Doug and crew on his CS30
The "Pride of Baltimore"
Friday was pretty with 5 - 10 knots of wind which made it a must to see of the AtoB Race boats off on their way. This was also an excuse to have lunch with Sailing Steve on his boat.
The "Pride of Baltimore" entered the race and sailed as the only boat in the schooner division, which went off first. It was something to see the Pride crew haul up the big heavy sails and to see the boat take several minutes to start making way.
As the clock counted down Pride came about and made a run for the line but incredibly did not pass between the Race Committee boat and "R2", the pin. She passed on the far side of the pin and it was several minutes before she tacked over and headed back to start properly. What a heart breaker to see her grind to a halt, backwinding the square sail and lumbering back on the opposite tack to beyond the line, where she had to tack again. She eventually started properly and was headed off, over the horizon.
We watched all of the boats start, including my friend Doug's CS30, the smallest boat in the fleet, that I was invited to sail the race on. They had a decent start and before long, all of the boats were specks on the horizon. It has been great fun watching the Yello Brick Tracker every few hours to see how they are doing. Pride has been sailing at 8 to 10 knots almost the entire way and Doug's CS30 has sailed for hours in the 6-8 knot range. They must all be broad reaching under spinnaker. There was a little light spot as they departed the Bay but they are all romping now.