Snipe Frigid Digit
Frigid Digit Fall Sailing Paradise
The 2021 Frigid Digit came on the heels of a very busy Snipe sailing season with the Colonial Cup in June as a warm up for the Nationals two weeks later followed by the Great Lakes Championships and Womens Nationals in July, a few club regattas and clinics in August and the North Americans and Western Hemisphere/Orient Championships in September. All of these events were well attended by Fleet 532 and other Snipe sailors from the east coast. Given this very busy east coast schedule especially since the two weeks of NAs and Westerns just ended, we did not expect the usual travelers. However, we had a great turnout (19 boats), a testament to the great energy we have in the local fleet. In addition to the fleet regulars, we had some newer Snipers Andrew Bates, sisters Devon and Lauren Feusahrens sailing the loaner boat (who we hope will buy a Snipe soon!) and Matt Lalumiere sailing with Nikki Bruno in new fleet member Paul Greene’s boat.
The weekend forecast looked “OK”, but with southerly gradient breeze, we had the addition of a few knots of sea breeze both days to make it some primo sailing conditions. Couple that with temperatures in the high 70s/low 80s and low humidity and water temperature still around 70 degrees, it was Annapolis fall sailing paradise. But with such “Chamber of Commerce” conditions and the Annapolis Boat Show yachts in town comes a lot of pleasure boat traffic which cranks the “Annapolis Washing Machine” setting to “mega” that makes it so challenging to sail here.
Saturday started with about 8-10 knots which eventually built to almost 15. We wanted to have a lot of shorter races for this regatta given the longer courses we’ve had at the Championship events this year and were shooting for 4 races lasting 30-40 minutes. The breeze was perfect for this and we cranked out 4 W/L courses. Hal Gilreath/Trevor Long dominated the day with a 1,1,1,3 followed by Gavin/Holly O’Hare with a 3,2,3,2, Andrew/Kristen Keene from Quassapaug, Robert Ramirez/Martin Hermida, Eric Reinke/Alex Damley-Strnad. Zach Kelchner/Megan Place and Alex/Lisa Pline all with fairly consistent finishes. Even with some restarts and 4 great races we were back on shore with by about 3:30pm in time for a fleet debrief on the deck, lots of socializing and a tour of the relocated Quantum Loft in the old APS building organized and led by Carter Cameron.
Sunday brought another beautiful morning, but iffy breeze early. We had decided to start again at 11am rather than our traditional hour earlier, a good thing because PRO Charlie Krafft postponed ashore for another hour while the southerly breeze filled in. We finally got out for a 12pm start in about 5-8 knots for three more races. Once racing got going the breeze increase several knots to the point where it was possible to make way through the pleasure boat chop. Had it stayed closer to 5 knots it would have been really awful being on the wrong side of where the Snipe “perks up”. But thankfully, that wasn’t the case and we completed three more races just before our drop dead time of 3pm. Gavin O’Hare sailing with Erica Kraft as Holly was on Soccer duty, was the guy on fire with a 1,2,1. Unfortunately, Hal had to depart Saturday for a work commitment so he dropped down the standings. The rest of the top finishes were distributed between the Keenes, Ramirez/Hermida, Reinke/Damley-Strnad and the Plines. As a result, Gavin ended up winning the event by 10 points followed by Ramirez/Hermida, Andrew/Kristen Keene, Reinke/Damley-Strnad and Alex/Lisa Pline in 5th. Sarah Alexander/Hollis Barth were the top U30 team and Lisa presented them with an SSA burgee to exchange with the host club of the 2021 Snipe Womens World Championships next week in Sao Paulo Brazil. Good luck!!
