“Current Events” on the Neuse River

August 25-26, 2018

Photo by Jerry Thompson

As an inland lake sailor, I have not had much experience sailing in current.  At this year's Blackbeard Sailing Club One-Design Regatta, the current on the Neuse River definitely affected the sailing and the outcome of the races. 

The Blackbeard SC is a great venue and their annual one-design regatta is a fun event attended by several classes. This year the event included eight Wayfarers as well as fleets of, Flying Scots, San Juan 21s, Sunfish, Tanzer 16s, and an open class.  The location is on the Neuse River just east of New Bern, North Carolina, where the river opens up into a two-mile wide expanse perfect for sailing boats both large and small.

The weekend forecast was light to moderate winds out of the northeast on Saturday with diminishing winds on Sunday out of the north-northwest.  Bill Jarvis, the seasoned PRO, had set up a windward leeward two-lap race out in the middle of the river with a dogleg turn at the leeward mark for the finish.  This is a great arrangement for keeping the finishing boats away from the starting area when there are multiple class starts.

As we sailed out to do our check-in, I noticed that the signal boat at anchor was pointed to the left of the wind, indicating some current coming down the river.  This made sense because even though the river there is very wide and slow moving,I knew the region had excessive rains over the past few weeks and the Neuse River watershed covers a huge area. With the wind out of the north-east and the current flowing to the south-east, the starboard tack boats would be sailing almost directly into the current at the start.  The current wasn’t strong, but in the lighter air conditions this could make a difference. 

I decided that I would tack to port and head right as soon as possible after the start.  This would take me to shallow water and out of the worst of the adverse current when I tacked back onto starboard towards the windward mark.  We watched the other fleets starting before us to see if some of the people with local knowledge would do the same thing.  I know Joe Brake, sailing his Flying Scot with his 7-year-old son Beau as crew, would be worth watching. He grew up in this area and is a top-notch racer (he went on to win the FS class that weekend with 3 first place finishes and 2 seconds as his best 5 out of 6 races.). 

Sure enough, Joe tacked early onto port towards the shore.  So our plan solidified.  At the start we tried to get into the very starboard end of the line and succeeded, though a bit late.  This put us in the disturbed air of all of the starboard tack boats to our left, making our tack to port all the more urgent.  As soon as we cleared the bow of the signal boat we tacked towards shore.  The rest of the fleet continued on starboard tack - an unsettling feeling as we sailed off alone!  As we got into the shallower water on the right side of the course the wind shifted to the right and we tacked onto starboard. 

Unbeknownst to us this was the onset of a persistent shift to the right that would prevail that day.  This was pure luck for us, with our decision to avoid current putting us in perfect position for the new wind direction.  We passed the windward mark with no Wayfarers near us and we had caught up to the Flying Scots who had started 6 minutes before us!  We took the same route on the second windward leg since that had worked out so well and came down to finish several minutes ahead of the fleet. 

In the second race we again tried to get a starting position that allowed us freedom to get onto port tack early.  This time we had to duck a couple of boats.  Not surprisingly, the rest of the fleet went to the right with us and Jim Heffernan in Morning Star was right on our hip.  It turned out that a local disturbance was responsible for the persistent clockwise shift.  This also caused headaches for RC, who had to delay and reset the course after each race as the wind continued to veer.  The local disturbance built up and in the middle of the second race a dark rain cloud appeared towards shore over the marina.  Some fairly heavy rain fell on us but thankfully there were no squall winds or lightning so we sailed on. We crossed the finish in 2nd place.

Race three saw the clouds dissipate, but the eastward wind shift continued.  Our pattern of heading right for the upwind and down the middle for the downwind legs continued to pay off and we were ahead as we rounded the windward mark with Jim Heffernan, Richard Johnson, and Anne-Marie Covington close behind. 

Heading downwind on a close spinnaker reach with the pole all the way forward, we needed to pass a slower Tanzer that was sailing without a spinnaker.  Trying to roll past the Tanzer to windward would luff the spinnaker and I was concerned the Tanzer would defend her air and luff me up further. So we attempted to pass to leeward.  On a beam reach, the Tanzer created a wall of dead air that we could not punch through.  Meanwhile Jim, slightly to windward, sailed merrily by us in clear air!  The other two Wayfarers were also moving up right behind Jim so I took our only option and luffed up hard, spinnaker flapping like a flag, and crossed the transom of the Tanzer into clear air once more.  We got into the number 2 spot in line ahead of Richard and AnnMarie just barely in time and held them off to the finish.  Lesson learned!

The forecast for Sunday looked pretty dismal.  Light winds of 2-3 knots, not building above 5 until the afternoon.  Would they postpone?  They did not.  On our way out to an early first signal we saw on the score sheet that in the second race the winning Wayfarer had been OCS so our score was now 1-1-2.  The pressure was really on to do well and not blow our lead! 

The wind turned out to be significantly better than forecast, being a very pleasant steady 5-7 knots out of the north-north-west. With the breeze and cooler temperatures, it was really beautiful to be out on the river.  The wind now blowing down the river had RC setting the signal boat near the middle of the river.  Wind and current were both moving in the same direction.  Once again going to the right took you away from the channel and current and we decided to stay to that side as much as we could.  

We had a good start on the first race and once again that pesky Jim was right behind us keeping us on our toes doing some defensive sailing!  We held our lead with boats attacking from behind on the run and finished first.  Amazing!  The second race was similar, no wind shifts, beautiful steady breeze, and a closely packed group of competitive Wayfarers.  We noticed the “new guy” Joe David, who is an accomplished sailor but I believe was racing a Wayfarer for the first time, was doing really well and had managed to pass Jim.  This was despite having borrowed a baggy old set of sails for the beautiful wooden W560 that Richard Johnson and Michele Parish had restored.   It’s clearly a fast boat in the right hands (and I think still for sale. If you are interested contact Richard Johnson).

The last race of the day we didn’t have a great start and we were in the middle of the pack and sailing in disturbed air, doing a lot of tacking to find clear lanes.  We rounded the windward mark of the one lap race in 4th place but not too far behind.  We had Black Skimmer right behind us, trying to get on our wind and pass so we heated up our angle and tried to stay out from under them.  This turned out to be a good thing as going right on the downwind put you into more of the favorable current and sailing hot kept the spinnaker pulling nicely.  We were going faster than the three lead boats (Jim, Joe David, and Phil Leonard) that were closer to shore! 

We held this course way out into the river. For once I avoided my usual mistake of jibing too early and having to sail a deep course to the mark.  Coming in at a good angle we had clean air while the lead boats were being attacked from behind.  We dropped our spinnaker and hit the turning mark on a beam reach with good speed and finished first!  Unbelievable. 

After racing with my wife Nancy for about 12 years we are getting better and have our bright moments, but consistency has not been our strong suit.  Nancy’s crew work is excellent but I still make a lot of mistakes in tactics and boat handling.  This weekend we made few mistakes, made some good calls regarding river current, and had lady luck on our side with the wind shifts.  We’ll remember this one for a long time!

Uwe Heine, Wayfarer 10978

Race results as posted by BSC