Race to St Michaels a success

Saturday we had the Race to Se Michaels and we managed to get Second out of the 16 boats racing! Not bad, but there were still many anxious moments during the 20-mile race.

Our initial thought coming off the line was to cross the Bay to get into the current in the channel heading south. Seemed reasonable - current is going south and we want to go south, so get into the fast current. Is the past year's, we have alternately tried the old advice to "Go East Early" and to grab the Thomas Point jet. The jet moves so fast that it suck you in luring you to the relatively slow currents and eddies off the mouth of the West river. The current on the Eastern Shore can move fast down past Bloody Point, but the winds can get flakey.

So we headed East looking for deep water and strong currents. It seemed like most of the classes before us did that, so maybe wisdom was on our side. Unfortunately, John White decided to take the jet testing our resolve to find the current. White managed to split the fleet taking half the competitors with him making it very hard not to cover.

Fortunately, neither east nor west paid off. We crossed tacks again just before Bloody Point showing that we had only gained about 10 to 15 boat lengths - just about what we would expect. White kept up the pressure by driving shallow while we stayed out in the deep water. It seemed to be working for him, but it wasn't clear if wind or current was helping him. As we headed up Eastern Bay, the strong reaching wind definitely favored White as he passed us and lead the way into St Michaels.

We were able to add reasonable distance to the lead to the next boat allowing us to correct comfortably into 2nd. The great wind and favorable currents allowed all the fleets to finish very early and partake in the party at the Miles River Yacht Club. The Cal 25s and the Catalina 27s seemed to be having the most fun, but we did our best to hold on to our party credentials. Excellent time was had by all, but the delivery home Sunday morning was a bit harsh on some of the crew.

One Month to Go

It’s one month until the north-bound delivery crew pushes off from the dock to take Apparition to Block Island. After a winter of planning and a spring filled with prepping and practicing, we are finally at the point where we can panic.

Okay, maybe panicking is not in order. After all, we did spend all that time planning and prepping for just this event, so maybe it’s more about letting the action start. As we switch gears for Racing at Block and the deliveries to and from, now we only have to deal with the unexpected.

Steve already found one unexpected hardware issue. It turns out that 20 years on the transmission was just about all it was ready to take. In a preemptive joust with engine problems, Steve decided it was best just to replace the transmission. That’s probably for the best because I’m not really a big fan of dealing with transmission issues 40 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Of course, prefect weather and we’ll not use the engine until we are docking in the Great Salt Pond. But deliveries never seem to be about perfect weather.

I did notice crew this weekend talking about the logistics of how to feed everyone and just how everything will get to the island. The juggernaut that is Apparition Racing will soon start it’s trek. Fortunately the vessel Apparition moves at a much faster pace!

Annual Spring Regatta

This weekend on the 16th is the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake's 60th Annual Spring Regatta. The weather looks like it might cooperate, so it should be a good race. And, to increase the morale of the crew even more, the dock time is not until 0945! Allowing the crew to get that extra hour of sleep will make a huge difference when it comes to changing out the headsail for the third time.

But you never know when there might be hurt feelings. Our crew mate, Sean, has provided us with an outlet for just this occurrence - the Hurt Feelings Report. Now I have a place to write down just how I feel. You know any opinion of mine will include some version of "Don't touch my runners!"

Sean also included some description of what to do with the completed form. Let's just say that you should file it with the appropriate authority.

Swatties like us!

Our very own pitcrew, Arlene, got a very nice write-up in her alma mater newsletter, the Swarthmore College Bulletin:

Read the article here

It turns out that Arlene is not a slacker like the rest of us. Besides praising her achievements, the article has some very nice "awww" stuff about meeting Steve our illustrious leader and helmsman. They even manage to make it sound like we know what we're doing!

Unfortunately, she gave away our secret weapon - the Snickers bars. It's nice to know you can placate an ornery grinder with a tasty treat, but you don't want to tell the world about it! Oh well, we need a new secret weapon now. Maybe KitKat. No one will suspect KitKat.

AYC Spring Race Wrap-up

Well, the racing on Saturday was everything you would expect from a light-air shifty day where it threatened to rain.

Strangely there were only 5 boats registered in the A2 class for the AYC spring race. I don't know where everyone from the previous race went, but a few of old nemesises from last year returned to cause trouble. John White was back with his converted Beneteau and they were (as usual) on their game. Saykadoo was back out and she managed to shake off the cobwebs they had last week. Then there was Aunt Jean who came out to school us all in the first race.

In the first race, we managed to get ourselves pinned out at the start, but no worries. There are worse things than being 30 seconds late. Unfortunately, we found out too late that there was fresh air just hanging out in Whitehall Bay. It certainly looked like it was coming to us, but nope. Aunt Jean seemed to have remembered this scenario from the past and just sailed over to it. No matter that she over-stood the mark - she had air and beat us all to the windward mark by 10 minutes. Definitely a smart play for them - not so good for us.

Second race went fairly well. We managed to find the air, play the shifts and even managed to switch gears as the wind got fluky. Everything went reasonably well except Saykadoo was on fire. We simply couldn't reel them in and she managed to finish before us.

It was a small fleet, but there were no slackers. We finished 4-2 and ended up 4th. Even with a respectable 2nd, we couldn't break into the top three. It's a tough crowd out there. Saykadoo had a 3-1 and ended up 1st, so they must be happy.

Well, we did learn a few things and the practice for Block certainly won't hurt. Our spinnaker work is starting to look professional, so now we can work on down wind speed. Lastly, the beer at the dock was very cold and that always helps to heal sailing wounds.

AYC Spring Race

Ah ha! It's time for the first race of the season by Annapolis Yacht Club. This race is usually interesting because we will have two or more races.

Multiple races usually means shorter legs, more crew work, and less time between races for lunch and re-hydration. Since we usually only have one race a day, this regatta gives us a better feel for how we will do in Block where we will have multiple races each day as well.

Now that we're in May, hopefully we'll see more of our usual competitors. Of course they are calling for showers and thunderstorms - that may be all the competition we need.