2016 Richmond Flying Squirrels
Fun night for a Richmond Squirrels game! Sat in the party box and got to go on the field before the game.
Author: Jon
J70 Trailer Dock Box Ventilation
I had seen this idea when I sailed the J/70 Winter Series last year and finally had a chance to add it. In short I cut a hole in the aft end of both dock boxes on the trailer and added a screen with a vent cover over it. This allows a little more air flow into the dock box in case any wetness ends up in there. The vents are on the back of the trailer so no rainwater gets in when trailering in wet conditions.
Parts:
- Louvered Vent
- Piece of screen
- 5200
- Nuts/washers/bolts
Tools
- 2″ hole cutter
Photos:
2016 FBYC J/70 Spring Regatta
Sunday was the Fishing Bay Yacht Club J/70 Spring Regatta with 6 boats racing in 14-16 gusting to 20 out of the West. With Andrew, Evan and Mark on board we had a great crew and were really able to get the boat around the course well in the higher winds. We even kicked it up a gear planning downwind when we could.
We sailed 5 races with some pretty tight finishes with the other boats. In 3 of the races we finished a boat length or less behind someone. The shifty and puffy conditions made it both challenging to stay in phase and hard to keep changing modes to keep the boat going fast.
We finished a consistent 1-3-3-2-2 including having to restart on the final racing having been OCS. Another great day.
The series concludes next Sunday at Spring Series #4.
2016 FBYC Offshore Spring Series #3
It took a while to get out on the J/70 for the first time this year and it was a great day for it at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Offshore Spring Series #3. Onboard today were Andrew, Evan and Nathan and there were 3 other J/70s in the fleet among the 20 other boats out racing.
Saturday started light WNW around 6-8 and built to the 10-13 by the end of the 3rd race. We had good boat speed up wind, played most of the shifts well and went 2-1-2. On most of the downwinds Ron Thompson sailing Nostalgia put on a clinic and either pulled ahead if he was ahead or caught up if he was behind. The next day we realized we had the spinnaker rigged wrong and wasn’t getting it to full hoist.
All in all a great first day back in the boat and excited to continue the season this spring.
Following racing we were hanging around the club as it rained and cleared and we were treated to a beautiful rainbow.
Lauren & Patrick’s Wedding
A few photos from the wedding of Lauren and Patrick this weekend. So fun to celebrate with them and their family and friends at The Boathouse at Rockets Landing.
Lauren & Patrick
Jon & Jess
Glasses and city views
2016 J/70 Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning day for the J/70. Test mounted the new mast travel carrier and gave the boat a good scrubbing to be ready for the season!
Tom & Jamie’s Wedding
The genesis for the trip to Lake Norman was the wedding of my college buddy Tom to his fiance Jaime. Being the reception was on Lake Norman so close to the yacht club I was able to sail Saturday, attend the reception and sail again on Sunday.
It was a beautiful venue at a home on the lake and it was great catching up with old friends and celebrating with Tom, Jamie and their family and friends. Congrats Tom & Jamie!
2016 Lake Norman Yacht Club Lightning Spring Championship: Sunday
Day 2 at the Lake Norman Yacht Club Spring Lightning Invitational was to see lighter winds – but we were pleasantly surprised with 5-8 knots for our first race. Steve, Jeff and I had another good start and stayed in the top 5 all the way around the course making gains near the top of the final upwind and finished with a 2nd. That gave us a few point lead over 2nd place Greg Fisher going into the final race.
As the 2nd race started the wind began to die. We took a conservative approach up the middle and boats on both sides found more wind and rounded ahead. We were around 8th at the top mark – picked up a couple boats downwind and then found the wind even lighter and more fickle on the 2nd upwind. We picked some shifts and caught some boats and even crossed ahead of Greg. But he found wind on the other side of the course and wound up finishing 3 boats ahead of us and we fell back to 6th as we reached the top mark for a shortened finish.
It wouldn’t be until we were arriving at the awards that we found out that we had tied Greg Fisher for 1st and we won the tiebreaker on account of having won 2 of the races. A great result for a pick up team in a borrowed boat against some good sailors. Thanks again Steve and Jeff Hayden for having me along and Bill for all of the hospitality at Lake Norman Yacht Club!
2016 Lake Norman Yacht Club Lightning Spring Championship: Saturday
A fun sailing opportunity came together for me this weekend while I was going to be in town for Tom & Jamie’s wedding – I was able to sail at Lake Norman Yacht Club at their Spring Lightning Regatta. Bill Wiggins set me up with Steve and Jeff Hayden who were coming up from Florida and needed a 3rd.
I haven’t sailed a Lightning since sometime in the early 1990’s when I would ride my bike down to Chautauqua Lake Yacht Club and jump on a boat for their Wednesday night series. Steve and Jeff are great sailors and it was easy to fit right in with them on the boat. I did the bow and while I probably wasn’t the quickest nor the most graceful gybing the pole – I don’t think I slowed us down any.
In the first race of the day we had a great start right at the line at the gun. From there we just picked some shifts and found ourselves at the top mark in first- from there we extended around the course.
In the second race we had a reasonable start – but other boats hugged the left even more and we found ourselves around 6-8 at the top mark. The wind was coming up a little more from the 6-8 in the first race to where we were definitely sitting out to balance the boat. On the second upwind we picked some good shifts and made it to 3rd through to the finish.
The 3rd race wasn’t as good to us on the start. We were near the back of the pack at the top mark, but worked on picking off boats on every leg with good boat speed and managed 6th.
For the 4th and final race of the day – we again had a good start. Got to the top mark in the top 3, held our position downwind and pulled ahead on the next upwind winning the race and putting us solidly in front of the 19-boat fleet on the first day.
2016 FBYC Opening Day
This weekend should have been Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s Opening Day Race followed by a J/70 clinic on Sunday – but the weather conspired to have it cancelled. With no sailing to do and only a Blessing of the Fleet and party to attend – it became a work weekend and thus the J/70 that was not yet rigged was packed and hauled to Richmond.
While at home it was easy to get a couple projects done:
- Trailer visibility
- Aft engine storage cradle
- Dock box vents
