Sails: Pandora mainsail and 169LP genoa, EP Sails spinnaker and Interrupt spinnaker.
Event: 2025 Annapolis Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta
Course: Start at Hackett's G"1". Windward mark 070* (relative?) at 0.75nm , two laps, gate the the leeward end. No offset mark to windward.
Prognosis: Given that we are not racing on Shabbat, expect that either Windswept or Carnival Lady win, Skybird third and either Rinn Duin or Constance fourth.

Three Races on the first day. Very good day. Rick and I worked very well together. Consulted with each other on each major decision, including when to tack or gybe. No surprises regarding other boats. A day of focused effort with light banter and excellent team work. Rick drove all day. I did bow and genoa. Particularly satisfying was the way we worked together to handle starboard tack ports while we were on port tack. By communicating and trusting each other we were able to soft duck Viper's and J/22's, upwind cross Carnival Lady several times, and upwind cross Carnival Lady once.

EYC ran the course and did an excellent job. They chose to courses: long and shortr; sending the Viper 640, J/29 and J/30 on the long course (1/4nm longer), while the J/22's and Alberg 30's sailed the short course. The radio operator on the signal boat did an excellent job of clearly informed all competitors each step of the wayby speaking clearly and unhurriedly.

First race was marked by a few errors that I committed on the first downwind leg. First, I got the starboard spin sheet caught on the underside of the roller furler drum. Second, I got the spinnaker through the foretriangle such that the starboard sheet was around the headstay. Released and reattached the starboard spin sheet, repeated with the port spin sheet, so that we could fly the kite without any issues. Upon lowering the kite was careful to clear the halyard to prevent issues with the roller. Flew the EP Sails spinnaker on the first downwind leg and the Interrupt spinnaker on the second. Second downwind leg spinnaker work we meaningfully better than the first downwind leg. Both Windswept and Carnival Lady had better speed with i>Windswept pointing particularly well. Finished fourth.
GPX formatted track . Distance: 4.60, Speed: 4.8kts, Duration: 0:57

Second race, we tried sailing wing on wing on the first downwind leg with little satisfaction...the sail is too wide for the wind to keep it filled. On the second downwind leg, we started using a boat hook to hold out the clew of the sail. Doing so was nearly as fast as Carnival Lady under spinnaker given that we sailed directly downwind while Carnival Lady sailed hotter angles. Nearly as fast downwind as the J/22's flying spinnakers. J/22's have a PHRF rating of 180 to 185 vs the Alberg 30 at 230. We finished third as Skybird had various issues. Upwind we were clearly faster than Skybird in the second and third races.
GPX formatted track . Distance: 4.43, Speed: 4.3kts, Duration: 1:01

Third race, was Rick's best start. We stalled for nearly a minute about two boatlengths below the line. Powered up with 20 seconds to go and hit the line a few seconds after the gun at speed. Could not maintain point with Windswept. Pulled away from Skybird. Carnival Lady tacked to port early...we later crossed Carnival Lady to discover that she was flying a #2 genoa. With the genoa poled out each downwind leg we finished third.

Very soon after the start, I looked up from trimming genoa over the starboard coaming to see a motorboat with a video camera on a long selfie stick filming the bottom of Constance. Upon asking if there was a problem down there, they replied that we had the best bottom they had seen all day. I went back to trimming. Next thing I know there are bow wave sounds just behind me. Its The video boat again which proceed to stay with us for what seemed like 10 minutes filming in very close quarters, less than five feet from our gunwale to theirs.
GPX formatted track . Distance: 4.13, Speed: 5.1kts, Duration: 0:48

Alberg 30 video at 9:19