Author: Jon

Friday

Having seen the forecast for Friday and good conditions for some afternoon practice, I left for the ILCA Atlantic Coast Championship at Brant Beach on Thursday night and drove to Baltimore enabling me to miss DC traffic the next morning. 🙂

Friday morning I had a relatively easy drive to Brant Beach arriving around noon and going for some practice in the afternoon sea breeze.

We were able to jump into some practice races that one of the coaches were running and it was good to get practice around marks and other boats. In the evening there was a beautiful sunset.

Saturday

Saturday started with breakfast in the clubhouse and a postponement until the wind filled. After about two and 1/2 hours the sea breeze looked like it would fill and they sent us out around noon. I managed to be the very last boat to leave the beach, but had plenty of time to sail 1nm to the course and they postponed on the water for another 15 minutes or so as the wind settled and the course was set. After a general recall we got started under I-flag and I had an okay start by the boat. I went middle right and the folks that went hard left and started at the pin made out. I was mid-fleet and picked off a couple boats on the ensuing legs finishing 22nd.

Race 2 was another start under the I-flag. I had a great start pretty close to the boat and I was able to tack out to the right early and get in clear air. I stayed with the leaders and found myself 6th at the top mark. I didn’t play the reach very well and the fast guys went right around me downwind and I continued to drop back to the mid-20s.

For the final race of the day the wind continue to increase and the waves got sloppier. I didn’t have a great start down by the pin and found myself duking it out and just trying to find a good lane to go fast in. The rest of the race was uneventful and I finished 28th.

That evening we had a cookout in the clubhouse while the sun set behind the island just off the club’s waterfront.

Sunday

Sunday started with another postponement on shore as we waited for the sea breeze to build. This time it was a little earlier and a little stronger when it did come and we were racing by 12:30.

The starts today were a lot more competitive and I didn’t have nearly as clear of starts as I did yesterday. That meant I was tacking more and trying to find clear lanes of wind. So for race 4 I finished 29th.

In race 5 the wind increased into the double digits. I started down by the pin and went left and everyone to the right seemed like they were climbing over us so I worked my way back to the right. At the top mark I was mid fleet and I rounded the offset and tried to duck a stern to go downwind; only I mis-judged it and tapped my bow on the back of the rudder and had to do turns putting me further back in the fleet and I finished 30th.

By race 6 the wind was up to 14-16 and hiking conditions upwind. The sloppy waves from yesterday had returned and we started under U-flag. I started in the middle of the line with Eric and Andrew just below me who just flew right by me and I found myself having to tack behind everyone to look for clear air. 2 legs later we were coming into the leeward gate and I had George overlapped and just outside of me. As we hit the 3 length circle he lost control of his boat and rounded up into me. I rounded up to crash tack and avoid him as he ended up tipping on top of the right gate mark and blocking my path from rounding. I ended up in irons outside of the mark and had to go back upwind to get around him and the mark. Another boat just behind us rounded George and the mark and as they turned upwind, the side of their boat glanced across the top of my rudder leaving a gouge in their boat. I would realize later that my rudder pin was bent on the force of the impact. I would go on to finish 25 in this race and ended up 28th overall.

It was good to be back in the boat and get 3 days of sailing. I have definitely gotten out of sailing shape and have a little work to do there. I appreciate all of the people at Brant Beach who made this event possible – it was very well run and they made it easy to attend.

EVENT WEBSITE | RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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We had nice weather and a 10-boat fleet for the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Summer ILCA Regatta. For the first time Jess came out and sailed our second boat so we were on the course together.

In the first race the boat was favored and I started there and played the middle right up the course. The left ended up getting the shift and the guys that went to the left came out ahead – leaving me 6 or 7 around the top mark. I was able to make up a boat downwind and then picked up a couple more on the 2nd upwind and held that to finish 3rd behind James and Mike M.

In the 2nd race the wind was clearly going hard left and everyone started right down by the pin. I started a little down from the pin just to be away from other boats and have clear air. At the start everyone flipped to port and we were all pretty much laying the mark. I pushed the boat through the waves and the chop and what was 6-8 knots of wind. The clear air paid off and I was able to lead the fleet with a comfortable gap at the weather mark. James closed the gap on the downwind and continued to chip away at it on the upwind until he was just ahead and to my right after the long port tack. When he tacked onto starboard I had to give way and I followed him the rest of the way around the course to a 2nd.

For the 3rd race the RC shifted the course to the left and the new wind. I was slightly late to the start after trying to come in at the boat and everyone else was already there. I immediately tacked to the right and worked my way in clear air on that side of the course. I think the new course location sheltered the left of the course a bit and the boats that went left were sailing in less wind enabling me to lead the fleet at the top mark with Len and James just behind. James got around Len downwind and was just behind me at the turning mark. Upwind James did a better job picking the shifts to the right in more pressure and had gotten around me at by the top mark for another 2nd place finish.

With some threat of thunderstorms on the horizon, the RC called it a day and we went in for snacks and awards. Thanks to Matt, Heather and the Cross family for running our races!

PICTURES | RESULTS

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This year the moonlight race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club was pushed back to August to coincide with the super moon blue moon occurring a few days afterward and giving us the most light to sail by (if it weren’t for the clouds).  We were sailing aboard the J99 Battle Rhythm with Todd, Jen, Terry, Kevin, April, David, Harry and myself.  As we left the dock shortly after 6 we could tell that it was blowing pretty good out of the south east. The white caps breaking over the bar at the entrance of Jackson Creek confirmed it as we ventured out into the Piankatank. 12-15 in the river near the start and we’d see as high as 26 when we were out in the bay and clear of Gwynn’s Island.

We were a little late timing the start and followed the fleet to the first mark at the tip of Gwynn’s Island and then we headed upwind southeast into a building current.  We had started with a double reef, but quickly went to a single reef when we felt vastly under powered. At times the waves crashed over the bow and soaked the crew on the rail. Kevin and April took the brunt of it and thankfully being August it wasn’t too chilly.

On this upwind leg with winds in the upper teens with gusts into the twenties and the single reef in we were definitely overpowered. We haven’t sailed the boat in these conditions very much and took a while to figure out the groove. After we found it we were doing 7.5-8 knots upwind and making up ground on the fleet. We also took a bit of a high line closer to the wind taking us further south that enabled us to fetch the mark in the current without pinching.  This would be clutch as several boats who didn’t fetch the mark would end up having to duck us on port as we came into the weather mark. It was spooky with several boats just behind us in the dark.

The next leg took us on a broad reach to the north west into the mouth of the Rappahannock river and with the prevailing current. None of the boats put up a spinnaker with winds still reaching 26knots. At times we were doing almost 10 knots through the water.

Once we reached the turning mark in the Rappahannock it was time to come back upwind to the mouth of the Piankatank. We went a short ways inshore to Stingray point and then tacked out into the Bay. Some of the boats just behind us went even further inshore and when we crossed them they were just ahead or at least much closer. So we decided to continue the leg by going inshore and away from the current and approach the next mark on the starboard layline. We entered the Piankatank and reached into the finish shaking out the reef as we got back behind Gwynn’s island. We finished 5 minutes behind Nanuq and 2 minutes ahead of Orion, but after the corrected times were calculated, we came out 5 seconds ahead of Excitation for 1st place.

PICTURES | RESULTS | VIDEO

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I’ve been trying to go back and watch some of the Olympic sailing as most of it happened during working hours on the east coast. While I can watch the replays that are 6 hours daily – the website is terrible and makes you watch 2-3 minutes of ads every time you skip around. So as I’ve been finding the actual racing events, I’ve kept a list to be able to come back and watch certain events an so I’ve collected them here to share. If you’ve found others, drop a comment and I’ll update this with those notes and with more as I work my way through the replay coverage.

This is from the NBC Olympic Coverage accessed through a cable account. I don’t know if these are the same timings from Peacock, but would assume they would be similar.

The Schedule/Replay links: https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule/sport/sailing

Sunday 7/28

  • 2:55:00 men’s skiff

Monday 7/29

  • 0:00 women’s skiff race 4
  • 1:13:00 women’s skiff race 5
  • 1:57:00 women’s skiff race 6

Tuesday 7/30

  • 0:34:00 Men’s Windsurfing
  • 0:47:00 Women’s Windsurfing
  • 0:59:00 Men’s Windsurfing
  • 1:13:00 Women’s Windsurfing
  • 1:38:00 Men’s Windsurfing
  • 2:05:00 Men’s Windsurfing Race 5
  • 2:32:00 Men’s Windsurfing
  • 3:08:00 Men’s Skiff Race 8 – start at 3:11:00

Wednesday 7/31

  • 0:05:00 Women’s Windsurfing
  • 3:00:00 Men’s Skiff
  • 4:03:00 Men’s Skiff

Thursday 8/1

  • Men’s Dinghy – initially postponed; Race 1 starts around 0:52:00
  • 2:24:00 Men’s Skiff – start at 2:31:00
  • 4:15:00 Men’s Skiff – eventually abandoned

Friday 8/2

  • 0:00:00 49er fix medial
  • 0:57:00 49er men medal race

Saturday 8/3

  • 0:00:00 Windsurf
  • 4:00:00 Mixed Dinghy

Sunday 8/4

  • 0:00:00 Men’s dinghy – general recall – second start ~10 min later
  • 1:36:00 mixed multihull
  • mixed multihull race 6?
  • 2:17:00 mixed multihull
  • 3:06:00 mixed multihull

Monday 8/5

  • 02:55:00 Women’s Dinghy Race 9
  • 04:21:00 Women’s Dinghy Race 10. (Abandoned at 0:4:35)

Tuesday 8/6

Doesn’t seem to have commercials.

  • 0:01:00 Mixed Dinghy 470 Race 7 (Start at 0:12:00)

Wednesday 8/7

  • 0:00:30 Women’s Dinghy Medal Race
  • 0:32:42 Men’s Dinghy Medal Race – Abandoned at 1:10:00
  • 1:56:50 Men’s Dinghy Medal Race

Thursday, 8/8

  • 0:00:50 Mixed Dinghy 470 – start at 0:12:45
  • 0:42:00 Mixed Multi hull Medal Race – start at 0:52:50
  • 3:32:30 Men’s Kite – start 3:40:30
  • 4:18:00 Women’s Kite – start at 4:25:30 (finish at 4:32:10 – 6 minutes!?!?!)
  • 4:38 Men’s Kite Final – start at 4:40:40
  • 5:07:45 Women’s Kite Final – start at 5:13:35
  • 5:22:40 Men’s Kite Final – start at 5:29:20
  • 5:36:00 Women’s Kite Final – start at 5:41:41
  • 5:50:45 Men’s Kite Final – start at at 5:54:40

Friday, 8/9

  • 0:00:00 Men’s Kite Final – Race 2
    • 1:24:45 Men’s Kite Medal Ceremony

Saturday 8/10

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We had a small fleet for a summer race to Wolf Trap Light House and back. There were 6 spinnaker boats and the two boats in the PHRF-A fleet were us on the J99 Battle Rhythm and the J109 Afterthought.

We started in the Piankatank just off Gwynns Island and had winds in the low teens out of the SSE and mostly sunny. There was a bit of traffic at the start with all of the boats piling up at the starboard end of the line which happened to be the government mark. We had to dodge a few boats and once we got clear we hung with Afterthought upwind on the way out of the Piankatank.

Once we cleared the river we continued upwind south to Wolf Trap light. With the current going out of the bay it was advantageous to continue on starboard all the way out into the bay. We got to the layline a couple miles from the lighthouse and tacked onto Port.  Afterthought had continued to inch further away from us and was about ½ mile ahead of us by the time we got to the light house.  And the wind out here was around 6-8 knots.

At Wolf Trap we rounded and set the A2 spinnaker and headed downwind. We sailed this spinnaker for a bit hoping the wind would build into its range, but it didn’t come and we decided to do a spinnaker change to the A1. While Kevin, Len and Carrie got the old spinnaker down, I grabbed the tack and halyard and got it hooked to the new spinnaker and after Kevin wrestled the chute into the hatch and Len hooked up the sheet I jumped the halyard on the mast and we had the new spinnaker flying in just over a minute.

Another new trick for this race was having the chart and instruments on the iPad. We also set up some time graphs with one of them being VMG and so after we changed spinnaker we were able to see from the chart that we were getting at least a tenth more VMG.

We continued North to the Piankatank, saw a huge pod of dolphins  and eventually rounded into the river where we went somewhat upwind to the finish off Gywnns Island. On corrected time we would be about 14 minutes behind Afterthought.

All in all it was a good day of racing. Learned a few more tricks on the boat and had fun racing with Kevin, April, Carrie, Todd, Len, and Ann.

RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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Today I got to join a group from nearby Mathews Yacht Club as they visited Washington DC and the Clipper Round the World Race that had a stopover there. One of their members, Klas, is racing aboard the Quindao boat. He and a few other crew gave us all a tour of the boat and told us what life was like aboard.

It was fascinating to see how these boats were setup and how constrained the space was down below for the 24 people they typically have aboard at a time.

CLIPPER AROUND THE WORLD RACE | PHOTOS | VIDEO

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Jon launching from the beach. Photo by Heather Fields.
Jon launching from the beach. Photo by Heather Fields.

A few ILCA sailors decided to crash the 4th Spring Series race day and 3 boats made it out to the line to race. It was a windy day with a South-West wind in the upper teens with some gusts into the low 20’s. We sailed 3 races and I was able to stay close to Scott Adam, but just could match his speed to pass or stay ahead of him for long. Still a fun day on the water and glad to get some more time in plenty of wind. Thanks to Mike Toms for running RC.

PICTURES | RESULTS

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In June Jess and I visited friends in two cities in New Mexico.

Albuquerque

We started in Albuquerque visiting a college friend of mine and his family. We explored a few places in town and then took a ride up the Sandia Peak Tramway to see the sunset.

Jon, Jess & Chris exploring old town
Jon, Jess & Chris exploring old town
Riding the Sandia Peak Tramway
Riding the Sandia Peak Tramway
Watching the sun set from Sandia Peak
Watching the sun set from Sandia Peak

Santa Fe

The rest of the trip was with our friends Laurie & John who were visiting Santa Fe and rented a house there. We explored Santa Fe. Did some day trips to Taos and Bandalier National Monument with plenty of sight seeing and hiking in between.

Santa Fe Railyard
Santa Fe Railyard
Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
Ojo Caliente Hot Springs
Ojo Caliente Hot Springs
Cliff dwellings in Bandelier National Monument
Cliff dwellings in Bandelier National Monument

PICTURES

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