We had quite a day for the final day of the Annapolis NOOD Regatta – plenty of wind and plenty more excitement. The forecast was for it to start into the low teens building with gusts into the 20s. Only two races were planned.
During the first downwind leg of the first race we had trouble with a gybe and broached. Not fun seeing the cockpit coamings in the water and going sideways while the fleet sails by.
I did learn a few things about J/22s this weekend – particularly how beat up a bow guy gets in a breeze!
Thanks again to Art Silcox for having me on his J/22. It was a pleasure sailing with him and Mike Waters.
Today started with a dismal forecast for wind. After being postponed an hour ashore we were sent out where we floated around for another 1 1/2 hours before some wind made an appearance.
The wind eventually filled in with 4-8 out of the south and we went racing. We had a good start and had good position and lane out front 1/3 up the first beat, but we fouled a boat, did our turns and had to suck air in the back of the pack for the rest of the race. The current ripping down the bay didn’t make things any easier for us to try and claw our way back into the fleet.
One of the things that has really hit home for me sailing on the J/22 this weekend is how important it is to have clear air and stay away from other boats.
Today at the Annapolis NOOD regatta was my first time sailing on a J/22, and for a first time, it went pretty well. I’m sailing on Art Silcox’s J/22 along with Mike Waters out of Severn Sailing Association. My training for this event consisted of watching 15 minutes of YouTube videos last night on J/22s to have an idea what I was doing. For the most part the boat was pretty easy to pick up and I had my footing and got comfortable moving about a boat that doesn’t have any lifelines.
We started pretty early to get out and practice before the race. We did some of the maneuvers and were ready to go by the time the first gun sounded at 11. The wind was out of the west and a bit fluky. We’d have 8 knots for a bit followed by puffs of nearly 20. Add to that a building current going across the course due to the big storms we’ve had in the prior couple days. At times we were dodging logs like telephone poles floating through the course.
The first two race were where we did our learning. As we adjusted to the boat and figured out how to sail it together we started to get faster and faster. We didn’t beat a lot of boats in the first two races, but we figured out what we were doing.
The 3rd and 4th race were very different for us. We figured out how to make the boat go, could hold our own with the boats near us and we were able to make our own decisions on where to go. We ended up 20-23-9-12 for 15th overall in the first day.
Two more days to go – lets hope we can stay in the top half of the fleet.
Lighter winds and cooler temperatures for the final day of the Annapolis NOOD regatta. We gave it what we had, but just weren’t able to improve our score in the final two races. With winds up and down and forming lanes up and down the course, we just weren’t able to string enough pressure together to keep us moving. Despite the scores, it was still a fun weekend and I want to thank Craig & Susan Wright on Afterthought for having me along.
With winds up and down it was a tough day on the water today. We’re still 3rd on points, but ceded a few points and are tied with several boats very close behind us. We’ll need a few good results tomorrow to stay on the podium. All in all our maneuvers went much better than yesterday, but we did find ourselves on the wrong side of some shifts making it hard to stay in the top spots.
Racing today was in anywhere from 5 knots all the way up into the mid-teens in the last race of the day with mostly sunny skies and temperatures comfortable in the 60-70’s. I’d have more pictures today, but the camera with all of the shots on it was left in the boat for the night.
This seemed to be the story of my day… more overrides on the winch in a day of racing than I think I’ve had in years of racing.
Here is a Spinsheet photo of us approaching a mark during racing on Friday (I’m on the low side about to ease the jib):
We had as good of conditions as we could have asked for on the first day of racing at the Annapolis NOOD Regatta. Sailing in the J/109 fleet aboard Afterthought we had a pretty good day going 3-2-5 and ending up 3rd in the 7-boat fleet. We sailed on the southern-most course by Tolly Point and had winds building through the 10-17+ knot range.
In race one we had a tough start and had to tack out. We were DFL around the windward mark. We enjoyed watching that on the big screen at the race party knowing we made some smart moves on the rest of the race to claw our way up to a 3rd.
In the 2nd race we got a great start and picked the first upwind well and just extended the entire race. Rush was just ahead of us and while we could almost hang with them, we certainly weren’t closing on them.
For the 3rd race we had another good start and for this race the fleet stayed bunched on the first windward leg. We were 3 or 4 downwind and then on the 2nd upwind we ended up on the wrong side of a shift and dropped to 6th. Picked up on boat downwind to finish 5th putting us into 3rd overall – 3 points out of 2nd and 5 points ahead of 4th.
Tomorrow we’re expecting a little lighter winds and a chance to move up a bit.
Not much racing on the first day of the Annapolis NOOD regatta. The J109 fleet went went out to the course in fog and sat around postponed. The fog lifted when a thunderstorm came through just south of the racing area. There was a little wind after the storm and we got to do some sailing, but the race committee never had steady enough wind to set a course and blew off the day by 3:30.
We did get a little video from the top of the mast:
Stopped by the party and caught up with some of the other Fishing Bay Yacht Club members at the regatta this weekend.
Double Eagle got just enough breeze to get out and practice with 3 other J109s ahead of the 2012 Annapolis NOOD Regatta. Friday is the first day of racing in a boat of 12 boats.
