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Annapolis to Oxford Race

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Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5909 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/17/2012 : 15:21:25

The Annapolis to Oxford Race this weekend was organized by the US Naval Academy. I haven't checked the official windspeeds, but let's say it was alot, and mostly downwind. I remember someone saying our onboard instrument registered over 22 kts. I have heard unconfirmed reports that the wind varied between 15-25, which sounds about right. I crewed on my friend's CS 40, with a PHRF rating of 93, racing in PHRF Class A2. Because the wind was so strong at the start, we were able to generate good boat speed on the mainsail alone (no jib), so we crossed the starting line on the mainsail alone, and went up chute with a 3/4 oz. symmetrical spinnaker immediately. I wasn't convinced that the skipper's plan was right, but while other crews were struggling to get the chute up and the genoa down in strong winds, we got our chute up and drawing fast, so I learned that smart boat handling can sometimes trump sail area. Part of the skipper's reasoning was also colored by the fact that our foredeck crew are still learning their jobs, and he wanted to keep it simple and avoid a disaster at the start.

From the start, we headed south down the Bay at 7 1/2 to 8+ kts. I remember the skipper reporting at one point that the boat reached over 11 kts by knotmeter. The skipper steered as close to DDW as possible, again because he wanted to avoid making his inexperienced foredeck crew gybe any more than necessary. On the way south, we had one boat that tried to hold us off from passing them, but, when we got close alongside, with them to starboard of us, their spinnaker got backwinded by our spinnaker, and they lost control and broached. Later, another boat tried to overtake and pass us to starboard, and they met the same fate. With so many boats carrying so much sail area in so much wind, I can't count the number of boats we saw broach. It happened again and again down the Bay. I vividly remember seeing one boat broach severely, with it's rudder clear out of the water, while one crew, a middle-aged man, held onto something with his hands, probably a grab rail, while both his feet dangled in the water. Other members of our crew repeatedly reported seeing people barely hanging onto the boat during broaches. Nevertheless, only 2 boats out of 22 in our class scored a DNF, and I have heard of no significant injuries from the approximately 125-150 boats racing, and we didn't see anyone get separated from their boat. After the race, I saw one boat motoring home with it's mast lashed to it's pulpits, possibly after a dismasting, and I have heard of no serious injuries. My most exciting challenge was near the finish, when I had to adjust the leech line on the jib, and I needed both hands to do it, so one crew held my belt while I leaned over the side and adjusted it. That was enough of a thrill for an old guy!

We finished a very respectable 8th place out of 22 boats. One of the two Naval Academy 44's finished about 4th and the other finished second, as I recall, so we were very pleased to do so well. We know we could have picked up 3-4 positions if the skipper had been confident enough in the foredeck crew to gybe more often, but we could also have lost a lot of positions if our foredeck crew hadn't performed much better than we had hoped, so the skipper was extremely pleased with their performance.

That was a race that will stand out in all our memories!

Steve Milby J/24 "Captiva Wind"
previously C&C 35, Cal 25, C25 TR/FK, C22
Past Commodore

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.