J99 Sailing – FBYC Spring Open Regatta - 2024

We were at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for two days of offshore racing in the Spring Open Regatta. The first day was buoy racing and the second day was a distance race out into the Chesapeake Bay. We were sailing aboard the J99 Battle Rhythm. We were going to be sailing shorthanded but fortunately for us and unfortunately for them, Gowen couldn't launch their boat due to the hoist being out of commission so Dennis and a couple of their crew joined us. Saturday was a dreary day with continued drizzle and winds 15 to 17 knots. In the first race we were about a minute late to the start as we thought the other fleets were about the same time as Corey Beckett. Downwind we didn't fly the spinnaker and as we sailed down the course we saw the wind dropping and shook the reef out. We finished the race without the spinnaker and finished sixth out of seven. For the second race we had a terrific start right at the boat right on time with a nice lane to leeward and we even managed to shut the door on two other boats trying to start at the boat end of the line. In the 10 to 13 knots of wind upwind we worked on tuning the boat and got a little bit more in the groove. In this race we wanted to sail the spinnaker and we had to shuffle some people around to do it. Todd went from the helm to the bow, Dennis drove downwind while I stayed in the pit. We did pretty well and held our position with afterthought enough to correct ahead of us and we ended up correcting in fourth behind the nook by only 26 seconds. That left us in fifth for the day after two races. Sunday was the distance race. The course took us east out of the pianca tank and then north up the bay and then the triangle back to where we started. The start was from a government mark known as FBYCA. We had a pretty good start on starboard while many of the other boats were on port at the far end of the line. We carried starboard to the north to have a better angle on the next mark while the boats that were already on port were pretty tight upwind to make that first mark. We rounded the first mark with many of the faster boats very close to us. From there we stayed upwind while many of the other boats cracked off to a close reach on a course for the next mark. Only the current was streaming down the bay and the boats that cracked off quickly found themselves getting swept and having to sail upwind again. On the way to that mark Matt Hatter in the B fleet played the current even better than we did and beat us to that mark. The sea fleet boat Wendis also played it well and was just behind us. We rounded the reach mark in second with our entire fleet behind us as we headed upwind to the north. On the next leg to the finish we set the chute and headed back into the pianca tank. Set. We sailed a little low while other boats sailed high and as the wind eased and went left they were able to sneak around us and hold the pressure longer. Eventually we had to douse our spinnaker and go back upwind to fetch the finish. At times the wind was barely nothing and the tide continued to rip down the bay making it hard for us to get the sails to draw. The wind would eventually fill but by then it was too late. Afterthought and Nanook had snuck around and Afterthought ended up correcting 25 minutes ahead of us while Nanook corrected five minutes ahead of us. We managed to stay enough ahead of Corey Reckon to secure third place. While we hoped to have a little better finish having spent so much of the race at the front of the fleet it was still a great day on the water and I just want to thank Todd for having me along and everyone else on the boat for a great day of racing.