Century Club: Jason Aulds
Two races for the day in a shifty 10 -12 knots out of the west. 75+ boats split over 7 starts on a very tight starting line- leading to some pretty exciting moments in each of the starts. In the second J/70, J/24, J/22 combined start, we witnessed some pretty fancy boat driving on port tack by Foreign Affairs giving them an early lead. The first leg was a close reach up the Severn River for a port mark rounding just short of the Navy bridge. Then onto a long downwind leg to the leeward mark at G5, with everybody coming at it from different directions. This was followed by a port rounding on G9 that led to a mad dash into Spa creek for the AYC finish. Four 70's showed up: Phoenix, Celerity, Fast Company, Foreign Affaris, all finishing a minute from the leader. Phoenix edged out the fleet for the win in the first race, but executed (I hate to say it) a beautiful slam-dunk on Celerity near the end of the second race, putting them 5 boat lenghts ahead for their second bullet. The day started out brisk, but warmed up enough to douse the foulies, allowing Fleet One participants to enjoy a shirt sleeve picnic at AYC between races. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday in November.
70 degrees, decent wind...who would believe it's nearly the middle of November? Great turn-out for the 70s: Phoenix, Fast Company, Foreign Affaris, Sly and of course Celerity were enough for a class start- shared with four J/22s and five J/24s.....recipe for a challenging start on both races of the day. Celerity did well in the first race, getting nosed out of first by Fast Company, but we got gassed in the second, trapped in bad air for the entirety of the race, putting us behind three of the other 70s. What a mess at the second mark rounding of the second race- six boats looking for mark room, when Elvis (Beneteau 10R) whacked Swiss Miss (Farr 230) - causing her to pinwheel into Sly! No injuries or serious damage. Besides that, lots of fun!!!
Thanks to Tom from Microburst #73 for crewing with us!
Two challenging days on the water. Shiftiest winds we have yet encountered in a race. 20-30 degree shifts every few minutes were not uncommon.. On the 2nd race/1st day we had good breeze, but 10 seconds after the start someone completely turned off the wind! Several boats, including Celerity actually drifted back over the starting line. After a minute of two of socializing with other competitors, the race was back on.
Congratulations to Zava for the win, with Ayacucho hot on her heels!
We were very fortunate that Kristen Berry (KB) was available to come out with us and share his wisdom... Learned SO MUCH! Will definitely do that again!
Breeze was up 18-25 nts. We set the kite while still in the harbor, next thing we knew, here comes Thomas Point! 13-14nts consistent boat speed, peaking over 16nts!! Fantastic downwind sailing!
We reached around the J22 worlds regatta, lots of fun watching nearly 50 boats fight it out. As we were coming up on Greenbury Point, a massive right shift put us on our ear soaking us in the process! What a blast!
Thanks Nic for coming through on a last minute crew call!
First time on a racing Cat. Joined the crew about the Cheshire Cat, a Stilleto XR, in Saturday's race to Baltimore.
Unfortunately the wind didnt cooperate- after a becalmed hour bobbing a couple of miles short of the harbor, we bagged it and motored back to Annapolis.
Still- a beautiful day on the water.
Thanks John, for having me aboard, and great sailing with JT and Matt.
Perfect evening for rainbow races! Wind was blowing 10-15 out of the NW, then the W. Very unusual. Sailed with Todd and Ryan- great guys... We blew the first race by taking a couple of minutes shaking out the reef on the upwind leg... Put us in 2nd to last. But we found our rhythm afterwards, placing 2nd and then 1st on the next two races.
That might have been our last Rainbow race :(