Annapolis, MD
Eastpoint Yacht Club
Sept 15-17
In preparation for the J-22 North Americans in Dallas, our team (Greg Fisher, Jeff Eiber and I) used the East Coast Championship as a tune up and practice event. Annapolis is a wonderful place to sail, especially in the early fall when the water is warm and the breeze is generally up. There were a total of 37 boats which is more than they've had in a while.
Friday, the forcast was for some big breeze and we got it. Throughout the day the wind was as much as 25+ and never really got below 15. It was fun, and great practice. We posted three bullets winning all three races by a wide margin. We seemed to be quicker upwind through the huge puffs by working the Jib more than the main. Downwind, we were sailing deeper and maintaining the same speed as our competitors. It was a fun day for sure.
Saturday's forcast was for big breeze again. It, however, didn't fill in until late in the day. In fact, the RC started us and we didn't make the time limit on the first mark. We were in pretty good shape, but certainly didn't mind the abandonment. Once we got a race off, we found ourselves in the middle of big breeze on both sides. The right, which never really materialized on Friday, came in big. We battled back to 7th, which was great practice. The 2nd race on Saturday was in a building breeze similar to Friday. We ended up 3rd. We battled/match raced Scott Nixon as he was the next in line on points. By pushing him away from the filling right side, we almost picked off the 2nd place boat, but settled for 3rd.
Sunday was a horrible day. We started over early and had a tough time recovering. The wind didn't cooperate either. We had downwind fetches and favored beats. Not too many passing lanes. We sailed our throwout and maintained a 6 point lead on the regatta over Scott Nixon, who also sailed a throwout in the first race on Sunday. The last race was a series of bad luck cards on our boat. We started at the favored pin end and got "gumbied" by a late starter who stuffed it at the pin. He was caught on the mark and he got hung up and took us down with him. Again, we were last over the line and had a great recovery for 10th. Going into the finish, we knew where we had to finish, and nearly picked off some boats, but it wasn't going to happen.
We ended up 2nd to Scott Nixon who sailed a marvelous last race to win the event. Certainly if we didn't get hung up, we would have battled him for the event, but that's sailboat racing.
Next stop is the Chicago Red Flannels Lightning Regatta. The 22 NAs are in three weeks. Look for daily reports on this site.
SD