Who's up for the killer race on the bay this year!
Online registration page From 2006....
Record Setting Run for Kirby and Herbick for Tygart Racing
Doug and Andy put the hammer down and blasted through the floating debris on the bay for what we think is a record setting run! They finished the 30 mile race in 2 hours and 27 minutes. Doug said his GPS recorded speeds of 26 mph! People on the beach at Oxford seemed to agree with those numbers. With those speeds, the apparent wind clocked around and Doug said they were sailing the same angle as the mono’s. Crosses were fun. Todd Berget and Chris Bolton tried to heat the boat up and take Donnybrooks transoms… but flipped it in their wake…. They were closing in at the finish upwind but ran out of room. They were the 6th boat to finish. The finish times in the Nor Easter of two years ago were around 3 hours for the PHRF A0 winner Narrow Escape with ex cat sailor Ben Corson at the helm. As Doug noted… He puts this race on the calendar at the beginning of the year and its one his personal can’t misses. Not only are you solving the strategic puzzle of how to get down the bay in flat water and breeze… you have these moving obstacles to pick your opponents off with…. Great fun…. Next years goal is to have the entire fleet on the beach as the mono’s sail up the river to finish. Chris Bolton reports that the boats were overlapped finishing for 45 minutes while they relaxed on the beach waiting for the beer truck to arrive!
Keith Chapman writes:
The CBYRA Beachcat fleet has been attempting the Annapolis to Oxford race for several years. Previous successful runs were unofficial separate races…. Three years ago the beach cats were given a start along with the Annapolis J22’. This is a race weekend that's been a bit of a bad luck story for the four years that the beach cats have had an official start. First there was Isabel. The next year a strong NorthEaster kept us on shore and played havoc with the race. Last year the wind dropped out halfway there, and nobody except three PHRF A0 boats finished.
But this Saturday's ride was a blast. At the start we picked up our first chunk of wood that actually stuck to the starboard dagger - interesting gurgling and banging noises... Starting at the back of a 200+ boat fleet on a downwind blow was awesome. Of all the classes, the beach cats started last, behind the multis and PHRF A0. Our goal was to run down all of the keel boats before the finish. At first the Inters were grouped pretty tight, although Doug and Andy showed early on they were the ones we'd be chasing. We started picking off other boats pretty soon after the start. We got settled in with Alec on the wire and finally started to assert ourselves on Todd and Chris as we ran down Donneybrook (for those who don't know, Donneybrook is a PHRF A0 custom all carbon Santa Cruz 72 - big money, big boat, big speed, very impressive). It was dicey running with all the keelboats downwind as we were running hotter angles, and they didn't care if you were starboard and the lee boat. That meant that often we would approach them and have to feather the boat up to take their stern while flapping the spin to avoid taking a gust at the wrong time. Pass the stern flapping, sheet in, bear off, and smoke by them in blast of spray! Dodging keelboats and logs... As the Grey Goose (aka the Love Boat) got along Donneybrook with us, they jibed towards the big black boat, tried to head up, and took their first crash of the day. Good show for the Donneybrook crew!
We were feeling pretty good about things after that, keeping an eye on Doug and Andy in the distance and picking our way through the heavy part of the keelboat fleet. We were getting close to the course for R80 in the Choptank, so we took a starboard jibe to the outside of the traffic and started to reel in a F-31 that was doing real well. Jibed to port to head towards R80, and were smoking along nicely when I found myself getting grabbed by a wave and upended off the back of the boat. As the boat was still powered up, nothing I grabbed stayed in my hand - so I got to see the Pirates of the Chesapeake sail off with Alec in the trap under full power with no helm, until she headed down and capsized to windward after the wind spilled. I watched to make sure Alec was with the boat, and started to swim. That was useless. The Backstroke worked best, still not too efficient. So I bobbed and watched as Alec got the boat ready to right. He was keeping an eye on me as well, so everything was ok with the world, no worries. I was happy we were outside of the traffic as I figured my biggest danger was getting conked by a keel.
It was then I saw off to my left that a mono had dropped all sails and was motoring towards me. That actually bummed me out a bit - I didn't want to mess up anybody else's race. But even though I felt things were under control, the prudent thing to do was to take the ride, as you just never know in those situations. I estimate our separation at about 30-50 yards at most, and I have full confidence that Alec would have righted the boat and gotten back to me. However, a safe ride was there, and I took it even though it would mean accepting assistance and a DSQ.
The folks on the keelboat were great. They got me on board, and said they were impressed with the speed of the cats. They were figuring out how they would assist us righting the boat when I told them just to drop me back in the water close by. That surprised them a bit. But perhaps they noticed that the whole time I was on board I had my eye on Alec and the boat, and wanted nothing more than to get back into the game. So to them I apologize - I probably wasn't very talkative. I even failed to get the name of the boat.
But drop me off they did, and they waited to make sure I got to the boat and watched was we righted it and got back under way. A quick wave and a call to find us at TAYC for drinks on me and we were back on our way, and they were back to their race having marked time for redress.
We ran for a little bit under main alone to clear lines and get a drink, and then it was back out with all the cloth and back up to speed again. Of course, after all this Donneybrook and the Grey Goose had gotten by us again. Into the Choptank and rounding G7 the chutes were put away as the ride became a tight reach. We stayed wide there - keelboats stacking up at a mark while dropping kites in a blow didn't seem like the place for a 20 foot cat!
As we headed up we found our starboard dagger was jammed in the trunk and wouldn't go down. Not what you want when settling into a long upwind port tack. But even so we continued to dispatch the remaining monos while trying to chase down Todd/Chris and Donneybrook. Up ahead somewhere was Doug and Andy, as well as Eric (I20 from Magothy), and the F-31 we had been chasing before. The Goose held us off, and we obviously never caught Donneybrook again, but what a ride!
As Chris mentioned before, it was awesome getting to the beach before the majority of the boats came in because we got watch them all come up the river and race for the line. Lots of tight finishes to the end.
On the lawn in the middle of the mono crowd the cats drew attention, with lots of people stopping by to ask about them. The were at least of couple of folks that seemed genuinely interested - maybe we'll get some fresh converts!
Looking over our steed we found we had broken the top batten below the gaff. Of course with no spares, we set out to rig a repair. We had tape, but we needed something to splint the batten with. Well, I can honestly say that this is the first time both of us have eaten Key Lime Pie on a stick! There are sacrifices we must all make. After making sure they were clean of the remaining chocolate they were taped to the batten along some emory boards. The repair lasted - we'll probably sail with it this Tuesday, and until we find a replacement batten. Pie on a stick...
Party at Tred Avon Yacht Club was great. All in all a very fun event. We never did find the crew of the boat that helped us, but I'm tracking them down - they'll have drinks at the Riverview. We even got to be tourists in one of Easton's finest neighborhoods whilst acting as a taxi service. But that's a "tale of survival" you'll need to get from Chris.
One of my favorite moments was when we were in the Choptank going upwind and wanted to get to the windward side of a mono to avoid the wind shadow and bad placement on our course. We came up dead astern and then climbed above them to windward (fun with the lee board only half in), momentarily stalled a bit right along side. Looked over at all the rail meat looking at us, took a puff, raised a hull and accelerated away. Later on some of the crew talked to us and told us how cool that was...
Not enough wind the next day… Eric Miller (Magothy River) took the shore route and finished under the time limit… (What do we know about time limits…) the rest of the fleet punted and picked up tows… only to find that they could have finished the race.
Editors note… This is a race that should get those ol 16 and 18 distance racers out there again. Since the mono’s have a time limit…. They will flip the engine on to make the party… so at worst you finish by 5 under tow! Ron LaPorta would fit right in on the dance floor… The party carried on past midnight with the really cool band Bigger Better Faster More… (or something like that).
Man am I sorry I missed it… but I just got a new toy and was working hard to fit it to the trailer on Saturday…. I was spitting nails on the beach…
