Team Scorpio Races in Annapolis

Eight members from Team Scorpio traveled to Annapolis in late October to represent Area G in the US SAILING Offshore Championship and compete for the Lloyd Phoenix trophy.  John and Joy Siegel flew from San Francisco; Larry Peterson, GW Grigg, Sean McBurney, Geoff McDonald and John Buchanan left from San Jose; and jet-setter Marcy Fleming arrived from her home base of Honolulu.  Conveniently, Sean McBurney's mother lives in Annapolis and graciously agreed to house Sean, Geoff, John, and Marcy.  Larry, GW, John and Joy stayed at the nearby Marriott Residence Inn.

We all met Thursday afternoon for a briefing at the Robert Crown Sailing Center at the US Naval Academy.  We received our sailing instructions and spent an hour or so inspecting the boats.  Ten teams, representing their US SAILING areas, from throughout the country participated, along with a team of Midshipmen from the Naval Academy.

Racing took place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with an 0800 Skippers' Meeting each day.  We raced in identical Navy 44s (McCurday and Rhodes design).  They were strong, seaworthy boats, but were extremely heavy and unresponsive.  The transition from Scorpio  was not an easy one.  We started out slowly Friday with a 5, 4, 7 on a cold day with winds of 10-15.   That put us in a four-way tie for fourth place.  In Saturday’s morning buoy race, we were doing OK till an error on the part of our assigned safety officer caused us to hit a mark.  After doing our penalty turn, we fell deep in the pack.  Fortunately we were awarded "average points redress" in that race, and then took a bullet in the 25 mile distance race.  That put us in second place 3+ points out of first going into Sunday’s final buoy races.  We knew we had to do well in both races, and thought we’d won the start in race 6.  However, we were called OCS and faired poorly in race 7 as well. 

The team had a great time but finished a disappointing fifth.  The Midshipmen from the Academy displayed boatspeed and consistency, and won the regatta.  Racing in unfamiliar waters with unfamiliar boats adds a great deal to one's racing perspective.

Action from Annapolis