2026 Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship

This weekend I served as event chair for the Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. After a few months of planning and a final week of preparation, we welcomed 39 boats in two fleets for the 46th edition of the event.

There were a few last-minute food snafus that required finding alternatives, but everything came together. Friday was spent getting the club ready and checking in competitors. By Saturday morning, it was time to put down the to-do list for a few hours and go sailing.

Saturday

Getting the course set took a little extra time. The initial setup was too far west, leaving insufficient water to the left to place a mark. The race committee moved the course back east, and about 25 minutes later we were ready to start. The wind was in the mid-teens and building, with small chop, waves around a foot, and plenty of puffs and holes.

The boat end looked favored for the first race, so I set up to win that end with Gavin O’Hare just below me. Andrew Stillman tried to squeeze between us and the committee boat. After some close maneuvering to avoid further fouling me, he ended up over the line early and out of the way. I came off the line with a great start, above Gavin and ahead of David Waiting.

That lasted about a quarter of the first beat.

I went to tack and didn’t get under the boom quickly enough. Before I knew it, the boat was over. I missed the hiking strap and took the fast route down the underside of the hull into the water. By the time I was upright and going again, I was in the middle of the fleet.

My boat handling was still a little shaky, and I was feeling out of practice. I made up a couple of boats around the course but was slow downwind and finished 13th. Up front, David pulled away to win, with Alex Jacob holding second all the way around. Ron Thompson also had a great race.

The breeze was up around 17–18 knots after the finish. One ILCA 6 sailor had broken a mast and needed a tow ashore, and several others had retired.

I had another good start in race two and a solid first beat, rounding the top mark just behind the leaders. I followed David downwind for a while before he found another gear, worked out to the right, and kept going.

On the next upwind leg, I went right looking for more pressure. The pressure was there, but some awkward shifts kept it from working out the way I hoped. Things got particularly squirrely near the top mark, where I missed a couple of shifts and lost a boat or two.

Near the bottom of the course, Scott Mogle caught a great shift from the east and came cruising in to round inside me at the final leeward mark. I finished 13th again, but it was good racing. My boat handling was improving, and I was more confident putting the boat where I wanted it, especially in some of the tighter situations around the marks. The breeze had eased a little, with occasional lulls below 10 knots, but we still had low-teens wind and some whitecaps.

The third race had a heavily skewed start. A lot of boats gathered at the pin, and Ron Thompson managed to port-tack the fleet. I started at the boat and went right, which didn’t work particularly well. I spent much of the race following people around, though I made up some ground on the second beat by working left and catching better shifts.

For the final race, the committee posted an H7 course. Apparently, we hadn’t needed a seven in all the time I’d been at the club, so they had to make one with tape.

I had another great start at the boat. This time, I made a point of avoiding getting too far out to the right and worked the shifts toward the left. I stayed in touch with the lead group, lost a few boats downwind, but kept clear of the pack behind me.

Mist and drizzle arrived midway through the race. The committee shortened the course to finish at the weather mark after the second lap, conveniently putting us closer to home. I finished 10th, my best result of the day, and we sailed in and de-rigged in the drizzle.

Once ashore, I quickly put the boat away and got to work on the scoring. This was our first time using ClubSpot for the event, and I wanted to handle it myself to learn how it worked. Switching from racing to scoring was part of the balancing act of sailing in an event I was also organizing.

Alain Vincey put together a great dinner of ribs, Carolina shrimp and crab soup, vegetables, macaroni and cheese, and pie for dessert. After a wet day on the water, it was good to sit down, eat, and catch up with everyone.

Someone described the weekend as “a two-day party with some sailing in between.” Saturday certainly delivered both parts.

Sunday morning brought little wind, continued mist and drizzle, and very low visibility on the water. We postponed for an hour before calling a skippers’ meeting to discuss the options.

I laid out the forecast and the choices: abandon racing, keep postponing, or head out in roughly 6-7 knots of wind with more rain expected in about two hours. The fleet elected to call it a weekend, so we packed up and got ready for awards.

David Waiting claimed his third overall title in ILCA 7, while Bill Symes won the ILCA 6 fleet in his first appearance at the event. Deniz Cirivello won three of the four ILCA 6 races and repeated as the top woman.

Thank you to everyone who made the trip, to Rick Klein and the race committee for working through a difficult course setup and shifting conditions, to the safety crews, and to Alain and everyone who helped with the food and social side. It takes a lot of people to put this weekend together, and I appreciate all the work that went into it.

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