This was the first race of AYC's Frostbite series. I was tactician and mainsail trimmer on Frank Martien's "Starbird". It many ways it was one of those 'what's else wrong with this picture' kind of days.
There were big cruising boats that were anchored right in the middle of the starting area. The logical place to have the boat at the start was met with the sudden formation of a dead spot out on the course stopping the lead boats in their tracks. There was a series of big wind shfts and gusts from nowhere. And the race rules required that boats did not pass through the start line on the way to the finish.
That last point would have been no big deal except that as tactician, this was a tough challenge, because it was very difficult to avoid passing through the finish line on the committee boat end and still round the next mark a few hundred feet away. On the pin end of the finish line (where there was more breeze and a hotter angle), the clearance was roughly 100-150 feet between the pin and the Naval Academy seawall and rounding to that side of the harbor left the boat completely across the harbor from the finish line, adding a lot of distance. Moreover on the other side of the harbor (committee boat end), you had to thread the needle between the committee boat and the big boat that was aground, which as the committee boat swung on its anchor, was only roughly 30-50 feet wide . We chose to thread the needle, and the winner in our class took the seawall side.
But all in all, it was a lovely day on the water, The crew worked together well and ended up correcting 8 seconds out of third place (in other words in fourth) which was not too bad for a first day out racing in a new series.
Jeff