[Public-List] WNR 8/6/08: The view from the front, then from the back

[J Bergquist]

After a couple of weeks of bad weather and postponements, we had an
excellent Wednesday Night Race on the Severn River in Annapolis
tonight. The Alberg fleet was out in force with 7 boats rep-resenting
glory days of yore. It was a beautiful sight.

The breeze was a norhtwesterly which meant a downwind start. We
started in the middle of the line with Cole and Adams to windward,
Gamber and TC Williams to leeward. I don't know where Tim Williams was
because I did not see him until much further into the race but I am
sure he was in the mix somewhere. Palmer was behind and to leeward but
made gains on the first leg bringing fresh breeze down to the fleet.
It was a crowded downwind leg to the first mark. We had Gamber and
Williams coming up underneath us and were just able to nose out in
front of Gamber and maintain speed as he tried to blanket us.
Eventually, he decided to go high and wound up on the right even of
Cole and Adams, to which we said, sounds good. As we rounded the mark,
the fleet bore off and sailed a deep starboard run to the next mark.
Gybes were not required, but some of the boats on the outside elected
to go for it anyhow. When we got to the mark, it was still a close
horse race with us, Williams, Adams, Cole, and Gamber all rounding
close aboard each other together with a number of J-22's, cal 25's and
J-24's, which made it exciting. On Calliope, we went for the
conservative rounding with a headless spinnaker douse, followed by our
gybe to port and set the jib on port gybe. This tactic worked as at
the first cross we came out ahead of both Williams and Gamber.
Incredulous, we determined that we were in first place!

And that's when the wheels came off the bus. We proceeded to sail the
headed tack for the next 4 oscillations. Not fast. By the time we got
to the nun, everybody, and I mean everybody not just in the Alberg
fleet, but in EVERY fleet had passed us. What a bummer! But that's
life on the race course, and we just have to get over it and move on.
We did think there was a chance of coming out ahead as we were still
quite close to Gamber, Tim Williams, and Palmer. However, it was just
not to be as the shifts continued to break in opposition to our needs.
Such is life...

In the end, Adams took the bullet with TC williams in 2nd, Andrew Cole
in 3rd, and after that it gets a little fuzzy but I can tell you for
sure we were in last....

It appears that a new order is developing in Annapolis with Jonathan
Adams being the boat to beat! Outstanding work, guys!

We'll do it all again next week at 1835 don't be late! See you then!

ciao,

JB

-- 
J Bergquist
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