We had a great kickoff for our seventh season with the White Tiger and 13th since some of us started graduating. It was great seeing everyone again and reminiscing about how much has change and yet how much is the same.
We were blessed with good overcast football weather.
It was great to be back!
The first of the one design fall series I borrowed a Front Runner and took my friend Patrick Conroy for his first sail on a Front Runner. Save one race we weren’t much of a match for the other very experienced Front Runner sailors, but we had fun and Patrick even got to drive the last race.
After racing we were joined by Jen and Patrick’s wife Lauren for dinner at Merroir.
The last of the Friday night series Brad and I joined Matt and Guthrie on E.L.E. for a light air night of sailing with 2 other J/70s. We ended up doing one race and saw a beautiful sunset.
Nearly a year in the making this would mark the first time I was the event chairman for the 77th Annual One Design Regatta. With that role came a lot of additional responsibilities and unlike the single-class regattas for Lasers that I have often chaired – this one involved organizing for many different classes. In the end I think we did the best we could to balance the wishes of the sailors vs the sailing conditions we had and the volunteers and resources we had available.
Being the event chairman I was focused on making sure the event ran smoothly and so I only made it out for two races. I had a good first race and ended up in a bad spot in the 2nd race that I couldn’t get out of at a mark rounding and ended up fouling a boat and had to retire from the race.
This summer I got to take Jess and join my family in Portland Oregon for 6 days of touring any my sister’s wedding. We stayed in a boutique hotel in downtown Portland that was walkable to a lot of neat restaurants and parks.
For Day 2 Jess and I spent the whole day on a tour driving around Willamette Valley tasting some fantastic pinot noirs that the region is known for.
The next day we spent some time at the Oregon Brewer’s festival.
The wedding was at a beautiful botanical garden. We had fun seeing family, reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones from across the country. We had a lot of fun celebrating with my sister Cheryl and her new husband Dean.
On the last day of touring we visited Multnomah Falls and the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River
No wind in the morning so we postponed onshore for 2 hours and then went out to catch the sea breeze. The Braun family ran 5 races for us and we had 8 standard rigs and 4 radials out racing. Generally I had good speed all around the course, but wasn’t as clean in transitions as I could have been. Charlie Brewer sailed a superb day and wasn’t able to be caught taking 5 bullets. I settled for 2nd scrambling to stay ahead of Rob W and Csilla Gal. Big thanks to Matt Braun and Doug Bendura for heading up the RC.
We made the 2nd of the Summer Seabreeze regatta a rookie regatta in the Front Runner. Matt Braun and I both crewed for first time Front Runner skippers. The wind came up around 1:30 and we had a light 8 knot sea breeze to race in. 2 races and my skipper Parker Davis took two bullets. Nice work, Parker.
The Screwpile Regatta was another fun summer classic. Thanks to Mayo Tabb for again bringing Excitation and having us along. We sailed the boat well despite being pitted against a bunch of light sport boats that we could never make up our time on.
We sailed, we partied, we watched people play Pokémon Go around town. AND I got to celebrate 1 year with my girlfriend Jess! A great weekend all around!
For the 2nd year in a row I’ve sail the J/70 in the Southern Chesapeake Bay Leukemia Cup Regatta. We had mostly sunny skies and winds in the 8-12 range with 7 J/70s on the course. Early in the day we really had a groove going and were able to make good boat speed putting up 2-2 in the first two races. A 4th in the 3rd race put us in 2nd overall just one point out of first going into day 2.
Sunday started out with a close race where we finished 3rd. The wind got lighter and we struggled putting up a 6th to hang onto 3rd overall. Thanks Carrie, Brad & Louis for a great weekend of sailing!
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To complete the July 4th weekend the Lasers joined the Summer Seabreeze Regatta at FBYC and 7 of us had some quality racing in overcast and 7-10 knot breezes. I focused on my starts and started well and had good speed upwind and downwind. Just couldn’t get ahead of Charlie Brewer and settled for 2nd in 2 races.