Well, what can I say, it was a great party! The breeze was terrible, but, did I mention there was a great party? It's pretty rare for Annapolis to have no, and I mean NO breeze in the middle of October, but it happened on Saturday and nearly again on Sunday.
The big "H" sitting over the northeast brought cool evening temperatures and a beautiful sunny Saturday morning in Annapolis. 24 Snipes made the trek to Annapolis from Boston, North Carolina, Cleveland, Columbus, St. Louis, Texas and in between for the annual Frigid Digit regatta at the Severn Sailing Association. This was the third year that we have held the regatta in conjunction with the Lightning Frigid Digit. This has been a fruitful merger as the class cultures are quite similar. The Lightning participation was up to 42 boats this year since their North Americans (their "Nationals") will be at SSA next year and people were hoping to get some practice with the local conditions. A fringe benefit of the merger is that the combined group is large enough to command sufficient pull with the local beer distributor to get a beer truck parked on the lot. Did you read this Pedro? I said a beer truck, not a VIRTUAL beer truck. A new corollary of Murphy's law: Pedro comes to the Frigid Digit every year for 5 years with out a beer truck; he stays home for a weekend with his family and what do you know, a beer truck. Go figure...
After registration and bagels from our local sailing supporter The Bagel Connection on Admiral Drive in Annapolis, PRO Phil Richmond postponed on shore for about a half hour as the chase boat went out to the course to see if there was any breeze. The forecast was for 10 knots from the southeast, and at 11am it appeared to be filling from that direction. AP came down and out we went. Between Snipes ramping off the dock and SSAs 3 hoists cranking away, all 66 boats got away from the dock in record time. Turns out the filling breeze was just a head fake. There was just enough breeze to get us to the course, where we sat, talked, napped, talked, drifted in the current, napped, talked and finally were towed in about 3 pm with no breeze in sight. As Lisa Foulke Pline said, "a nice sunny day on the water, no kids and conversation above a 2 year old level, what's the problem?"
The casual afternoon saw most people hanging around the club, making good use of the aforementioned truck until dinner at about 5:30. The dinner saw the return of Bayside Bull which was served on the lawn behind the club. After dinner, local guitarist Craig Carr setup and played well into the night. Most people stayed at the club listening to the music, chasing kids around, and catching up with friends.
The real time breeze and forecast at Thomas Point light (a few miles from the course) posted on the Internet on Sunday morning was not a good sign. The max breeze all night was only 2 knots. The forecasted increased breeze of 10-15 building to 25 from the left over Hurricane Irene was delayed about 6-8 hours, so our chances of decent building breeze were slipping away. Nonetheless, after a short postponement, we set out again. This time, not so much sun, but slightly more breeze.
The breeze built to 5-8 at the start and it looked like we might be OK. At least there wasn't much pleasure boat chop due to the cloudy skys. Neither side paid off on the first beat as boats converging from both sides of the course at the first windward mark were very close. After rounding, the breeze lightened considerably and picking the correct jibing angles down wind was critical. As the breeze lightened even more, Hal Gilreath (again a local, as of two days prior) sailing with Alex Stout got even faster. They opened their lead as the race progressed to win convincingly.
The second race was a carbon copy. Nice breeze for the first leg and near drifting conditions after that. The lead changed a bunch of times in this race, but again the Gilreath/Stout team showed their superior light air speed to take the gun as the clock ticked away towards the time limit. At that point we had passed the 2 pm last race drop dead time and sailed (sort of) back to the club in the rain. Lee Griffith/Lisa Griffith managed to have a consistent 2,4 to capture second and Lee Sackett fresh from the Jr. Worlds in Spain with his dad Tod crewing also were consistent with a 4,3 to take third.
The Snipe fleet gives a big thanks to the Lightning Fleet and Fleet Captain Phil Grotheer for doing the lion's share of the organizing of the dinner, beer truck, logistics and entertainment for the regatta.
| Pos | Sail# | Helmsman | Crew | Race 1 | Race 2 | TotPts | Pos |
| 1 | 29324 | Hal Gilreath | Alex Stout | 0.75 | 0.75 | 1.50 | 1 |
| 2 | 29204 | Lee Griffith | Lisa Griffith | 2 | 4 | 6.00 | 2 |
| 3 | 28575 | Lee Sackett | Tod Sackett | 4 | 3 | 7.00 | 3 |
| 4 | 29499 | Andrew Pimental | Monique Gaylor | 7 | 2 | 9.00 | 4 |
| 5 | 28702 | Henry Filter | Lori Stout | 3 | 8 | 11.00 | 5 |
| 6 | 28199 | Bill Hall | Scott Tarpley | 5 | 7 | 12.00 | 6 |
| 7 | 29552 | Steve Callison | Fred | 9 | 5 | 14.00 | 7 |
| 8 | 28214 | Wayne Pignolet | Pat Poorman | 10 | 6 | 16.00 | 8 |
| 9 | 25483 | Eric Reinke | Kim Couranz | 6 | 12 | 18.00 | 9 |
| 10 | 25679 | David Nelson | Missy Nelson | 8 | 11 | 19.00 | 10 |
| 11 | 29147 | Alex Pline | Lisa Pline | 12 | 9 | 21.00 | 11 |
| 12 | 29536 | Mike Delaney | Magiie Delaney | 11 | 13 | 24.00 | 12 |
| 13 | 28852 | Ned Jones | Amy Boothe | 15 | 10 | 25.00 | 13 |
| 14 | 26336 | Jeff Clark | Tommy Clark | 14 | 16 | 30.00 | 14 |
| 15 | 28094 | Bill Clawson | John Knapp | 18 | 14 | 32.00 | 15 |
| 16 | 26613 | Clay Sanborn | Becky Sanborn | 19 | 15 | 34.00 | 16 |
| 17 | 28680 | Brad Dunn | Diane Robinson-Dunn | 13 | 24DNC | 37.00 | 17 |
| 18 | 27238 | Steve Keckler | Barb Evans | 16 | 24DNC | 40.00 | 18 |
| 19 | 24695 | Bob Coyle | Chuck D'Antonio | 17 | 24DNC | 41.00 | 19 |
| 20T | 28065 | John Manderson | Maggie Manderson | 24DNC | 24DNC | 48.00 | 20T |
| 21T | 22392 | Jay Bugenhagen | Marty Warble | 24DNC | 24DNC | 48.00 | 21T |
| 22T | 29106 | Bill Buckles | Kevin Blee | 24DNC | 24DNC | 48.00 | 22T |
| 23T | 29592 | Paul Cronin | Carol Newman Cronin | 24DNC | 24DNC | 48.00 | 23T |
| 24T | 29572 | Charlie Bustamante | Michele Bustamante | 24DNC | 24DNC | 48.00 | 24T |