By Michael Heinsdorf w/ Greg Jordan
Fishing Bay’s Annual One Design popped back on the Albacore Class’s schedule a couple years ago after a hiatus of several years, and this year’s regatta was a thorough test of the skill and mettle of the Albacore Class sailors, both on and off the water. It’s also part of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association’s High Point Series, which has been restarted recently after a couple years hiatus.
Fishing Bay Yacht Club is just about 100 miles southeast of Washington, DC, in the Northern Neck of Virginia, and this year marked the 85th instance of their Annual One Design Regatta. FBYC is probably one of the bigger clubs that the Albacore Class sails at, with great facilities, including a pool (rumor is that an Albacore once ended up in the pool – anyone know if that is true?), camping, multiple bathrooms and showers, and a deep racing pedigree. That pedigree includes robust Youth and Adult dinghy and keelboat programs, and good Race Committee.
Eight Albacores registered, but only seven showed up for the first start of Saturday sailing. Barney Harris was on the way to the regatta on Saturday morning when, during a routine stop to fill up with “cheap diesel” and inspect his trailer, he noticed a cracked axle on his combi trailer. With Lee’s help, he left the boat on the side of the road, drove to Fishing Bay to pick up a trailer, drove back to his boat, put the boat on the new trailer, lashed the old trailer to his roof rack, and made it back to Fishing Bay just before we all came in. Lesson learned – check your trailer every time you travel and gas up – this story could have had a much different and unhappy ending!
Saturday morning started out sunny with a bit of overcast. By the time boats were ready to launch for the first race, it was raining. Continuing my tradition this summer of crewing for other skippers, I [Mike] was crewing for Mike Scardaville in his new to him, and first regatta in, 7375, the replacement for his old boat, Binky, which had been destroyed during a port-starboard incident at the Helly Hansen NOODs.
With a steady, warm rain coming down and about 85 degree temperatures, we launched the boat, and headed out to the race course. Or at least where we thought the race course was going to be. On the way out, rain turned hard and it got foggy to the point where we had less than 100 yards of visibility; we were running off the compass at times to determine where we were. Just as we found the committee boat, the rain stopped and the fog cleared out. After a short delay and general recall, with the no nonsense Race Committee putting the Z Flag (20% penalty if you were OCS one minute or less before the start), we were off on our first race, an H3, or a windward-leeward-windward with the committee boat about halfway up the course.
The breeze was gentle to moderate (11-13 mph range) for the first race. Mike and I had been early enough to the course that we had been able to sail up the windward mark and back down. We noticed that the breeze was stronger on the right side of the course and there was a shift, which seemed to be consistent about halfway up, that would lift toward the mark if we tacked into it. The plan was to start at the boat, stay on the starboard side of the course, tack on the shift, and win the mark.
Thanks to some great timing by Mike, we had a fantastic start on the general recall, with a nice 10 boat lead for most of the leg. The shift did not come through the way we had hoped, and our lead evaporated a bit as boats that stayed on starboard were able to catch up. Then a comedy of errors involving a jib stick and a sticky mast put us back in seventh that race. (But Greg’s spaced-out move at the finish line took the cake, he claims, having snatched fifth place out of the jaws of 1st; Tyler and Eliza stepped into the right place at the right time, grabbed the bullet and ultimately, the regatta.)
The second race started in similar conditions with a course change to an H5 (twice around), with Mike and I switching to me skippering and him crewing. While 7375 seemed very fast, it didn’t seem to point as high as other boats on the course, and I wanted to see if it was fixable. While I got the boat pointing a bit higher, I can’t say that I dialed it in because Eva and Sydney were consistently pointing higher when we were matched with them on the upwind. Just after the first upwind mark rounding during that race, a storm came racing in, with tons more warm rain and fog. Having compass readings of the marks earlier during the day now appeared to be a competitive advantage, with our primary competition appearing to be Tyler / Eliza, and Greg (who was racing with his old college sailing buddy Bill). Of the two boats, we could only see Greg, who was about 50 yards above us, and every once in a while, we’d catch a glimpse of Tyler and Eliza charging towards the windward mark. (At one point, the rain was so hard the bailers had to be kept open upwind to be able to keep moving — the rain was actually beating the waves semi- flat.)
As we were waiting for the third race to start, the breeze started picking up, and Mike asked if I could keep driving. To pass the time and get him more confident in the boat, we reached back and forth in some very fresh breeze (19-24 mph on the Beaufort scale), hitting about 10 knots on both Mike’s GPS and my instance of RaceQs. Since the same game plan — start at the committee boat, stay on starboard till the shift, tack, and get to the mark — had somewhat worked for the past two races, we decided not to mess with success and kept to that strategy. It worked for the first half. For the second half of the race, we had to get very tactical.
We had a 10 boat lead when we rounded the upwind mark, but I couldn’t keep the angle that Tyler, Greg, and Lloyd were able to keep on the way down; and then we gybed too late. As a result, they got much closer than I would have liked. Lloyd took an unfortunate tack to starboard, leaving me to cover Greg and Tyler on port tack. With Mike feeding me info on who was sailing where, we managed to successfully cover both and take the bullet.
It was only 2:15pm or so when our feet touched the ground again. Race Committee sent us in after the third race, at which point Barney showed up.
That evening we had a great BBQ dinner, with live entertainment provided by a local band with a percussion session that included a musician on the spoons.
Sunday found Greg two points behind the leader Tyler, with Greg’s added challenge of maybe having to skip the last race because Bill needed to get home early to prepare to testify to Congress on Tuesday. So Greg devised a masterful come-from-behind strategy to win the regatta, which he confidently shared with anyone who would listen. He would win the first race while cleverly getting Barney and one other boat to slip in ahead of Tyler. Then he would head to shore with the last bit of dying wind, while Tyler and Eliza would drift around waiting in vain for a new wind that would never come. Unfortunately for Greg, the dying wind was the only part of the plan he managed to execute. There was plenty of sun and no breeze. After bobbing around for approximately two hours, Race Committee sent us back in.
So congrats to Tyler and Eliza in 7966 for their first-ever regatta win!