Annapolis ICers,

As expected, the Northwesterly blew itself out promptly at 1:30 leaving us with a nice 10-15 with some higher gusts. This may be superstitious, but this is the third time we have had great sailing after Jamie and Sue Brickell packed it up thinking it was too windy (twice last year). The seven boats which did stay were rewarded with excellent conditions and nobody even came close to capsizing. Four no-gybe and one windward leeward course were sailed.

Mike Mergenthaler and Kim Couranz came out hot. They sailed an excellent first beat covering the fleet nicely from both sides of the course, and went on to win race 1. Alex Pline, sailing with Jonathan Lange were second and Phebe Corckran and Aden King were third. Jesse Falsone and Pat Doyle got their new Guck IC going the second race and led the entire way around the no-gybe course. However, Mergenthaler/Couranz almost pulled out the upset win at the end by splitting tacks with Falsone/Doyle around the leeward mark and nearly wining the tacking duel to the finish. The Simonds finished third. The next race saw more of the same drama at the finish when Falsone/Doyle made up time on the last beat to cross inches ahead of the stunned Mergenthaler/Couranz team. The Simonds were third again. Falsone/Doyle led by a wide margin in race 4 by hitting the favored right side on the first beat. Mergenthaler/Couranz were second and Corckran/King were third. Falsone/Doyle found an advantage on the right side again in race 5 for their fourth win. Corckran/King finished second to pull ahead of Mergenthaler/Couranz for the day and Pline/Lange were third. Macy and Nick Nelson retain a slim series lead over Falsone/Doyle/Jones by getting average points for RC.

Hopefully more boats will be around to race next week. By then, maybe the two Stout boats will be out of the repair shop and ready to sail and some of our other missing members will return.

If you haven't paid SSA for membership or boat storage, I'll be calling you...

- Jesse