The course was to S1 which is a drop mark off of Lake Ogleton on the Severn River. This is our usual first mark. Our second mark was S2 which is a drop mark that was set about 1/2 mile to windward of S1. Then it was back to our usual turning mark by way of one of the channel marks, then up river about 1/4 mile further to another channel mark, and then into the harbor.
We had a good start at the pin end side of the line, but not at the pin where there was alot of congestion from the J22s and Catalina 27s. Phantom was caught up in this mess, tacked out of it, and eventually realized that the tack was a terrible mistake. By the time she tacked back, she was effectively out of the money for the rest of the race. Skybird started just below us, and Second-2-Nun was about in the center of the starting line. Everyone else was lost to us; buried in the other starters and late to the line.
We jumped out to the early lead. Skybird was in bad air, and started working to get above us. We let her go high because we planned to stay in between her and the mark. Second-2-Nun had relatively clear air, and was driving straight to the mark. We drove straight to the mark, but some J22s came up from underneath of us. They ended up giving us dirty air. Skybird was above them and Second-20-Nun was below them. Both of them ended up passing us on that first leg. At S1, Skybird was in first, Second-2-Nun was in second and we were in third.
The mark rounding was extremely congested so we decided to bail out right around the mark. Of course, just after we did this, several J22s went with us, and continued to give us bad air. We eventually tacked out of this bad air. As we went toward the right-hand layline, we noticed that Sundance, who had been way back and had gone straight at the first mark, had tacked back and crossed us by about 5 boatlengths. At the second mark, Sundance had taken the lead with Second-2-Nun hot on her heels. Skybird had misjudged a starboard tacker, and had to tack immediately after a tack she had taken to port. This meant that she had to take two extra, and very slow, tacks. We overstood the mark by a little bit, but it was not too bad. This also meant we came in hot and heavy. Skybird tacked underneath of us, just barely on the layline. This meant that she had to pinch up slightly to make the mark. We were above her, just cracked off coming in fast to the mark.
By the two boatlength zone, we had managed to get clear ahead of Skybird. We were the third boat around the mark, but well behind the leaders. However, we were in our element. we had a relatively quick set, and we were off. Skybird set her spinnaker about two minutes after us. We had worked a little to windward because the larger boats were now starting to come back and join us. We didn't want to get killed by the bigger spinnakers. Skybird stayed low, and was just a bit slower over the length of this short leg. We were about 2 boatlengths in front of Skybird at the next mark.
Just after the mark, a J120 passed us to windward. When we finally got wind back in our sails, we were able to ride her stern wave for awhile. This walked us away from Skybird, and gained us three to four boatlengths on Sundance and Second-2-Nun. We were right on their heels at our usual turning mark. We had been discussing whether to gybe or keep going at this mark, when Donna pointed out that this was not the turning mark. . . we had another mark until we could head into the harbor. Second-2-Nun made this mistake, and we corrected them on the way by. We were now in second, hot about two boatlengths behind Sundance. The course into the harbor was going to be a close spinnaker reach. We rounded the mark perfectly, came up and powered up to Sundance who looked like she was sitting still. She tried to take us up, but we had too much speed and blew over the top of her.
At this point, we detoured from our original plan. In order to keep Sundance behind us as we approached the harbor, we had to stay high. This meant that we ended up in the wind shadows of the buildings and larger boats. Second-2-Nun was able to catch up to the two of us, and was just below us. Unknown to me, Skybird had stayed low and had taken the course we had planned no taking. This walked her right past the three of us. The rest of it was a crap shoot, but the final order was Skybird, Sundance, Second-2-Nun and us. This left us 6.25 points in front of Skybird. Argo did not compete in this race, and dropped way back in the standings.
Even though we ended up fourth, our crew work was
the best it had ever been. If our crew work keeps up at this level, we
will have no worries about winning Wednesday Nights, and possibly High
Point. This is what we have been working to all year.