Maxwell Morrill

Beautiful Bar Harbor day with Southwest eight not winds sailed into Frenchman Bay down wind and started sailing off when the wind died motored up to bar island with the wind, came up quite shifty, and then came in to the morning ball to tie off Fun day with Sean sailing his new boat Scorthia

Another beautiful day for sailing in eastern way with East southeast winds 6 to 10 kn. Bit funky conditions with hurricane Erin down the coast off Cape Cod The pursuit race put us out front towards the first B mark, but the other big boats quickly caught up and lead most the way down the down wind leg and back up to finish ahead Second race, we were caught a little eager to cross the finish line and had to circle back, which gave all the boats a considerable lead. The wind started to drop off and sailing was quite slow 2 to 3 kn COG. Oh, and all a nice day for some great sailing from the northeast Harbor

Beautiful day with slightly scattered high clouds and really strong Northwest winds at 12 kn 18-20 kn gusts. Super sporty day, almost overpowered for the start but that didn’t stop the donkey from losing advantage and coming in 15 to 20 minutes behind the rest of the fleet on both races. I was a more active, taking control of sail trim and squeezing every knot forward out of this slow boat. I tried to explain when things were off and this led to a very frustrating battle of wills with John. After 3 hours of this I was done. Done with being dead last, done with being frustrated and done with being told to sail in a very unconventional and unproductive way. Honestly, couldn’t get off the boat fast enough. What I learned today, even the strong passion to sail can be overshadowed by a frustration and nonsense. Lyndsey was super fun to sail with that was the big plus for today!

Fun Sunday for the Hayward 100th anniversary cup. Under beautiful skies, gorgeous bluebird day with 9.5 not Southwest wind. Nice triangular course, 2x times around the marks. Was Vladimir‘s first time sailing coached him through work in the main sheet and traveler. John was his normal colorful self yelling commands and making questionable moves The sailboat races like a donkey more than a horse. Each time I try to make the sails run smoother, John is always in a rush to get out so nothing gets fixed and we finish last. Broke the Cunningham, raising the sail too fast and the boom bang was broken from the day before. Frustrating to not have the time to fix the running rigging and being told to just leave it and go. But I’m on the water and sailing so that’s the big plus. I always try to learn a little bit more and have fine along the way.

What a beautiful day in Maine. Gorgeous blue skies, not a cloud in the sky. Another day on Rocinante. And not without some bit of failure or mishap. I’m starting to think this boat is cursed. 😆 Some practice sailing led to a nice start. In the pack but the Jib is off. Not trimmed the way it should be. Seems too long for the boat. Francis at the helm, John on jib, I was on Main and foredeck. We were in the run on the downwind and at the finish, Francis caught the finish buoy on the bow, wow and drug it 200 yards… I eventually got it free. Unbelievable. Then were sailing upwind again, trying to make up some major loss, we just fell out of the running and way behind. Helman needed, majorly. Then on the downwind, everything fell apart and on the douse, the hardware on the boom vang came off the mast and tore a small hole in the spinnaker Race over.

What a beautiful day for an IOD race with John Evans. It’s started so nicely with practice tacks and gybs. We had a good start to the first race but quickly fell behind with the lack of sailing knowledge with the two other crew. Then on the down wind the spinnaker got caught and completely tangled. Then we finished way behind. Super frustrating. Then the second race started clean. Good start. Then slowly we fell behind again. Main sail trim was an issue due to the other crew again. We tried to correct with positive vibes and instructions (on the fly) I was on jib sheets, fine tune, sail adjustments foredeck and spinnaker. Would’ve been better to sail the boat with just John and I, honestly. Big lessons learned. Fully exhausted! Hope to be back on Sat & Mon

Beautiful Sunday 78° with Southwest wind 10 to 12 kn. Started the race with a perfect start. And even with the handicap kept up with the big boats. First time sailing on the J105. Had a really good race, very casual with a great crew. I really like racing with them very different. Mostly helped when I could, but hung back and just got familiar with the whole crew in the racing style of the J105

Beautiful day one of the northeast Harbor fleet August Race. Beautiful sunny skies and 78° with winds out of the southwest at 14 and building. Got a nice start with the full crew got thrown onto the B&H Vulcan to plot the race course, that was fun Little bit of a delayed start. Made our way out from Gilpatrick and Western Way and wind dropped and current was really strong so we got stuck in the doldrums for a little bit. Once we broke free, it was fast sailing up wind towards the Gott Islands and into Blue Hill Bay towards the finish Dave and I had our hands full with pit and floor deck duties. All and all a good time.

Overcast skies and strong wind from the SW 14-16 kn with a solid crew. Will Wells at the helm with Mike & family on the boat for the race. I was back on the running backs again and did a lot better. Smoother with more understanding. Had a CoA student Quinn on the port RB and coached her through the process. One of the working RB blew on the down wind gyb, with the spin set, not sure what happened there but will do better next race. We caught a buoy but I got the boat off it with some calls. All in all a good race and we finished 2nd

Set up for the Saturday race around 12:30 making our way towards Bear Island and Sutton Island. Variable winds from multiple directions caused for a delayed start sailed around the Race committee boat as they moved to course from one place to another by 3:30. They canceled the race because of the shifting wind. Mostly the wind was out of the northwest and it would shift out of the east and then shift north east although the wind was pretty shifty. The winds were 8 to 9 kn and pretty fun sailing with the crew as I got to practice the fore deck responsibilities. All in all a beautiful Saturday under gorgeous blue skies temperatures were around 70° and fun times