Oxford Race

News in 2009

Oxford Race:

I and the "Renaissance crew" scored 3rd out of 6 entered, with an exciting spinnaker takedown and mark rounding at the Oxford light house. Boats were converging from several classes with one boat, a J-27, aground while we squeezed by Snagglepuss claiming an inside overlap at the 3 boat circle. Snagglepuss disagreed while yelling no overlap. No protest was filed! Whatever we do, tomorrow don't tangle with Snagglepuss! They are good' the boat is fast, they are aggressive and they are classy.

Introducing the crew: Curt-owner of Chaos, raced her for a half year then a full year. Previous boat was a Capri 25. Jib and spinnaker trimmers were Steve and Debbie Mason. Previous owners of Battle Cat. Won some tough races including Governors Cup but they haven't raced for appx. 13 years. Crew was required to wear T-shirts with "Beat Fred" on them. Fred Rector, recipient of "Beat Fred" and previous owner of "Rendezvous", noted for getting Rudy Rodriguez and John Potvin involved in the C-27 fleet and one heck of a good sailor. Don't ever count out a boat with Fred on it. He has been known to pull off a hat trick on his boat and on others he has sailed on (see next paragraph). Mike Clopeck, Foredeck. previous boat he sailed on are Pussy Cat w/Bruce Johnson and Battle Cat w/Mason. Extreme enthusiasm!!! We trailed "Ducks" for 3 hours on the way to Oxford averaging a dozen boat lengths and all we heard for 3 hours was "your catching him, your walkin on him, their rounding up, we're gainin on em". He is an excellent heavy air sailor. That was the Renaissance Crew. That was a decade ago. 2009 .... What's a twanger and why did we run light air spinn. sheets??

Hammond Memorial:

The Hammond memorial race back we had a spinnaker start and we led the pack. Barely, but because we were the outside boat we were last around the mark. I told Steve Mason (His Start) to go up now! We had a small window to get in the mix or .... now remember this is the Renaissance crew who hasn't raced for over a decade. I was told to trim the chute! 'No respect'. We were in last place when we rounded G7 to go north up the bay. Then a long beat up the Choptank River. Tacking up the bay gave us some opportunity to make up the difference by playing the wind shifts and currents. We tacked in to shore, then short tacked up the shoreline on the eastern side. A bit disappointed we just tried to stay out of the big waves and the ebbing current and tried to play the headers and lifts. Steve (Debbie didn't sail back with us) was insistent on this but Fred and I were hesitant as we both wanted to get clear of the Choptank before heading in. So we compromised and waited a while before tacking. [Remind me to tell you about the crab pot we snagged and got stuck on our rudder. Can that really happen? Yes!] All the other boats were out of site. After a couple of hours of this we found out it worked. No Tom, Fred's laptop computer didn't work because the boat battery was almost as old as the sails. We were in first place and crossed just ahead of (guess who) Snagglepuss! Next was "Red Rum" and they were moving! Now recall that Snagglepuss is still pissed off about yesterday and the last race of Race Week where we just beat them and put 4 Little Ducks ahead of them in the High Point standings or something like that! They also think we took them up at the finish in that race when we didn't have rights! So...don't tangle with Snagglepuss! Ducks and Swell were way behind. Who cares, we want Snagglepuss! The wind started to lighten and lighten and lighten. The current set us as it was strong. And here comes Snagglepuss. We tacked right on top of them with about a thousand yards to the mark and they were right behind us and the wind had almost died. I feared the worse, but wasent permitided to look as I was steering at this time! They couldn't get around us so they tacked. It was a good move as we couldn't make the finish mark. So close, but so far! The current was setting us so bad that we could not make the finish, but we were only 50 feet from it! I sent a crew member for the anchor; we were going backwards sailing at 1.3 knots. Snagglepuss did even worse, the light air hurt them. All we had to do was cross the line. We tacked back and forth and finely crossed the line but barely moving. Bang went the gun. First place! Eleven years for me since I last raced.

Fleet 8, Thanks for the welcome,

Curt

2009 Catalina 27 Nationals Sponsors

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Solomons Island Invitational, 2009

What was predicted to be a drifter turned into a pleasant race, for the most part. There was a NE’ly breeze at the start, so all four boats started on port jibe. Drag race out to the first mark at Tolly Pt, which was won by Snagglepuss, followed in quick succession by Ducks and Swell. Somewhere off of Bloody Pt the breeze dropped out, the rain fell in torrents and visibility was severely reduced. Coming south in the main channel were two ROROs, both blowing fog signals and, thankfully, moving relatively slowly. Swell and Ducks jibed and headed west. Snagglepuss headed east. Not sure what Pussycat did. Swell started her engine for a few minutes but gained no advantage. All OK per the Sis.

The rain stopped, the wind picked back up and we all continued down the Bay on port jibe. There were some light spots, which caused cycles of compression and separation. Ducks pulled out to a lead and Snagglepuss and Swell continued dueling. The breeze freshened to the mid-teens and headed us, making flying the chute a little challenging. Ducks had to drop the chute to clear the hard point at James Island, which took around 20-30 minutes. Then we were able to bear off for R76 with the chute again set on starboard jibe. Rounding R76 it looked like a one tack beat across to G3. The strong ebb current said ‘no dice’, however, and we had to throw in a hitch to get past G3. Now it was morning twilight and we played the game of ‘Is that a Catalina? Is that?’ The usual uncertainty of whether you are way ahead or way behind. Typically, the wind kept dropping and it seemed to take a nerve-wrackingly long time to get to G5, the finish. Ducks got the gun, followed 25 minutes later by Swell, with Snagglepuss close behind, then Pussycat a few minutes back. Swell wasn’t quite making G3 and decided to pass it very close, though they were nervous about hitting the underwater structure of the daymark. Had they made two tacks to clear it, Snagglepuss would likely have passed them. It was a great race, good wind and mostly pleasant weather.

BCYA/MRSA Annual Race To Baltimore / Sail For Kids July 11^th, 2009

Swell, Safari, Redrum, Odyssey and Airborne raced in PHRF C/D on Saturday and finished in that order.

Baltimore Harbor Lighthouse Classic; July 12^th, 2009

Swell and Safari finished 1^st and 2^nd in PHRF C/D on Sunday. Redrum took 1^st in PHRF Non Spin.

Congrats to the winners! Rumor has it that Swell may enter more races in Region 2 to make a run at the PHRF C/D High Point championship. Good luck John!

Coming Soon!! Catalina 27 National Championship

A reminder that Fleet 8 is hosting the 2009 Catalina 27 National Championship regatta in September at Annapolis Race Week. When we last hosted in 2003 over 25 boats sailed in both one design (Gold) and non-spin (Silver) classes. John Anderson, our Race Chair/Ass't Fleet Captain is leading this effort for us. Let him know how you can help.

If you have friends with Catalinas who haven't raced in a while, or have been sticking to club PHRF racing - this would be the ideal year to give one design racing a try. If they have any questions you can't answer, let Peter Zahn or one of the other board members know - they would be happy to help.

Go here for the Notice of Race and entry forms.

Down the Bay Race

Congratulations to Martin Casey and crew on Bowmovement for winning their class in the Down the Bay Race! This was an upwind 120 mile marathon from Annapolis to Norfolk that started on the Friday before St Mikes. Way to go guys!!

St Mikes; 2009

What a great weekend of racing! We even dodged the usual Sunday bullet of light to no air. Lovely southerly breeze both days with warm temperature and low humidity. Ten boats were entered but due to crew concerns Hi Tide was unable to race. We missed you John, Ross and Norman! Mike Rickels, however, was drafted onto Ducks.

Saturdays race blessed us with a nice ebb in the main bay, followed by a flood in Eastern bay. Being OCS was a major concern. Rightly or wrongly, Bonnie and her all girl crew on Catawampus were called OCS and had to restart. They may have provided cover for another potentially OCS light blue boat that shall not be named. Most everyone headed east on starboard tack for the ditch. Sly dog John Anderson on Swell was the first to tack away, breaking from the pack and sailing well out to mid-bay. When Swell converged with the fleet near Bloody Pt he had a convincing lead of ¼ mile or so, which he never relinquished. At mark L the top order was Swell, Pussycat, Snagglepuss and Ducks. It was a tight reach up Eastern Bay, making spin sets questionable. After 15-20 minutes or so, Pussycat executed her spin hoist, followed quickly by everyone else. Pretty much a parade up Eastern Bay to the rounding at mark N, where everyone returned to close-hauled mode to the finish. The breeze was piping up by then, which was not surprising as small craft warnings had been predicted. Swell still held her commanding lead and just maintained a loose cover. Pussycat was being hotly pursued by Snagglepuss at this point and a tacking duel quickly ensued. Ducks slowly closed up on these two. Managing a very nice slam dunk, Snagglepuss was able to pass Pussycat. For the last set of tacks Ducks took the right side and Pussycat took the left. Ducks was able to just cross Pussycat on starboard at the finish line. Order of finishes was; Swell, Snagglepuss, Ducks, Pussycat, Finesse, Odyssey, Katitoode, Catawampus and Airborne.

The awards on Saturday evening carried special significance to Fleet 8 and to Ernie and DeNyce Becker, in particular, as the initial presentation of a perpetual trophy honoring Ernie and DeNyce’s service to MRYC was made to John Anderson, the race winner.

Sunday morning saw cool temps and a decent southerly breeze. Of course, the question in everyone’s head was “will it hold?” It did, rather nicely. We had an ebb current all day, which was a help in Eastern bay but a hindrance in the main bay. The start was downwind with the wind over the port quarter. Everyone started on port, with the exception of Pussycat and Snagglepuss, who came in on a hot starboard reach at the signal boat. There was a lot of swerving, jibing and hollering but all boats got a clean start. Pussycat won the start, sailed high and clear, maintaining their lead all the way to mark N. Swell, Ducks and Snagglepuss rounded close behind. It was almost, but not quite, a long one tack beat to mark L at the mouth of Eastern Bay. Swell worked slightly higher than Pussycat and Ducks worked higher than both of them. Snagglepuss took the low road and was the first to tack and head south, looking for more favorable current. Swell tacked out next followed by Pussycat some time later. Ducks held onto port tack all the way to the starboard layline for mark L. Coming into the mark on starboard, Ducks crossed Swell and rounded 2-3 boatlengths ahead. The leg up to Bloody Pt was a jib reach, just a little too tight for the chute. Rounding Bloody, Ducks and Swell set chutes on port jibe for the run up to mark E, the “mystery mark”. They were nip and tuck for awhile but Ducks was able to round E with a 5-6 boatlength lead. We all knew it would be a very tight reach across to mark H by Thomas Pt and debated whether or not to drop the chute. Ducks held the chute but Pussycat dropped and then reset after a short time. Probably the amount of time it took to repack the chute! Swell kept the chute up but raised their genny and then dropped it in the water for a salt water rinse! The breeze was up now requiring a lot of rudder to keep the boats under control. Ducks rounded H with Swell, Snagglepuss and Pussycat following. It was pretty much a dead run to the finish at mark X, with some moderate death rolls occurring. Snagglepuss had been constantly gaining on Swell and acquired an overlap just before the finish. Ducks had finished and was watching the tense battle for second place between the two boats. Snagglepuss crossed just one second before Swell. That is close racing! Order of finishes was; Ducks, Snagglepuss, Swell, Pussycat, Finesse, Catawampus, Katitoode, and Odyssey.