I was coming eastward to turn northward into the approach for Eggemoggin reach. A bunch of the NY Yacht Club boats were participating. You can tell: It was a very woody boat, the crew was all men, they were dressed in dress shirts, slacks, belts, shoes, etc. (it looked like a bunch of 50 and 60 year old "kids" going to a private school. ;^)).

Anyway, the wind was shifting forward of their beam and they tried to take down their spinnaker to shift to a jib. The guys lost the spinnaker into the water and suddenly were trying to drag it into the boat while being driven (sort-of) forward. Finally, with help of all the crew they managed to get the water out of what became a sea anchor, haul the total soaked chute onto the boat, AND DUMP THE WHOLE WET MESS DONE THE FORWARD HATCH. One can only imagine the varnish, bedding, etc. down there that was douched.

I had to flutter my sails to stay out of their way. I had timed my approach to pass astern of them. When they enter the FUBAR zone, I essentiall went into "idle" mode with the sails. Finally, after fluttering at stall speed for about 5 minutes. The were in a position for me to retrim the sails.

I went to leeward of them, and decided to shadow them about 100 yards back to see how the upper class does this sort of thing ;^). I had a hard time not passing them. Finally I gave up and really trimmed the sails...They weren't amused as my fiberglass boat with almost no varnish, and only one visible crew member wisked by them...

It is fun to watch them out there. There are all varieties of mostly classic, woody boats. Most people are having fun and smiling (unless you pass them like they were standing still).