NPSA BLUE AT PSA

(J/35 "Scot-free" at left & "Code Blue" above)

NPSA boats made a notable appearance at this year’s PSA Overnight Race, on Saturday June 19th.

North Point boats at the start at this year’s event were: Paul Susie’s
“Schockaroo,” Scot Reynold’s “Scot-free,” Steve Marks’ and Harry Alfriend’s San Juan 24 “Code Blue.” Harry chalked up an impressive second place in the PHRF C/D fleet!

For those unfamiliar with the event, it’s an annual race that begins in late afternoon at Baltimore Light (off the mouth of the Magothy) and usually takes the fleet up to Pooles Island and back. If winds are light, it may mean a wee-hours-of-the -morning finish, but if winds are up, like this year’s event, it’s possible to finish with some remaining twilight showing the way to the RC boat.

That’s what Scot Reynolds accomplished this year, as his J/35 “Scot-free” was the first boat to finish, taking Race Honors and PHRF A Honors by finishing the 38 nm course in slightly over 5 hours. Taking tacks into account, that’s an average speed of approximately 8 knots!

The racing was fierce between the two J/35’s, Scot’s “Scot-free” and Peter Scheidt & family’s “Maggie,” with the lead changing 3 or 4 times by race’s end. Marks 1 & 2 saw the Scheidt family’s J/boat ahead, but the lead was captured at mark 3, the Craighill light, by “Scot-free.”

(Schock35 "Schockaroo")

Scot’s big boost was splitting tacks with the fleet after the second mark, and taking the right (eastern) side on the beat from Swan Point to the Craighill light. A persistant 20 degree shift allowed Scot Free to practically lay the Light, while the rest of the fleet went left and significantly overstood the mark. At the Craighill, Scot was easily carrying a 12 boat length lead over the rest of the fleet.

Hoisting the 1.5 oz chute, Scot-free held her own against Maggie, maintaining an 8 to 10 boatlength lead, until Scot’s crew went on an unfortunate “shrimping” expedition when they doused the spinnaker up near the Pooles Island light. Dragging a couple tons of water-filled spinnaker is not fast and “Maggie” easily closed the margin at the mark to 3 boatlengths.

The 15 mile screaming-beamer back to the finish line was head-to-head between the two roaring J/boats, until “Maggie,” after a moderately hard round-up, doused her chute and climbed up to windward slightly under genoa. With the 3/4 ounce carrying on quite nicely, Scot expertly maintained control of his boat on the uncontested run to the finish at Baltimore light, beating “Maggie” and capturing line honors over Maggie by several minutes…and finishing with some light still left in the dark blue sky.