As we were heading down the Chesapeake from Whitehall Creek we noticed a large group of schooners milling about. Turns out this was the day for the annual schooner race. The photos which follow are fun to study, and there are a couple of rig items worth noting. We’ll start with this derivative of the schooner America. She quickly showed her stern to the rest of the fleet in the light to moderate fetching and reaching conditions. In this shot it appears the main is soft or the fore is a wee bit tight. A little later and the breeze has eased and backed. Trim looks spot on. This much smaller staysail schooner was in second place. She was hanging on in the light but as the breeze strengthened the longer boat waterlined her. Note the substantial fisherman staysail. Properly shaped and trimmed it can be a powerful addition to power. But these are hard to get right. Another staysail schooner with a fisherman staysail, this one trimmed to perfection. Note the difference in the shape of the fisherman compared to that of the previous schooner. It is critical to keep the trailing edge slots open as shown here, but not easy to do, especially where a fishermen staysail is concerned. Lets count the trim adjustments: Sheets for main, forestaysail, genoa, and fisherman plus the fisherman downhaul and peak halyard.  Thats seven strings to constantly adjust plus halyards, downhauls, and outhauls, preventers and vangs. This rig is for those who bore easily and need to be kept busy pulling strings.