It was a long day as the cold front that moved across the region on Friday had dying Northwest winds at race time on Saturday. Following a 1000 rendezvous in the mouth of the Severn and anticipated first warning at 1100, The EYC Race Committee eventually got a race started at about 1130 with the Alerions the second start between the J/22 and J/70 fleets.. Five Alerions joined the first race: Caroline, Escape, Linnaea, Magic, and Skimmer. The course was a twice around windward/leeward with the weather mark at .6 miles and positioned at roughly 330 degrees.
Photos by Stacey Anderson
The wind was light - in the 5-6 knot range - and began to die on the first downwind leg with the direction going more east. This created a broad reach toward the bottom of the course. The wind got even lighter and more fluky in the second upwind and it was now almost downwind at times, or at best a reach to the weather mark. A real cluster of boats from all 3 fleets arrived at the weather mark and the boats that finished best in our fleet were the ones that managed to emerge from the mark rounding with the cleanest air, as the fickle breeze was at times almost upwind and then settled into a reach. All of the boats finished fairly close to each other after changing positions quite often during the race. Linnea held on to win, with Caroline and Magic finishing nose-to-nose for 2nd and 3rd.
The second race was abandoned shortly after the start, as the dying breeze that continued to go right was not enough to provide steerage against the now stronger outgoing current.
After a wait of an hour or so, the breeze finally settled in out of the east and built to around 8-12 knots at about 1400.
The committee then got off 2 windward/leeward twice around races with the weather mark at 85 degrees. With the ever increasing outgoing current, the boats that got left first, won. As the day lengthened our fleet participation dwindled and the regatta standings were as much a result of "If you can't be good, be there".
Race results below. Official results are posted at yachtscoring.com
Next up is the AYC Summer Regatta on July 27, followed by the CRAB Regatta on August 17. Please look at your calendars and come out to support the fleet.
- Jack Detweiler