Yesterday (Saturday) the VOR boats raced in the Chesapeake Bay, and I was there to watch.  My friend Dan took me on his boat so we could be part of the more than one thousand boats trying to catch a glimpse of the race action.  Dan was particularly awesome: this was the first outing on his boat after being mothballed for the winter, and he hadn't even had the time to wax or clean the boat.  Many many thanks Dan!!!!

We spent some time anchored at the edge of the race course following the action from pretty far (several miles from the boats as you'll see in the pictures below).  It was still a great day, sunny, though not that much wind which made for a shortened race (they only raced 3 out of the expected 6-10 laps).  The lack of wind prevented the boats from showing us how fast they could go (did I mention they can sail at over 20 kts.?).  The conditions, though, favored the Spanish entry Movistar and they won by more than 4 minutes from the second boat, Brasil 1.  The current race leader, ABN AMRO 1 ended second to last in sixth place.  Overall a most awesome day even though, from our vantage point, it was hard to figure out who was in what position. 

At the end of the race we waited for the boats to go by us, on their way back into Baltimore, and followed the first few for a while.  We passed within 20-30 yards from some of the boats and could even see the crew eat a well deserved snack.  What we didn't see was the newly crowned Miss USA who sailed with the Pirates of the Carribean boat throughout the race.  I didn't do my background research properly.

And to conclude this long story, here are some pictures from the race.

Here's our vantage point at the beginning of the race:



Slightly better on the downwind leg:



And even better (this is Movistar, the eventual winner):


And here are the boats chasing Movistar: Brasil 1 and Pirates of the Carribean (they finished second and third, respectively)



Towards the end of the race, Pirates got really close to us:



And so did ABN AMRO 2 (placed fifth in the end):



After the race the boats were heading home under mainsail and we got to see them quite close: here's Brasil 1



And here's the Black Pearl (the transom indicates they are from Isla de la Muerta, brrrrr..)


Can anyone see Miss USA?:


And here's Ericsson (fourth overall):


Eat my wake, Paul Cayard! :)



And here's a bizarre boat that came to view the race.  It was motoring around but the leeboards (the big wings on the side) indicate it's a sailing boat.  Looks like a Dutch barge or something.  Anyone have a better name for it?