Category: Life

It’s been a goal to get the Snipe Strange Bird out sailing before the end of the year and it looks like this might happen on Labor Day weekend.  Since I picked it up in December a lot has been done to it to get it back into sailing shape:

  • patched holes in the hull
  • strengthened, reinforced and repaired damaged rails
  • fixed dings in the hull and smoothed it out
  • built a trailer
  • reinforced the deck under the seating
  • patched the centerboard trunk
  • cleaned and oiled the splash board and rub rails
  • re-ran halyards in the mast
  • replaced all running rigging

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In July I drove out to Dallas for a week to help Jess pack up and move.  It wasn’t all work though – I got to go sailing two days with the Dallas Laser Fleet and raced a night in their summer series.

It was tight fit getting everything into the van and ended up spilling a few things over into a Uhaul trailer.

We visited with Jess’ Dallas friends and said some farewells.

And two days of driving later we were back in Richmond.

PICTURES

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The 2017 edition of the FBYC One Design Long Distance Race started out with a pretty dismal forecast.  I had planned to sail the Laser and without somewhere to store a beer cooler in such light wind I took Matt Braun’s offer to crew on a Front Runner with him.  The race started in light air and slowly built as the afternoon went on.  We had a 2nd row start and had some trouble getting to clear air up the first leg.  On the second leg those who went closer to Stove Point were rewarded with breeze a little sooner.

We put our game faces for the 2nd half of the race and caught every shift and puff and clawed our way back to the top 3rd of the fleet.  The race got a little interesting about halfway through when a barge came down the course just as boats were exiting the channel.  Thankfully everyone had maneuverability and was out of the way by the time they came through. Thanks again Matt for a great day of sailing!

 

RESULTS | PICTURES

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I sailed the FBYC Cut Channel Race aboard Excitation this year and the race had a bit of a twist to it: boats could sail clockwise or counter-clockwise around the same 31nm course. We were among the boats that had read the SI’s earlier in the week and not gotten the memo that it changed the night before until we figured that out about 5 mi into the race and by then it was too late to be competitive.  It was still a beautiful day to sail across the bay and thanks Mayo for having me along.

Cut Channel Race Start

RESULTS | PICTURES

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The forecast for the Open House Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club improved as we got closer to Sunday and it ended up be great sailing conditions for the few mile progressive start distance race.  This race featured boats from 14′ all the way up to 48′ and they were all handicapped against each other with the slow boats starting first and having a head start over the faster boats. The first boat over the finish line wins.

I sailed a Front Runner with Alan as crew and were among the 24 boats racing under mostly cloudy skies with the wind out of the ESE at 9-11.  As one of the slower boats we were about the 5th group to start and there were 2 other Front Runners racing with us.  The start was across the Piankatank River near Godfrey Bay and took us east and upwind towards the mouth of the Piankatank River.  Sailing down the river we stuck to the North shore near Fishing Bay and Stove point to stay out of the current.

That ended up being the key to the race as we extended out a lead and were able to get far enough ahead of the faster boats that they weren’t able to catch up.  It also helped us that 1/4 of the race was close reaching rhumb line sailing where putting up a spinnaker didn’t really help any.  On the final leg to the finish the J/70 E.L.E. made a pretty good charge and we edged them out finishing less than 1/2 a minute ahead.

Big thanks to Matt for letting us borrow the boat and for Alan doing a great job crewing in his second race.

RESULTS

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