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I'm looking for crew for the governor's cup on Aug 3rd and 4th. It's an overnight race from Annapolis to St. Mary's MD. Boat is a Merit 25 with a fresh inventory, good bottom and raced regularly. CBYRA highpoint winner in 2011.
I'm looking for all positions, distance racing and helming experience prefered but not necessary. Food and drinks are provided. Depending on responses, housing and transportation may also be provided.
Hi Trevor, I am new to sailing but willing to work hard as I have a lot to learn. I'd be willing to take any position available.
I recently obtained my basic keelboat certification, June 12, 2012. Since then I've been sailing Rainbow 24 on the Hudson River. Let me know if you're willing to give me a shot.
Thanks Jim
Right now it looks like I've had some people step up. If anything changes I'll let you know. There are a couple other boats still looking for crew. I can pass your info onto them. Just post your email or shoot me a PM.
ex: bgs at email dot com
ex: jimmyd at email dot com
However by reviving it, you may prompt someone else looking for crew.
I also suggest you post on the Governor's Cup page on Facebook to see if you can find someone looking for crew that way.
According to a recent post of FB, registrations are higher this year than the past 10 years so it sounds like there could be more boats looking this year.
I have my crew lined up this year, so Good Luck finding a ride.
Good luck guys! I'll be jealous as as hell but monitoring from the other coast.
Good luck Bill. Feel free to abuse John since I can't do it myself. Make sure that you have him lube the relative bearing winch at 3AM.....the one that you get to by hanging over the bow pulpit. :laugher
Oh, we already started. Sent him up the mast 10 minutes after he set foot on the boat. :laugher
Once again I've manage to pull together a crew that I would willingly sail overnight with. That said, the energy around this race (and maybe all racing around the Bay this year) seems sorely lacking.
--- Or maybe I was just bummed that I lost my Costa Del Mars this AM -- and literally got a call as I was typing this that they had been found so now I'm psyched!
All I need now is for the forecasters to be as wrong as they usually are and we'll have an awesome race!
Yeah, I hear ya' on the forecast but I was refering to the overall vibe I've gotten this year. Nearly zero response from my club board request for crew this year was unexpected and it took a while for the scracth sheet to start filling out. I've always had folks contact me after I had a full boat in past years, but this year I got nothin'. This year it was crew recuiting crew and me reaching out to other skippers for crew. Again this year I randomly ended up with a great bunch to do this race with and we actually got in a real practice so guys aren't soing things on my boat for the very 1st time in a race. I was surprised how well our MOB drills (firgure 8) under sail went, though we've discussed simply doing a quick stop and recovering via throwline/swimming if the MOB is able, and just throwing in the towel and motoring to get them if they are hurt.
I am sweating the forecast, but the fact is, I've yet to see the weather that was forecast actually materilize on this race, so I'm hoping that's the case this year and that the actual is not as weak as predicted though I'll take the forecast direction. Worst nightmare is that its both as soft as predicted but more southerly. The one thing we can be sure of is we won't really know what the weather will be during the race until we cross that start line.
Our first Gov Cup in 08 was like this forecast. Virtually no wind at the start and then becalmed for 2 hours at 0200. If that happens for you guys, watch your GPS and the tide. We drifted backwards 2 nm and should have set an anchor.
Using Windfinder and picking Cove Point as a sort of mid-point, I see max of 7-11 E at 2300 on Friday night when you guys should be about there. That could be a great sail with a reacher. Temps are going to be majestic too - mid 70s! Looks like rain from about 0700-1800 at St. Inigoes with wind 8-10 E. If the forecast holds, could be a straight shot from Annapolis.
the energy around this race (and maybe all racing around the Bay this year) seems sorely lacking
I think that with Gov Cup, some people may be nervous of racing with a fleet in the dark with commercial shipping in the area. Combined with the fact that it is an endurance sporting event where people are commonly awake for 36 hours, some people may not find it appealing. I think that the decline in race participation is a complicated issue for another thread.
Using Windfinder and picking Cove Point as a sort of mid-point, I see max of 7-11 E at 2300 on Friday night when you guys should be about there. That could be a great sail with a reacher. Temps are going to be majestic too - mid 70s! Looks like rain from about 0700-1800 at St. Inigoes with wind 8-10 E. If the forecast holds, could be a straight shot from Annapolis.
I wish I'd spent more time figuring out how close-winded I could get with the Flasher. Looks like the sooner I can get the asym up the better. I was more focused seeing exactly how deep we could go and didn't focus enough on findng out if I could get above a beam reach.
Its all dependent on how much "south" there is in ESE at the start. One hopes a straight shot, even with light wind, might yield similar VMG's to beating into a southerly while allowing for mimosa's in the cockpit. :laugher
The nice thing about the light breezes, is that crew can actually catch some real sleep down in the cabin. Fresh crew, rotated through watches is better than keeping everyone up until the chart plotter is a blur.
Its updated now - doesn't coincide with other forcasts I'm consulting. Shows winds out of the north at the start clocking to easterly later than my other sources which show it having clocked easterly by the 3PM start. All sources agree its gonna' be light. So forecasts looking like a run or beam reach at the start. Any body wanna' bet we're close hauled crossing the start line?
Tide is with us at the start, so the east or west decision won't have to be made at the start. I guess as far as "tactics" at this point my plan is to find the guys that beat me last year and try to stay on their hip until I come up with something brilliant.
Bubble, don't be too worried about the little guys, if it's a reach for forward of the beam, stay powered up and you'll do fine. Look into cross sheeting if you can. You have waterline over both those boats. If it goes super light, it's a crap shoot. Just keep the boat moving toward the mark, and don't worry if people pull away in different breeze. Strange things happen in very light air.
I'll be on Widow Maker a C&C 44. And from what I hear, we'll eat like kings. Which will be a completely different Gov Cup experience for me. Maybe I'll sleep this year? Yeah right...
We will see some close hauled sailing at some point. I promise you. The breeze is supposed to build later in the morning, which will compress the fleet after rounding point lookout, so keep the pedal down, crew fresh, and the chute up. Otherwise, getting corrected over is a real possibility.
Hope to see you guys at the college, I won't be staying for the party.
We're a couple hours from the start for most -- looks to me like a light air start clocking and building through the afternoon. Line of thunderstorms is moving over the area and will cross the mid-Bay after the start. Expect, of course, flaky directions as the line of thunderstorms approach. Wind should be up behind the initial storm cells.
Note these are local thunderstorms and not associated with a cold front. Once the leading edge is past wind direction should stabilize. There will be local wind effects.
Put your best trimmers on early and keep them happy. Don't cleat anything down. Your tactician should spend as much time watching the sky as the field. If your boat has an owner/skipper/helmsman/tactician someone should be designated as weather watcher.
If what I think I see happens you should be able to fly your chute from dusk until about 4.
It was not the easiest race. I was in the after guard on a Bene 44.7. We saw good breeze most of the night with a lot of wind around 2:00 am. That led to a very knarly jib chance in high winds, driving rain, and short chop. The race was mostly a close reach with a very short broad reach as we approached the lighthouse. It started raining around midnight and got really ugly on the trip up the river. I ended up driving from 8:30 or so until the finish with two short breaks to eat something and put on warmer clothing. I still have boat-lag but not too badly. I have no idea how we finished.
Jeff
Really gotta see the replay on this one. I was there and have no idea what happened. lol
Thought we were looking good from what we could tell with the dang tracker, but in the results, the boat we thought we were chasing all night (and that spanked me last year) ended up behind us and two boats that we never knew were ahead of us based on the tracker info, finished ahead of us.
I really want to see the tracking on this one to see what, if anything, we could have done better. I thought I'd put the boat in a pretty good place and don't think I could expect much more boat speed than we got. I was only minutes behind the 2nd place boat this year and the 1st place boat was a Catalina nearly 10' longer than mine with a nearly identical rating. I probably let myself get complacent thinking we were comfortably in 2nd (based on the apparently flawed tacking data) and would earn a pickle dish. If we knew we were third, we maybe could have found a way to make up those few minutes, but maybe not.
Edited to add.
OK I've watched the replay and understand what happened now and why we were misled by the tracker. Several of the boats that finished ahead of and near me had tracker issues. It looks like one didn't transmit until almost half way through the race and the other stopped transmitting at some point and one had a gap for during the time they rounded Pt Look out.
It looks like the finish order among the 1st 4 boats in Founders Cruising class was pretty much established fairly early in the race. It looked like Promise(Not transmitting at the start) and Midnight Breeze took the lead early with Full Tilt a bit behind them and us neck and neck with Arriba. Over the course of the race Promise began transmitting and Midnight Breeze quit. Full Tilt had a navigational issue at Point No Point and Arriba and us got ahead of them, so going into St. Marys River the actual order was Promise, Midnight Breeze, Arriba then us. However, the tracker at that point would be showing Promise leading, Midnight Breeze and Arriba weren't transmitting at that point so the tracker showed Promise first, us second and Full Tilt behind us - which is what we saw Sat Am when I got the whole crew back on deck just prior to the gybe into the Potomac.
The tracker convinces me we sailed about as good a race as we could have. We hung right with boats owing us time from the start through out the night. Perhaps we could have shaved a bit off on the tacks going up the St. Marys, but no one was at their sharpest at that point.
If Full Tilt hadn't blundered at Pt. No Point, I almost certainly would be another place down and if we'd had blundered I could have been 5th. I think to do any better against these boats, I'd have to have a race where there was more of a chance to make a mistake and have everyone but me make some.
Bill, we (Midnight Breeze) were puzzled as to what was going on with the tracker. Watching the playback, there's actually two entries for us. One goes from the start until about Cove Point (if I remember correctly) where it just stops. If you switch to the other entry, it picks up about midway and goes all the way to the finish. We have no idea why it did that. Rick had it on his phone and had the app running all night long. I didn't look at the track until Saturday evening.
I was the tactician for the race and we stayed on the western shore side. Once we cleared Herring Bay, we were able to get on a straight line course until we made the gybe into the Potomac. I was taking my turn on the helm when we got slammed by that storm, whole lotta fun that was, felt like I was holding on to a bucking horse! Had one of our crew turn into a sack of potatoes from all the boat motion, he didn't really recover until we were approaching the finish line.
I'm assuming you guys heard about the Yellow Jacket crew member that had to be evacuated during the race due to hypothermia? I was so thankful I had a good set of foulies on...
Hi Russ, I noticed that also and was able to see your track all the way through by selecting both "Midnight Breezes". The track from Promise doesn't pick up until down past Herring Bay.
Our tracks are nearly identical and we didn't finish that far behind you, so I'm guessing our experiences were pretty similar. I just don't know how much better we could have done this year to finish close enough to correct over you guys. I think we gave some up in the St. Marys which I attribute to everyone being somewhat fatigued at that point. I really felt this year was our chance to get a pickle dish, but it wasn't to be. I don't know if its the fact we've done the race a few times now or better preparation this year, but from my perspective this was the easiest Gov Cup we've ever done. The highest winds were less than our first year and more on the beam than nose. We've had to beat into winds like that all night on 2 previous races. This year there was exactly one gybe between Herring Bay and St. Mary's River. From midnight to 4 AM, It was just me and one crew on deck. While the rest slept until the gybe into the Potomac. Take away the rain and it was a cake walk.
Whine and Cheese mode on: I try not to complain about PHRF, but rating a Catalina 445 almost identically to a Catalina 36 is kinda bogus. Promise's finish time would put them mid-pack in the super cruiser fleet which and I think they should rate in the 140's at the bare minimum. It was a much closer race among the other boats in Founders class.
We were having the same exact conversation regarding Promise's PHRF. How in the world does it make sense for a cruising boat that's almost 10 feet shorter (us) owe them time! Heck, her water line is 2 feet longer than our LOA!
Sounds like you and I were at the helm during the same time and weather. This is only my second GovCup but I've done the AYS overnight (R2 to R76 and return) plus 2 Solomons so I'm not a complete stranger to sailing the Bay at night. I agree, the conditions were sporty but they could've been much worse. I tried to stay on as much of a reach as I could through the night but several times I found, at least for us, that we were close hauled for extended periods of time. She's a Beneteau 361 with a furling main and genoa and just doesn't point as well as a conventional main does. Plus, she tends to get overpowered sooner. Rick's installed a new main (with vertical battens) and genny which has helped a lot. Plus, after racing on her for 3 years, we're finally getting the best out of her.
With that said, if you ever need crew for a race that we're not racing in, shoot me a note. I'm always up to crew for a race! :-D
russ
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