[Public-List] First Wednesday Night Race Write-Up

[Tim Williams]

Fellow Alberg Enthusiasts,

I usually try to do a short write up for each race LinGin sails in for
family and friends that keep tabs on us.  (For example, my brothers, with
whom I grew up racing, living in VA and don't make it for races anymore.)  I
also try to capture something we've learned or need to work on in the
write-up too.  J Bergquist has urged me to publish them to you as well, so
here's the one from the first AYC (Annapolis Yacht Club) WNR (Wed. Night
Race).  I hope you like it.

--Tim

Crew: Scott, Chris, Xa, Nicole (friend of Chris) and Tim
Wind: 10-15kts out of the south

We had a beautiful night of sailing this week. It was great to see Brian
Palmer out skippering L'Esprit in her first WNR!

We had a good solid start and quickly jumped ahead of Argo by a couple boat
lengths. Our course took us almost out of R2 at the mouth of the Severn on a
fairly steady reach. At one point the wind lightened, and Argo started to
catch up. We eased the backstay and the jib halyard. We also eased the
outhaul and fattened up the main. We went to 8 to 10" off the spreader for
the jib and lo and behold, we started to move on Argo. We shifted gears!
Excellent!

We took a hitch before rounding the windward mark to get out of a lot of
spinnakers. We just barely crossed L'Esprit on port. (Whew!) I think it's
clear that Brian has plenty of speed with that new bottom and those new
sails. (Not to mention the crack crew--his parents!)

After that it we had a great spin set with Scott on the foredeck. We led the
fleet in until we rounded the green can at the entrance to the harbor. We
got caught behind and below a Catalina as we rounded. He came up and slowed
down more quickly that we did. We were too close to shoot above him and had
to plow below him. That killed our speed and Argo charged by us to windward.

We went to the docks and tacked and lucky for us, Argo had to take two tacks
where they only wanted to take one. This gave us the advantage we needed as
the winds were light and tacking was painfully slow. We crossed the finish
line a short bit before them.

L'Esprit came in fourth (last) behind Argo and Second-2-Nun (Harry), but she
didn't fly her chute, so I think it could have been quite a different finish
had the been able to do so.

We had a great time and are looking forward to next week.

--Tim