Team photo from Sunday -- Dan, Corey, Paul, Rando (me), Roger, Carter, Jeanne, & Scott. Missing: John (sailed with us Saturday), and Bill (drove our tender).

June 3rd & 4th, 2006, I sailed on Peregrine in the J-120 North American Championships. Having done an adequate job as tactician earier in the spring (we sailed to second place in the AYC Spring Series), they asked me to come back again. I said, "yes".

This blog I composed to be read from the top down. Hope you enjoy.

The weather was overcast, with relatively light wind. We had a bit of drizzle and a LOT of fog. Not good for pictures. I took just three before the first race of the day, then had to put away my camera until we got back to the dock.

Tashtego, our tender
Prepare to hoist main
Hoist that main sail

So the fog rolled in and I put away my camera.

First race (of three scheduled for the first day): adequate if light breeze, we tooled around practicing a bit before the start. We managed a clean start, second or third off the line (out of 8 competitors), we had clear air and no silly fights between boats.

We kept clean air during the first beat to windward. The course (for all five races) was windward - leeward, four legs. We rounded the windward mark third, behind Bye Bye Blues (perennial class champs) and Windborn (visiting Long Island Sound from Annapolis). We chased those two boats around the course, stayed ahead of all other competitors, and finished the race third. Whew. A reasonable start to an important regatta where there would be no toss-outs of bad scores.

Second race: major altercation moments before the starting gun! Most of us started on starboard. We had set up to leeward of Bye Bye Blues, which was to leeward of Dragon, which wasn't barging, but didn't leave a lot of room leeward of the committee boat. Eagle came in from well to leeward of us (Peregrine) and soon was shouting at us to come up and give room (as we were required to do). Problem: We were only about half a boat width to leeward of Bye Bye. I started shouting at BB for room for US ... moments later Eagle protested us (failure to give room). After a millisecond of thought I did what I could to protect our rights: I protested Bye Bye (same rule, failure to give room) and explained (shouted) to Eagle to leeward of us that we were obstructed.

NOTE: this is a first person account and I apologize that all parties involved don't to get to tell "their side" of it in my blog.

Anyways, the gun went off and we commenced racing. We managed a barely-adequate start, getting gassed a bit by Bye Bye and Dragon. I think we were probably sixth off the line. A couple of regattas earlier I was involved in a protest and it really rattled me mentally (for the whole race). Not this time. I put the protest behind me and concentrated solely on the task ahead.

The fog was getting REALLY thick. I was playing navigator as well as tactician. We couldn't see more than about 1/4 mile, and the windward mark was 2 miles away. Thankfully we have some really sophisticated electronics on Peregrine and we employed them to advantage. The mark appeared out of the fog exactly where I pointed it would be. Spirits (and confidence) went way up. We rounded fifth I think ... then we passed two boats on the leeward leg with excellent speed from our trimmers. Thanks, guys. We rounded that leeward mark in third place and hung on to finish the race third.

Provisionally we were sitting third after two races.

The third race was another light air start -- and I completely messed it up. I found us a private part of the starting line with no breeze, managed to allow the rest of the fleet to blanket us, and we started dead last. REALLY ugly. As I remember we managed to pass two boats going upwind ... then lost on of them going downwind ... then the course was shortened because the wind got lighter. We finished that race 7th and I apologized to my teammates. An ugly race. Yet we were still sitting 4th out of 8, just one point out of 3rd (behind Eagle) -- not too bad for a continental championship.

We motored back into Stamford Harbor and met most of our opponents and a nice social put together by the Stamford Yacht Club. Smiles returned.

Oh ... I had that protest hanging over my head. The protest committee heard lots of opinions & testomony, a bunch of witnesses ... then deliberated. Then heard some more. Then deliberated. Ultimately they decided that the boat most to windward (Dragon) was at fault for not giving room, even though Dragon had not been protested at that moment. Dragon got chucked out of the race. I felt badly for them, but was satisfied that I had used the rules as a shield rather than a sword on behalf of our boat.

Below: my teammates Corey, Scott, John, Jeanne & Carter
Below: some of the race committee


Above: party action
Below: crew of Eagle
Below that: more wild party action


Above: most of my teammates from Peregrine
Below: a room full of racers, some celebrating, some thinking about tomorrow
Corey & Rando

Sunday morning was significantly brighter than Saturday, with no fog (thank goodness!) Light wind, though.

Above: SYC launch Dottie Lorenzon
Below: SYC dock during a sunny moment

Above: "On the Line", the SYC Race Committee boat
Below: Calm waters at the dock fortell another light air day

Above: Roger, Bill & Carter chatting prior to shoving off
Below: Jeanne & Dan on Tashtego

Above: race committee readies the race marks, and the their boat.
Below: waterfront vies of Stamford Yacht Club


Below: Tashtego, our tender.

Above: Scott adds the ensign to Tashtego's tuna tower.
Below: Corey trims our spinnaker during practice.


Dragon, skipper Hugh Balloch
Avra practicing their spinnaker handling
I loaned my camera to Bill our tender driver. He took the next 40 or so pictures (and captured some really humbling Peregrine moments). The pictures start as we enter the starting sequence of the first race of the day.

Above & below: the fleet maneuvers for advantage in the last minute before the start.

Above & below: fighting for position just prior to the start.

GUN! Look closely to see the smoke from the starting gun at the stern of the race committee boat.
Above: close action at the start, fighting above the pin
Below: We got caught in a private wind hole just before the start, and limped across the starting line dead f*&#$^! last. Our worst start of the regatta and nobody but me to blame. Worse yet, Bill, our trusty tender driver, took pics of it using my camera.


Bye Bye Blues chased by Avra after the start

Peregrine, beating
Fleet action to windward

Bye Bye Blues rounds first -- again
Bye Bye launches themselves downwind

Above: BlackHawk ready to round
Below: BlackHawk rounds the windward mark



Below: Dragon leading Soulmates & others
Below: Dragon leads Soulmates









Eagle approached the windward mark and startys hoisting
Eagle off and running


Next pics: Peregrine up and around the top mark




Boats crossing downwind

Below: Peregrine chasing Windborn




Bye Bye Blues rounds the leeward mark

Boats approaching the leeward mark


Ultra light air action, we could barely keep the kites filled



The wind got lighter and lighter that fourth race. We managed to get around the leeward mark in about fifth place ... then gave up two boats (including Eagle) in short order. DARN



The northerly wind got even lighter ... finally we were bobbing, the speedo registered zero. Eagle was ahead of us. They went in to the Connecticut shore (left), we went right (down the sound), hoping for the breeze to fill in from the south west. It did, finally, but the boats on the CT shore managed to sneak in ahead of us anyway.

We managed to drift across the finish line just ahead of Soulmates ... finishing seventh in the race. YUCK. Another bad Rando start, and another poor result. Now we were sitting much deeper in fourth, just one race to go. Could we hold off the fifth, sixth, & seventh boats? Could we catch the third place boat?

The race committee waited a while for the southwesterly breeze to fill in and stabilize.


Mayby I should have taken my camera back from Bill our tender driver. Clearly letting him take the photos was NOT good luck. But he continued ... and the pictures got better

Action at the start
I managed to engineer our best start of the regatta. During most of the pre-start we dogged Windborn (who was sitting in second narrowly behind Bye Bye Blues). With about 40 seconds to go we broke for the pin (and clear air) ... the whole rest of the fleet congregated at the boat end.

GUN! And, on the radio ... #47, over early ... that's the regatta leader, Bye Bye Blues!
Below: Peregrine sailing in clear air



We had clear air but Windborn also had clear air, and really excellent boat speed. They crossed a length ahead of us and stayed ahead of us (narrowly) during the first beat. Here they round the top mark less than two lengths ahead of us.



We got our spinnaker up quickely and chased Windborn down the course. We also kept an eye on the boats behind us. We didn't want them to catch us (naturally). Ideally Eagle would finish behind everyone and we would somehow finish the regatta in third...

Above: we charge downwind
Below: the fleet chases us




I can't remember now while writing this but the race committee shortened the course. This last race would only be three legs instead of the customary four. It was an upwind finish.
There it is, the finish line ... Windborn takes first place in the final race (just ahead of us) and they take first place overall (new North American Champions).

We finish the race second. Eagle is not far behind us in third. Bye Bye Blues fights back to take fifth in the race and second overall in the championship. Eagle finishes third overall. Congratulatons to all of them.

We were fourth overall (finishing in the top half of the fleet). It was a significant improvement over the boat's performance in the same regatta the previous year and I felt good about that. I thnk we all did.

Below: Carter, our bowman, eats a long-delayed lunch.

Team photo!


Crew of Windborn, new champs.
Roger, Carter, Jeanne, & Scott
Windborn again

Above: Some crew from Dragon (I think)
Below: Class President Steve Levy speaking at the awards ceremony

Above: some of our hard-sailing and fun-partying opponents
Below: Cathy Munro accepts TWO bottles of champagne for her efforts as class secretary. What a high-paying position!

Above: Steve Levy (right), class president, says a few words at the awards ceremony.
Below: Cathy Munro, class secretary, giving Steve a hug.

Above: Most of the crew of Peregrine wathces the awards.
Below: Rick Born of Windborn accepts a prize for best performance of the day.

Above: most of the race committee. THANK YOU, lady & gentlemen.
Below: Steve Levy of Eagle accepts third place.
I missed a picture of the second-place winners, Bob & Kathy Munroe of Bye Bye Blues. They accepted their trophy and practically ran from the podium. Sorry Bob & Kathy & crew. Congratulations.

Above: Rick Born accepts first place prize. Congratulations!
Below: the Born's of Windborn accept first place North American Champs trophy from SYC Vice Commodore Hiro Nakajima