind Ca Ira who was now in the lead! Many of the
bigger boats headraching on the two were trying to take them on the
windward side, so the Tritons decided to come up and not allow that.
Sandpiper managed to get above almost everyone, but two slipped by
between Ca Ira and Sandpiper and that slowed Ca Ira down enough to allow
Sandpiper to take the lead. And as far as they had come up made it
fair to hoist the spinnaker and fall off for the next mark.
Meanwhile, Sea Deuce had come charging up in the middle of the conga
line pack and had caught Ca Ira, who had also raised a spinnaker by
then. They were neck-in-neck for a while but with Sea Deuce to
weather and taking air from the spinnaker Ca Ira eventually dropped back.
As the day wore on toward 1:00 PM the winds started dying but stayed
long enough to let everyone finish in almost record time. It was one of the fastest
crossings into Queenstown that we could remember. Most boats just
thought the day too fine to go in and start partying, so many just
dropped the spinnaker, raised the Genoa and sailed up and down the
Chester until about 3:00 PM before heading in and enjoying the fantastic
sunset.
11.
23 September 2007— Queenstown Race Back:
As
the sun came up on the raft of three boats it was apparent that the
winds had come back with gusto during the night and backed to the north.
Thomas Point Light was reporting wind speeds of 20 knots, so all boats
prepared for a strong wind sail back to Baltimore Light. Ca Ira
got underway first so they could motor into Queenstown Docks to pick up
additional crew, the rest left around 9:00 AM to head out and see what
the conditions were like outside the protected anchorage. We were
not disappointed with the winds and seas as they were what was expected,
and all three boats shifted to a single-reefed main with a number two
jib as they did the pre-race dance in the starting area in about 16 to
18 knots of north wind.
All three boats hit the line close together and at hull
speed, falling off to head to the first mark of the course.
Sandpiper decided to try and fly the spinnaker and hauled it up, sailing
a broad reach with near abeam apparent winds. As the winds
appeared to be dying a bit the farther we sailed down the Chester,
Sandpiper shifted to a number one Genoa. Sea Deuce was sailing a
bit closer to the wind and decided to stick with the number two and
reefed main while Ca Ira decided to raise the spinnaker as well.
At the mark the spinnakers were doused and the boats headed
more north on a beat to the next mark. All three boats noted that
the winds were continually lightening a bit and shook their reefs.
Sandpiper and Ca Ira were now fully powered with a full main and number
one, while Sea Deuce stayed with the number two. At the second
mark of the course all boats headed up into a full beat knowing that a
few tacks were needed. No boat had a clear advantage yet,
especially in the tacking and now two-foot seas, but Sandpiper was
leading around the second mark with a close match between Sea Deuce and
Ca Ira. At the end of the tacking duel and at the turning mark
denoting the exit from the Chester River it was Sandpiper in the lead,
followed by Sea Deuce and Ca Ira. That was how it ended at the
finish, but the normal Chesapeake Doldrums beginning about noon made it
a very exciting finish indeed.
Sandpiper went a bit high on the close reach to the finish to
play the wind shifts and ebbing current a bit, while Sea Deuce and Ca
Ira stayed lower on the course. About four miles from the finish
the winds died away almost completely, but beginning from the north.
That affected Sandpiper before Sea Deuce. As the winds lightened
up it also veered to the east and the boats decided to fly the
spinnakers again. Sandpiper had to sail back down to the lay line
to catch the winds while Sea Deuce was able to stay in what winds there
were and try to get by. At the finish Sandpiper took the gun with
Sea Deuce taking second by nine seconds, and less than a boat length
after the finish Sea Deuce passed with almost twice the hull speed
Sandpiper could manage. Had the course been even 50 yards longer
Sea Deuce would have won. It was a close finish to an exciting
weekend with great winds and some of the best competition the fleet has
seen in quite a while.
12.
6 October 2007 — Good Old Boat, Day One:
Slow start, but ended up a pretty nice day for a sailboat race.
13.
7 October 2007 — Good Old Boat, Day Two:
What a frustrating day!
14.
20 October 2007 — 2006 Triton Fall Classic:
This event was a first for the fleet. We were
started by CTSA member Chris White aboard Interlude and sailed a
potentially 14.5NM race. It was "potentially" that long only
because, while the marks were identified, the course and sequence of the
marks were not, so any boat could go to any mark at any time, just so
long as they got to within two boat lengths of them all.
As it turned out, the course was sailed as would be expected, around the
perimeter. Sandpiper, Ca Ira and Triton's Fury sailed the course
counterclockwise, while Sea Deuce decided to sail clockwise. At
the start Ca Ira took an early lead in the three CCW boats, with
Sandpiper working to get to windward and to clear air and Triton's Fury
staying low and looking like they were going to do an end-around the
other two boats. The winds were NNW with about a 10 degree shift
every few minutes until they got to the mouth of the Severn River, when
the winds decided to get a bit fluky and lighter. At that point
Sandpiper continued pointing quite high but losing boat speed while Ca
Ira footed off for speed but fell down away from the mark.
Triton's Fury overstood the lay line but had a higher boatspeed run to
the mark when they tacked up toward the Severn River G"5". The
fleet was on port heading up the Severn and a lot of boats were heading
out to enjoy the day, so that affected Ca Ira as a boat came up to the
mark just as she wanted to tack around, and she had to extend to duck
the cruiser's stern. Sandpiper took the lead at that point, with
Ca Ira a very close second.
Meanwhile on the CW course, Sea Deuce had a nice run to the first mark
while the rest of the fleet was beating toward theirs. At the
mark, she came up to a starboard broad reach and had a great sail to the
second mark for them, the GR Can "SR" just south of Thomas Point.
That is where they met up with the other three boats going around the
other way.
After rounding the Severn River mark the three boats had to go to R"2"
before heading just south of Thomas Point Light. Two of the boats
flew a spinnaker for a very short time, but quickly decided that it was
not the right sail. The winds were backing to a broad reach and
the apparent winds were well forward of the beam, so they doused the
spinnaker and took off under a full main and number one. Just
before they got to the third mark they saw Sea Deuce heading the other
way! She had gone more than halfway around and it appeared that
she had sailed the better course!
After rounding the third mark the three boats had a port reach to the
next mark, through a starting area of another race. The reach
turned into a beat as the winds were building and now veering to more
northerly. At the mark the winds had sufficiently built so that
two of the boats had shifted to a number two jib and had taken a reef.
Sandpiper was considering a second reef but since the finish was less
than a mile away they decided to tough it out.
Somewhere on that beat Triton's Fury had overtaken Ca Ira while keeping
a full main, though they did use the roller furling a bit and reduced
sail area there. Sandpiper was looking for Sea Deuce at the finish
as it was assumed that she had the race well in hand at the "crossing"
by Thomas Point, but she was nowhere in sight so they thought she had
finished and in the building winds and seas had decided to head into
port.
At the finish, Sandpiper took her time to compare against Sea Deuce's
finish, and dumped sails to assist an Etchell which had pitchpoled and
sunk near the finish mark. All the crew were pulled out of the
water by the time they got there to assist, no one was injured, but the
boat would spend the night on the bottom of the Chesapeake before being
salvaged the next day. Sandpiper watched Triton's Fury and Ca Ira
finish and was turning to head into Whitehall when they caught sight of
Sea Deuce running to the finish and take fourth. They were under a
full main but a number three jib, and the winds veering caused them a
lot of problems as they beat up to the Severn to the mark. That
beat made the difference! It was a fun and tactical race, with a
lot of overall strategy tossed in, and all hoped to have that race again
next year.
15.
21 October 2007 — CTSA Dean Worchester Memorial Race:
16.
3 November 2007 — Clipper City Ghost Regatta:
The event was to be sailed by only Ca Ira as Sandpiper
had already been hauled and Sea Deuce was awaiting the lift and repairs
started. The weather did not cooperate even for one boat and the
race was cancelled before it was sailed as winds were in the 25+ range
in the morning. At the après-race party the RC indicated that it
was likely the last year for the Ghost Regatta as the Clipper City had
been sold and would likely be moving on.
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