Dear Friend of CHARIAD:

CHARIAD and her mighty crew are back from a tough three day Buzzards Bay Regatta. We had high points, low points, great sailing, hard work and lots of laughs.

Once again, the BBR printed program – as well as the BBR website – featured the picture below of our boat on the front cover.

Buzzards Bay Regatta Chariad on brochure cover

Here is an image that was taken on Sunday.

Racing Buzzards Bay Regatta CHARIAD crossing

We did not finish with a high ranking in the class scoring for the regatta. The Friday and Saturday races were sailed in high winds 20 – 28 knots and we were not able to sail competitively upwind. We had lots of discussion about why and tried different adjustments but could not point with the best boats. Friday was a long distance race around the Bay with a 10 mile windward leg. On Saturday, we had three W/L races and eventually put a reef in the main. That helped but did not fully solve the problem. The difficulty was that we were sailing in both high winds and the Buzzards Bay waves that made keeping boat speed up difficult.

This is an image from Saturday as we are going downwind working to keep the boat under control and position ourselves against the other boats and the course.

Sailboat racing CHARIAD crew hard at work in Buzzards Bay Regatta

Sunday, the last day of the Regatta was sailed in 8 – 14 knots. We were fully competitive with the best boats in the fleet. One of the highlights of that day was that we started the first race of the day with a port start at the Committee Boat. We wanted to go right up the course. As we were coming down the line on port just before the start, the fleet seemed a little early and probably would not be jammed at the committee boat.  We stayed on port, ducked the last starboard tacker, hardened up and crossed the line with the gun. I am sure the committee boat was surprised, but we made it work.

Here is view behind us after we rounded the windward mark.

Buzzards Bay Regatta view behind CHARIAD sailboat

Here is what we looked like after the rounding.

CHARIAD racing sailboat at Buzzards Bay Regatta

Sailing these races is very demanding physical work particularly on high wind days. All of us were ready for a drink and a nap after finishing.

After the last race on Sunday, we went into the dock at Burr Brothers to get fuel and get all of our stuff off the boat. Here is the tired and terrific CHARIAD crew. As nutty as this seems, Anders Ekman had to rush off the boat to catch a plane to Las Vegas to spend some time with normal people and is not in the picture. Jim Peterson sailed with us on Friday.

CHARIAD crew sailing at Buzzards Bay Regatta

While you are watching the Olympics and witnessing the incredible accomplishments of our woman athletes, look at the CHARIAD crew. Usually half the crew are woman. Three of the highest skilled jobs on the boat are usually help by woman – bow, pit and main. I could not be more proud of the whole crew and particularly our woman team mates.

The previous weekend, we did the Scituate Regatta. On Sunday, I was on board for the delivery to Marion, MA, for BBR. We raced Fri, Sat & Sun. On Monday, I got to come back with the boat to Marblehead.

Being on water is a joy for me. Sunday evening, I stayed on the boat with the Bill Nichols and Mary Hennessey. We were leaving early Monday morning to get through the Cape Cod Canal with the tide and then up Cape Cod Bay and Mass Bay to bring CHARIAD back to Marblehead.

This is the evening we shared on the Marion Harbor.

There is so much craziness all around us. We have to stop every now and then and witness the beauty that is also with us.

My best,

Rick