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A strong northwesterly, with gusts over 30 knots kicked off the first ECSA circuit race the Pierce Invitational. Twenty-two boats were registered in the regatta hosted by the Windjammers. The race committee sent Class A from the start off of Charles Island into the entrance of the harbor. The next leg was a broad reach down to Stratford shoal then up wind to the entrance of the Housatonic River. This was followed by a run back down to shoal, and then a close reach back to Charles Island. The course length was about 30 miles. With the waves and the wind there were lots of salt encrusted sailors back at the dock. The race committee did try to shorten but wasn't able to get a second committee boat on station in time. I was sailing aboard Maximus, a Mumm 36 owned by Nick Amendola. We started at the boat end, protesting a boat for "barging". She did her turns and we went up the first beat with a number three rounding fourth. It was a wild spinnaker ride down to Stratford shoal. We ended up moving from fourth to first as other class members experienced chute problems. Secret and Black Hawk ended up blowing chutes. We had a tough time breaking through their wind shadows, but were able to eventually pass them to leeward. When it came to our take down, we lost both the sheet and the guy when the chute was half way down and refilled. We lost some time driving under our chute / flag, but got it under control and down. We dropped back to forth and headed up wind. When we got to the windward mark, Secret was heading back down with a twist in her chute. They shook out the twist but we made up some time. We jibed around the shoal for the last time and headed home. As we worked our way back to Charles Island, some of the other boats in our class were still headed towards the shoal. XSNRG was screaming with her red chute up. Spray was coming off her bow as she planned down wind. Afterwards the crew reported that the knot meter hit 20. She was flying, and had opened up a gap between her and Orca, the other Antrium 27.
The Canvas Class turned into a match race between Surrender owned by M. Mollow and Windsong 2 owned by Lou Roberts. Evergreen, a Cal 27 ended up withdrawing with a broken boom. Normally Mollow and Roberts race together, this was there first race against each other. Windsong finished ten seconds behind Surrender who had some last minute problems at the finish line. As a result Windsong corrected out to first place. Other canvas racers take note because Lou indicates that he plans to sail enough races to qualify. Looks like he is off to a good start.
Class B was won by Esperance owned by J. Nevin followed by Savage and Relentless.
I would like to Thank Nick for a great ride and the Windjammers for hosting a great start to the season. The next ECSA race will be hosted by Duck Island on June 5, and don't forget the Niantic Earlybird race the following day. See you there. |
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