Category: Life
2016 FBYC Cut Channel Race
We had a really nice day on Excitation for the Cut Channel Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. We started out with wind, but it died out in the middle of the bay as we sailed up the channel. By then Afterthought was able to slip away in the wind they had and what filled in behind us was too little, too late.
2016 FBYC J/70 Friday Night Series – July 1
Tonight was the first night of sailing the J/70 Friday nights. My Dad came down earlier in the day and we were able to go for a sail in between some storms.
2016 Washington Nationals Game
In DC for the day and got to stop by the Washington Nationals game against the Mets that evening (box score). Fun to see the game – if only there was a little less rain.
2016 Laser District 10 Championship
Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club was host for the 2016 Laser District 10 Championship in mid-June. Winds were light for the first 5 races on Saturday and I finished 13-11-5-11-9 to be 10th after the first day. That evening had dinner with a few of the District 10 sailors and caught a beautiful sunset at Brant Beach Yacht Club.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BG0P2TyK-6R/
On Sunday it took 2 hours of postponement for the wind to fill and then we sailed 2 more races in 10-14 knots. I finished 9-10 and stayed in 10th overall.
2016 Laser Atlantic Coast Championship
The 2016 edition of the Laser Atlantic Coast Championship was held in beautiful Bellport, New York at Bellport Yacht Club. As usually navigating the van up 95 and through New York City is always a challenge and I somehow found myself on surface streets among the taxi cabs before re-finding the expressways.
The racing started Saturday morning right off the dock of the club with 29 boats in the standard class. Having not been in a Laser since Easter and back to sailing the original MkI sail I found myself a bit off speed in the moderate winds and chop. The highlight was the race I rounded the first mark in the top 5, but would fall from there picking the wrong side on the 2nd beat. I finished 17-20-16-23 and found myself in 18th after the first day.
Sunday the weather called for much higher winds. When the RC didn’t immediately take us out on time and postponed us due to the wind conditions – I decided I wasn’t going to be in the kind of shape or practiced enough to make a respectable showing in those conditions and got on the road home. Quite a few others did the same. Eventually the RC took the fleet out for 2 more races.
2016 OBX
Following Southern Bay Race Week Jess and I joined her parents in Kitty Hawk for some beach time. In the two days I got to stay we spent a day at the beach and visited Manteo including a tour of Outer Banks Distillery.
On the way home I picked up the J/70 left in Hampton and returned it to Deltaville.
2016 Southern Bay Race Week: Sunday
Sunday ended up being the day for wind. It started out light as we were heading to the course, but as we were arriving it piped right up. We quickly re-tuned the rig for the windier conditions sailing all the way across and up the river near the naval base.
Dave, pictured above, was our secret weapon. As a local Harbor pilot he quickly identified a current line up the right side of the course upwind. On the other side of the current line we had almost 2+ knots of favorable current. At one point we were 50 yards from another j70 going slower on the other side of the current line and they couldn’t figure out why they were so much slower going so far as to check they weren’t dragging something. We made good gains out there before the rest of the fleet started to figure it out.
Downwind in the breeze we played it conservative with the spinnaker keeping the boat under us and getting around the course cleanly.
A second place finish in the 2nd and final race of the regatta gave us 3rd place for the day, but left us in 5th for the regatta.
2016 Southern Bay Race Week: Saturday
Racing Saturday at Southern Bay Race Week started light and we were at the inshore course close to Hampton. We got out there and there was a whiff of a breeze and so they started us, but by the time we reached the weather mark, the wind had died and the current was running and nobody could get around it.
An hour or so later the wind filled nicely allowing for 4 more races. We dropped a spot overall, but closed the points gap with 3rd place.
2016 Southern Bay Race Week: Friday
After arriving yesterday and setting the boat up, we were all set for what would be a very light day for racing on Friday.
The wind eventually filled and we got in 5 races and found ourselves 4th out of 7.
