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.

Wecome To My Blog

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of sailboat racing. If fact it is what I do with my summer vacation as well as most of my free time throughout the year.

I do most of my sailing in Maine, where I currently live, but sometimes I am lucky enough to travel to new places like Lake George NY, Newport RI, and Annapolis MD.

On most boats I sail on my position or job is "bow" which usually means that I run everything from the mast forward. I rig the sails and lines, make sail changes, help with tacks and gybes. It is a lot of work and is pretty rewarding. It is great to work with a group of fun people toward a goal and achieve it, that is one of the reasons it is so fun for me.

Throughout the sailing season, I will be posting updates on my latest adventures.