For fast schooners, getting across the finish line first is the holy grail of the strongly competitive sailor. It is a clear and unequivocal statement of speed for all of the racing fleet to see. There is no rating rule and no handicap. Just pure, powerful boat speed and smart schooner handling.

But handicaps and ratings are wonderful things as well. Complicated as they are, they do provide a leveling out of all the schooners, big and small, such that honest efforts to sail well can be recognized. While PRIDE may have reached the finish line first, within her class of larger schooners LADY MARYLAND bested her on handicap time and won 1^st place in Class AA. PRIDE managed 2^nd place and VIRGINIA managed 3^rdplace. The corrected time difference was only five and a half minutes between LADY MARYLAND and PRIDE (PRIDE actually finished almost two and a half hours before LADY MARYLAND…see what I mean about handicaps and ratings?). Reviewing how PRIDE sailed down the bay, it is very hard for me to identify how we could have sailed faster/better to make up that small five and a half minutes. Maybe we could have saved 2 minutes at the start…we were that late. Still we were the first big schooner across the starting line. I do not know how far behind LADY MARYLAND was at the start…I was too busy working with the crew to get PRIDE’s sails up, after starting with only half her sail area, to look around at the rest of the fleet. Whatever LADY MARYLAND’s starting position was, Captain Mike (Sinker) McCreery is a long standing professional mariner and an alumnus crew member of PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II from the late 1990′s. He and is crew of students did a magnificent job sailing down the bay and capturing PRIDE’s time allowance to LADY MARYLAND.

So, why did PRIDE start with only half her sail area up? Got a minute while I explain? It is not a simple answer. (It never is, some would say, whenever I am explaining:-)]

The key reason is the strength of the wind at the start. It was between 20 and 25 knots. The start line was arranged as a downwind start. Meaning it was oriented west to east across the bay because the wind was from the northeast, making for a downwind start. Normally a moderate wind of 10-15 knots permits all sail to be set aboard PRIDE and as she is maneuvered by her captain to try and get a good start the crew can easily handle all of PRIDE’s numerous sails and large sail area. But with more than 20 knots the job of tacking and jibing and trimming sail becomes exceedingly hard for the crew. Reefing is possible aboard PRIDE, but I knew we would not need any reefing once PRIDE was pointed down the bay with the wind from behind. It takes many long minutes to put in a reef and almost as many to shake a reef out. PRIDE handles pretty well with just the foresail and the staysail in winds of 20 to 25 knots, so we maneuvered near the start with only those two sails.

As it became less than ten minutes to the actual start we had managed to maneuver PRIDE into a running start position short of the start line and the crew turned-to and set the square topsail, followed as quickly as possible by the jib and the jib topsail. By then PRIDE was over the start line and accelerating down the bay. Quickly as possible the mainsail was set. With that sail up the real power machine of PRIDE’s rig came into play and we soon became the second vessel in the fleet, with only WOODWIND ahead of us. But there is still more sail to set! Quickly the topgallant sail was set and so too the main gaff topsail was set. A little more speed was gained. One more sail left to set…the studding sail. But it quickly became apparent that the wind was just a bit too strong for that sail…so we quickly struck it again and waited to set it if conditions ever reduced enough, which they did a couple of hours later.

Could we, had we enough additional crew, been able to save five and a half minutes at the start by having the mainsail and jib set before the start? I do not think so. So congratulations to Captain McCreery and the crew and students of LADY MARYLAND! They sailed the 2009 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race very well indeed.

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Pride and her crew managed to get a pretty good start in the 2009 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, which enabled her to lead her southern Chesapeake Bay sister Virginia over the finish line. Pride crossed at 03:43:20 Friday morning, October 16, 2009.

Virginia was in hot pursuit of Pride for all but the last 8 nautical miles of the race. After the start Virginia drag raced between 0.5 and 2.5 miles behind PRIDE at speeds between 7 and 11 knots.  Eventually Pride was able to extend her lead and finished about 45 minutes ahead of Virginia.

The race down the bay was cold and wet with on again off again heavy mist. All hands were awakened for the finish line crossing to help get all sail in and stowed. After tidying the ship up this morning all hands will be standing down for the day.  Then we just wait for the rest of the fleet to come in and the final results to be tallied.

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Wx: Calm, Clear and glittering with shiny new boats

Today marks the official kick off of the 40^th Annual Annapolis Sailboat Show, and Pride II is definitely “in” the show. Tied up on the North Side of the Sailing Hall of Fame Dock, we’ve got Catalina’s to the left of us, dozens of dinghies to the right, and a veritable city of floating docks, daysailers, overnighters, multi-hulls, and schooners astern. This morning the Press and Trade Show starts the event, and Pride II is looking ready. Since weaving through the obstacle course of pilings and docks to secure on Monday evening, we’ve been working on freshening up the paint and varnish. Pride II’s transom, particularly, will be on center stage, as floating dock “A1″ will lead people within feet of it all weekend. So the rail has a fresh coat of varnish, the Maryland Shield and Homeport carving are newly painted, and the carved, gleaming gold-leaf letters of her name have been brought to full luster. I dare say she shines as bright at 21 years old as any of the flashy new launched boats around her.

Signed,
Jamie Trost, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

Wx: Wind West Force 1, Clear, Full Moon

Pride II just had the kind of sailing day that gets people hooked. The kind of sail that stands as a benchmark for measuring a whole seasons worth of sailing days. We boarded passengers at Broadway Pier in Baltimore and set sail just off Fells Point, the very place Pride II’s sister Baltimore Clippers were built. With the breeze West Northwest and fresh, we sailed out the Patapsco River under the Foretop’s, T’Gallant, a pair of heads’ls and the Stuns’l, eventually cracking on everything else before we reached the mouth of the Magothy River, and charging her up to 10.7 knots. A few tufts of fair weather cumulus speckled the glitter on the Bay. The day was warm, perfect Chesapeake Autumn, even as we hardened up on the wind sailing through the Bay Bridge and taking in the stuns’l.

Standing in toward the mouth of the Severn River the freshening breeze had us wetting the deck to leeward and shortening sail. Gaff tops’l in, T’gallant in. Still, with time to spare before our scheduled arrival in Annapolis at 1600, we threaded through the Sunday afternoon yacht races, and reached Pride II south to Thomas Point Light. In doing so we sailed the most recognizable mobile icon of the Bay past the most notable stationary one. Our total passage from Fells Point to Thomas Point was under three hours – an average speed of over 9 knots. Even the multi-hull sailboats were having trouble keeping up!

Eventually, reluctantly, we took in sail and prepared to come alongside in Annapolis. We had a short while to tie up and disembark our passengers, among them Tiffany Smith, a familiar face along the Baltimore waterfront who has volunteered and served as winter-maintenance crew for the past two and a half years. This was her first day of sailing aboard Pride II, ever. “I can see why you guys do this,” she said while she stuck around to help furl and stow before we went to anchor off the Naval Academy. And while she wouldn’t buy it when I tried to sell her the line that every day we were out of Baltimore was just like this one, she was right. One day in a hundred of charging Pride II along in all her power, all her incredible grace might just be enough keep us all going. But we’ll sure hope for more.

Signed,
Jamie Trost, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II