The 76th Monhegan Island Race

Friday August 13th at 3:00pm, Kaos crossed the starting line of the 76th Monhegan Island Race. This is one of Maine's only ocean races still being run. Over thirty boats competed in the event which sailed south from Portland to Wood Island and then downeast to Monhegan Island, returning to Portland Headlight. The course averages over 100 miles and takes over 24 hours depending on wind conditions to sail.

This year we had very light wind and sometimes no wind as we tried to round the Monhegan Island mark at 10:00 am Saturday. Even though we lacked wind, you really couldn't complain about the weather. It was one of the warmest races I have done. We saw shooting stars, whales, tuna, dolphins and a skate during the race, as well as a beautiful sunset and sunrise.

Kaos did well and won her 6th Monhegan being the first boat to cross the finish line in the big boat class as well as correcting to win the Wood Island Course. To celebrate we popped a few bottles of champagne on the way in.

Here is an article that appeared in the Portland Press Herald about the race.

http://www.pressherald.com/sports/monhegan-race-remains-premier-sailing-adventure_2010-08-12.html?searchterm=monhegan

Boat loads of sailing!

This has been a week chock-a-block full of sailing!

First of all we had my nephew visiting from Pennsylvania, who had never been sailing. One of the goals of his visit was to get out on a boat, so last Saturday, Carter and I took him out for a sail on the J24 (24 foot sailboat) AL. It was blowing about 20 knots with gusts up to 30 and my nephew drove and trimmed the main with a little be of guidance from use. He was a natural!

On Saturday, our J 24 fleet hosted its "Doublehanded Regatta," where teams of two people race the boat through a series of races. My husband and I had won the regatta the year before (and stayed married), so there was a little bit of pressure for a repeat performance. We had 8 boats in our fleet, an increase from the 5 we had the year before. Friends of the fleet race Race Committee and sent us on three races (windward/leeward twice around.) It was a beautiful day on the bay with winds at about 15 knots. With a lot of hard work, Carter and I took first place in all three races, so we were pretty happy.

After a birthday dinner out with the family, it was home to pack for our next sailing adventure, the New York Yacht Club cruise on "Apparition" a Swan 42. Carter and I got up at 6:00 am Sunday morning and headed "downeast" to Camden, Maine where we met up with "Apparition" and her crew. Now for those of you that think "cruise" means relaxing-not quite it is actually a week of racing sailboats-usually really nice ones. We sailed out the harbor to meet the NYYC Race Committee and all the beautiful boats preparing to compete in the Queen's Cup Race. Apparently the winner of the Queen's Cup Race actually gets a letter from the Queen. I will never know because we came in 3rd.

When we finished the race we headed over to Seal Cove and were hosted by friend's of one of our crew at their beautiful home, complete with an eight bedroom guest house and heated salt water pool. After a long day of sailing, it was heaven!

The next morning we set out on the boat again for Swan's Island by way of a destination race, meaning the race course actually gets you somewhere. The scenery up there is supposed to be very beautiful but I wouldn't know because all we saw was fog and loads of lobster pots! They are a great hazard to sailboats because when the buoy gets catch on your boat, it stops you in the water and is a pain to get off. We were actually one of very few boats that didn't catch a lobster pot. Between that and our excellent navigator, we pulled off a first place finish by a lot. To celebrate we anchored in a cove at Swan's Island and enjoyed cocktails and apps.

The final day of racing took us on another destination race over to Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island. The race started out close but then some of our competition decided to go outside the islands, where we had decided to cut through. The wind died at our location and we were bummed to see our competition zoom away in their own breeze. Frustrated but also patient, we waited for the wind to come back, and when it did we made it through the islands. As we came out the other side we were excited to see that the other boats had not made it around the islands yet! We had a pretty solid lead! We were able to hold that lead for 7 more miles to win racing for the second day in a row.

Unfortunately there wasn't much time to celebrate, we said our good-byes and climbed into a cab back to Camden and our cars. It was a fun but exhausting week of sailing.

Stay tuned for next week when I cover this weekend's 76th Monhegan Island Race-Maine's 130 mile mini-ocean race.

Optimist Maine State Championships

July 28th and 29th my husband and I ran race committee for the Opti State of Maine Championship. This was our third year in a row running RC. An optimist is an 8 foot long sailboat with a gaff-rigged sail and is sailed by kids ages 7 to 15.

There were two racing lines at this regatta, one for green fleeters (young and new to racing) and the Red, White, and Blue Championship line where we were. The colors signify ages, white being the youngest and red the oldest.

We had two great days of sailing with winds ranging from 10 to 18 knots gusting up to 20. This was too much wind for the green fleet's first day so as soon as they got out on the water there were several capsizes (boat tips over on its side), turtles (boat turns completely over), submarines (bow of the boat goes underwater causing the boat to swamp), and pitch poles (the boat flips over bow to stern). We had a few of these on our more experienced line but for the most part the kids were pretty resilient but by the end of the day 6 out of the 27 boats had retired because they were tired or overwhelmed.

The first day we got off five races and one of our PYC sailors finished 1st in all but one (getting a third in the last race.) The second day was more of the same breeze but from a different direction and we had to wait for it to fill in. Our first race didn't start until after noon. The top PYC sailor earned another two bullets and a second. He ended up winning the regatta and Maine State Championship with only 10 points. Not bad for a 13 year old!

People were really impressed with the regatta and there were a lot of parent volunteers to thank. I was really impressed by the sailing ability of all of those young kids, much better than the Junior Regatta I helped with a few weeks ago.

Second Weekend of the PHRF State of Maine Champs

This weekend Kaos headed over to Southport, ME for the Seguin Island Trophy race and the second half of the PHRF State of Maine Championship. The weather threatened to be rainy and gross but we actually lucked out! This is a big race for many of our crew, because two of them grew up in Southport-so it is like homecoming. So they were pretty fired up.

Saturday started out foggy with no breeze and we were postponed on shore for a good hour and then postponed on the water even longer. There was a lot of "sit around and wait" happening. Finally the Race Committee got a course set, which was ridiculously short for a 40+ foot boat at 0.8 of a mile legs. Short courses like that call for a lot of crew scrambling and no time to do anything. Packing a spinnaker and re running gear on up wind legs needs to be fast!

Competing in her own class titled "Grand Prix Racer" was the yacht Available (seen in picture), built by Hodgdon Yachts, here in Maine. She was 65 feet long and rated -75 (keep in mind Kaos rates +66.) For more info on the yachts built at Hodgdon check out their website. http://www.hodgdonyachts.com/projects-cafe.shtml

The first race was a twice around, windward/leeward and we crossed the line 4th but corrected to second place. Our biggest competition was Apparition, a Swan 42 that came up from Newport. They took first place by over a minute corrected.

The second race was even shorter! A windward/leeward once around. We ended up finishing in second place, missing first place by only 6 seconds! So at the end of the first day, Apparition was in first with two bullets and we were in second with two seconds. Chances of winning the regatta were looking grim.

Cheering us up was the regatta party, held at Southport Yacht club, with cocktails, beers, a lobster bake and DJ people had a great time. The members of the Southport Yacht Club worked so hard to show all of the sailors a good time. When the party started to wind down we headed over to Robinson's Wharf for one more round before heading home. (By the way, home for us was on our own island in a guest house owned by the Apparition family. Pretty awesome accommodations.)

Sunday again started out with no breeze and as it filled in the RC lowered the postponement flag and attempted to start the fleet. A minute before the starting gun went off, the wind shifted 180 degrees and boats were dragging out spinnakers. The race was blown off and we sat around a little bit longer waiting for the wind to settle in.

Finally they started off each fleet and we sailed a longer "around the buoys" course finishing right in the harbor. Again we were 4th over the line but because the finish was around a corner we had no idea how far ahead the other boats were and whether we had saved our time on them. As awards neared, we learned that we had saved our time on two of the boats, meaning we had beaten Apparition for the race, but we really needed to beat Apparition and have another boat beat them as well to pull into first place. As they began awards, Apparition was awarded second place, meaning we had finished first. We not only won our class but also won the "Pete Welles" trophy for first overall in the most competitive class, and First Overall for the PHRF State of Maine Championship.

We hit the road happy but pretty beat from the crazy weekend.
Kaos is now on cruise with the family-so no regattas coming next week, but I will be out J24 racing on Wednesday and heading up to Lake Winnipesaki, NH for some J80 sailing on Thursday and Friday.

Boothbay Harbor Regatta

This past weekend was the Boothbay Harbor Regatta in Boothbay, Maine. It was a beautiful weekend weather-wise with a decent amount of wind, about 10 to 12 knots and sun! It was one of the few weekends I have not needed to bundle up on the water.

The fleet Kaos races in is called Division One, which are primarily the bigger boats. We are rated on a handicap system kind of like golf. We rate 66 and the fastest boat in our fleet rates 12, the slowest rates 75. Basically if you take the rating of a boat you are sailing against and find the difference that is how many seconds a mile that you owe the boat. For example, the difference between the fastest boat and us is 66-12=54 so the fastest boat owes us 54 seconds a mile. So for every mile of the course that boat gives us 54 seconds on our time.

Anyway enough of the complicated stuff, we sailed three races on Saturday, two windward/leewards with short legs of about 1.3 miles each. We won both of those races. Then we sailed a reaching triangle and came in second on that race-putting us in first for the day. We stopped for a bit on our way in so we could all go for a quick dip to cool down and then headed in, put the boat away and were taken out for a great dinner at the Rocktide by our skipper.

On Sunday we headed out for two more races, the first race was similar to the firs two races of Saturday and we won that race. The second race of the day is what I like to call and alphabet soup race, where we sail all over the place around government marks. It was taking forever so the race committee had to shorten it to get everyone in for awards.

After another quick dip we headed over the the Boothbay Yacht club for the awards ceremony. Kaos ended the regatta in first place with the second place pretty far behind. This weekend was the first in a series of two regattas for the PHFR (Performance Handicap Racing Force) State of Maine Championship. This coming weekend will be the second in the series, the Southport Regatta. Hopefully we will be able to maintain our performance.

Junior Olympics

This past week I ran the Championship line at the Northeast Junior Olympics. We faced many challenges such as fog, rain, tide and a lack of wind. In two day we managed to get 5 races off which is pretty good considering.

I had a great group of people to help me out and it was cool to see 9 to 14 year olds with such amazing sailing ability. It makes me jealous that I didn't get into sailing until later in life.

This weekend I am off the the Boothbay Regatta. I am leaving to deliver the boat in about an hour. Looks to be a nice weekend!

Sail Newport Regatta

This past weekend my husband and I went down to Newport, RI and sailed in the Coastal Living Sail Newport Regatta. We raced on a Swan 42-meaning 42 feet long, which is not my usual boat to race on. Anyway, their bow person was racing on another boat so I had the opportunity to do the position on a new boat.

The Swan 42 has a totally different bow set up than I am used to so there was a lot of learning involved in the weekend-but everyone was patient with me. Luckily the breeze was pretty light-good learning weather.

The hardest thing about the Swan 42 was that it has an asymmetrical spinnaker, which involves pulling it around by hand when you gybe, this was something I didn't have much experience in. The sail was enormous and it took at least three of us to pull it around to the new side of the boat. When I say pull I mean pull like crazy and then run the rest toward the back of the boat ducking at the end to snap the clew (corner of the sail) down and avoid getting smashed in the head with the boom. Even in the light breeze from the weekend my arms were sore and bruised.

Saturday was a super hot day, I found myself wishing for rain early on, but unlike other New England areas-it never came. We races three races with an attempt at a 4th but the wind shifted so Race Committee sent us in-giving us time to hit the tent party, have some cocktails, and enjoy a nice dinner out.

The second day of racing had even less wind but was a least less humid. We sailed one race that ended up being shortened because the wind totally died. As we waited around for the wind to pick back up, a few of the crew decided to go for a dip. I have to say this was the highlight of my weekend. The water was beautiful as a bunch of us clung on to a rope and were towed by the boat around the bay. After a bunch of waiting and drying off, the Race Committee finally called racing for the day and sent us in. We worked together in the heat to put the boat away and headed to the tent to see how we placed, 4th but one point from third.

It was a fun, sunny weekend but we were definitely happy to get home without too much traffic and get some rest.