Century Club: Jonathan Nepini

My favorite event of the year. Light wind at the start made for a challenging first three hours, and we worked hard to keep the boat moving and make as much progress as possible in the available breeze. A storm system moved in just north of the fleet, and we saw the wind jump from 2kts to gusts of 26kts in a matter of minutes. We suffered a big setback as a jammed halyard prevented us from getting out best light air kite down before it blew just north of Chesapeake Beach. However, we had great breeze nearly dead downwind the rest of the night and kept the boat moving very well running wing on wing. We rounded Point Lookout around 4:30am and started a crushing beat up the Potomac in stiff breeze and short chop. Conditions calmed as we reached the St. Mary's River a couple hours later, and we feathered the boat along into a classic light air finish. Our crew worked great together under pressure and pushed the boat to her limit. I'm proud of everyone's effort and perseverance.

Our efforts were rewarded with a 2nd place finish in our class. 

Started today's race with the intenton of keeping it casual, and possibly retiring if conditions weren't ideal. We wanted to preserve the boat and crew for Gov Cup this weekend. A nice two-lap windward/leeward course with good but not excessive breeze. In classic fashion, we realized as we approached the last rounding we had Elan in our sights, and we put the hammer down on the last leg, and netted a win by 4 seconds. Felt great to win and to get some great energy going before our racing this weekend.

Probably the most challenging race I've ever done. Due to the light forecasted winds and hot weather only one other boat turned up. The first couple hours of the race were a light beat north, and around noon our only competition dropped out. At the skipper's request, we continued the race and faced lightening conditions into the afternoon. The wind dropped off completely, and we set an anchor to keep from losing our progress to the adverse current. We had a nice swim call, and dove off the boat for about an hour until the wind filled back in. We ghosted along until late evening, and finally reached the lighthouse around 7pm. We threaded the needle between the light and an anchored fishing boat, and finally found some decent breeze for about an hour on the way back. We got parked again for an hour around Prince Frederick, followed by a small squall after dark with gusts up to 26kts. Parked a third time just north of Cove Point, and we finally found enough breeze to get moving and finish the race at 1:30am. A loooooonnnnnnggg day on the water, this one made up for a few of my short Century Club days earlier this month.

Steve signed up for RC today so he left me in charge of running the Barba Roja in tonight's fun race. The race format is a sprint to a pre-determined mark, and once the first boat rounds everyone turns around and races back to the finish, making for an "out" winner and a "back" winner. No classes, a single start for the fleet. Since I knew there was no chance of us going toe-to-toe with a pair of Melges 32's and a custom ocean racing yacht, I opted to go for "back" honors. We set a spinnaker for a fashionably late downwind start, and planned an early douse to give us time to head back as soon as possible. No luck on "back" honors, but the crew worked well together, we sailed the boat fast, and our RC got some epic photos of the 17-boat fleet sailing into the sunset and the Solomons bridge under spinnakers. A great fun race and a nice change of pace to break up the season.