What a great week we had in Annapolis sailing the Melges 24 North Americans. Extremely windy conditions greeted us early in the week with freezing cold temperatures. But as the regatta wore on, we sailed in better and better temperatures and lighter breezes. On the practice day before the event the fleet was forced to stay on shore in nearly 40 knots of breeze across the Chesapeake. The first day of the regatta saw all of 25 knots, as well as a few wipe outs. The last couple of days saw a more classic light-air Annapolis. We had something going on during the breeziest day with the rig very tight and most of the fleet in survival mode. We squeaked out a 3rd in the opening race just ahead of the ultimate winners of the regatta sailing with Terry Hutchinson. The middle part of the regatta saw ups and downs. With my friend, former Harvard All-American Vincent Porter on the helm, we had some great angles as well as some tough lanes. We had some brilliant starts, and some crosses that ended up being a bit too close. We had some 720s where we lost ten boats, and some great runs where we gained ten boats. And in magic fashion we ended the regatta with another great race taking a 5th. We managed 19th in the series out of almost 50 boats, a fair result for a first-time helmsman, and four crew who had never sailed all together or done much if any Melges racing for the most part. We did have a blast, just check out the shot above (lucky me, the tactician has the best ride hanging off the back in big breeze!) Here are a couple shots of our group from the week:
One of the good runs, out ahead of locals Hutchinson and Larson, chasing down Ullman:
One of the good starts, bow out on JoeFly (we’re bow 32, sail 649):
Here’s an example of how not to douse after you come into the leeward mark a little deep past the layline.
There were certainly some good lessons learned from the week of sailing. More to come in Monday morning’s column about the week on “Missfitz.”
