Phoenix Regatta 2008- RECAP 1 of 2

[Five Cubed Skipper]

Strangely, no wait not strangely, recapping duties have fallen to me.
Here are some regatta highlights in rough chronological order as I
experienced it:

1) Chris Harlan and his crew Susan arrive in rain and drizzle Friday
night and diligently raise their rig on #180...
2) I took my boat to SSA on Friday too, but just jammed everything
under Bob's cover on #102 rather than doing anything in the rain.
3) Bob and Keith (#102) go to bed relatively early Friday night (at my
house) and in hopes of coming out strong Saturday and consume far less
than 5 beers each...(which, paradoxically, is the only explanation for
basically disastrous results Saturday)
4) The Lyman Brothers(#125) went to bed roughly the same time and also
had less than 5 beers each...in hopes of having a good start and
finally winning some races over Rick in #132.
5) Lindsay Lyman who just turned 1 started the day off early for the
sailors on #125 and #102- hollering at 0600 on day 1- though Bob and
Keith clung to the ratty sheets on the ratty mattresses in my
basement. As it turns out the rumors that "going to the mattresses" is
a good way to prepare for day one of a two day regatta are greatly
exaggerated.
6) Arrival at SSA allowed hoisting the rig, and witnessing the arrival
of Bill and Amy (#186), who already had their stick up too! Plus the
three guys that I brought all disappeared under the deck and wanted to
borrow $20 from me...(Apparently someone was asking in the car to stop
somewhere for some reason, but I apparently wasn't listening....the
reason was for food, again apparently)
7) I got my mast up just before one of the more cryptic Skipper's
briefings I've witnesses at SSA- it was a mere harbinger of the
bizzaro world that we were to experience out on the bay. The principal
race officer (PRO) failed to answer the three most important questions
until he was explicitly asked 1) where are we racing? (racing area A-
east of Greenbury Point) 2) are we using 3 or 5 minute starting
sequences? (3 min.) 3) Will they be using an offset finish line? (yes)
---uhm is there anything unsolicited that he said that was helpful?
oh, he told us the wind was going to be bad, it was but we had a self
fulfilling prophesy from our PRO too. Apparently he also didn't get
the memo that the faster classes should start before the slower
ones...so we were plugged behind the lasers...in the start sequence...
8) we had some nice Chesapeake drifting conditions for the two out of
town boats to experience...to get the full Annapolis experience.
9) Race committee postponed early, until all the boats eventually
drifted out, until a hint of sea breeze allowed everyone one to get
down to the starting area.
10) as it turned out it was not sea breeze, but was blowing out of the
east...a wind direction that wasn't on any forcast.
11) We started a Race!!! after leaving a 8-10 minute cushion to let
the lasers get out there. 8 Johnson 18s crossed the line - it's
probably close to 10% of the national fleet!
12) I (#125) had a half of leg of regret in not hollering at Chris
Harlan (#180) and forcing him up over the line early, as he continued
to leg out to the left side of the course... Chris did the right
(conservative) thing tacking back to the center 3/4 of the way up the
leg, but was rewarded with a up close and personal look at about 80%
of the thistle fleet, who was rounding the windward mark the second
time at the moment that he arrived back to the middle of the
course...THANKS PRO---great idea to time the windward mark for full
traffic!
13) we on Five Cubed finally got a breath of fresh air, and kept going
left, given that our straight line speed wasn't better than #180,
Brilliantly, (more like - out of dumb luck) we caught a 10 degree left
hand shift out on the left side layline and were rewarded with a lead
that we didn't give back.
14) Poor Chris and Susan- the thistles were less than generous with
gaps to pass- Chris (fill in detail here if you would)
15) when the dust settled I think Chris got passed by Rick (#132),
Nate (#116), Marc (#146) and Eric (#151) at that first windward mark.
16) a couple of hard fought legs saw the race for 2nd through 5th very
tight between, Rick (#132), Marc(#146), Chris (#180) and Nate
(#116)...Chris with a brilliant tactical move, bounced back to the
right side headed downwind, which had been the least favored, but
somehow nursed a little better pressure in the middling breeze to edge
Rick for a hard earned 2nd place.
17) The Boys on #102 rounded in 6th, but handed away those places on
the last leg...to score the first and ONLY true snowman of the
regatta- Marc withdrew on Sunday due to a thinning fore stay, which,
resulting in only 7s being handed out on Sunday.
18) To make a long day in the sun shorter- the PRO let us and the
laser bake while sending the thistles and Lightnings on a skewed
course. On the plus side my diligent crew Jeremy took a bunch of
pictures of the fleet. Then at 2:00 right as the sea breeze of 8 knots
appeared on the south western horizon...a mysterious checkered flag
and three blasts went up from RC...apparently that was day one of the
phoenix regatta for us.
19) Burgers and a keg of cold beer were back at the clubhouse.
20) a decent smattering of spouses and families joined the sailors
for the Phoenix Regatta party.
21) revelry went on for some time, basically until the keg got locked
up at 10:30 or so.
22) here's the mystery to get you to tune in for the next edition:
Bob's crew Keith, after consuming, lets just say several "consolation
cups" of keg beer (remember their snowman)... struck off on foot to
allegedly to Ruth's Chris Steak House in Eastport at about 9:30...
there was discussion of sleeping in the boat (a Johnson 18 doesn't
have comfortable berths exactly) there was also discussion about him
being removed from Ruth's Chris' premises... well, he didn't come back
by 10:30, so we left him when the keg got locked up...

TUNE in tomorrow for the Regatta wrap-up and to see if #102 got into
the water or if there's still an APB out for Keith.... it's a gripping
saga, I know you can't wait.
-Brian