Saturday I celebrated the wedding of my sailing buddies Mark Stephens and Melissa Orndorff. The wedding was held at Hermitage Hill Farm and Stables near Waynesboro, VA. Here are some of my favorite photos:
My date to this wedding was a real nag:
Of course I had the GoPro up in a tower simultaneously taking video and stills:
Some of the sailing crowd
This is also the first real photography opportunity I’ve had since I’ve switched to using back button focus on the D7000. I generally liked it. My biggest fear was that I’d try to hand the camera to a non-photographer or someone would pick it up to take a picture and either get out of focus pictures or just get frustrated with it. I’m looking forward to using this more and I really think it helped my hit % of properly focused pictures.
For the 3rd and final day of the Severn Sailing Association Soling Frostbite we had another day of light thermals and mostly overcast skies. I was once again the middle guy flying the chute and calling tactics on Mike Waters boat along with bowman Al Tierney.
In the first race we were a little late to the start and wound up behind the other 4 boats. We worked the left while the rest of the fleet went right and wound up rounding the first mark in last. While the rest of the fleet took the rhumb line to the mark in wind that had shifted to the right looking upwind. We instead went downwind for a bit, straight out into the bay to meet the new breeze coming in and then gybed downwind in pressure and carried that to the downwind mark. That new wind took a while to reach the rest of the fleet and we found ourselves in 2nd at the leeward mark.
Going upwind we picked the shifts and pressure well and passed a boat to round in first. Again we headed out into the bay while the boat just behind us did a tight rounding and headed down the rhumb line to the finish. We were out of the wind barely making headway to the left of the course while our competition was nearly halfway to the finish. Other boats were rounding and following the other boat and making better distance on the finish than we were. And just like clockwork, the breeze came in from the left and carried us right by everyone and we won the race.
In the second race we got a good start and just played the shifts and pressure upwind and kept ourselves between the other boats and the next mark and were able to win that race as well.
In the 3rd race we had a pretty solid lead using the same strategy as the 2nd race. On the final run we just tried to just stay ahead. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t cooperate and brought some of the boats behind us right up to us and one boat was able to squeak ahead of us at the line.
In the end a 1-1-2 was enough to win the day and pull ourselves up into 1st overall for the frostbite series. In the last 43 years the winter series has only been won by 3 different guys. Congratulations to Mike Waters on becoming the 4th person to win the series. I was glad I could be along for a ride, I enjoyed getting to try some Soling sailing and I can’t wait to do it again.
For the 2nd day of the SSA Soling Frostbite we had a bit more variable conditions than 2 weeks ago. This time we had 5 boats out and were able to get 2 races in. Mike Waters was skipper, Josh Page did bow and I was in the middle flying the spinnaker and doing wind/tactics.
We did well in the first race by having good boat speed up wind and making the left work for us. We finished 2nd having held that position all race.
In the 2nd race we had another good upwind and rounded in 2nd. At the leeward mark, there was no committee boat and we mistaked which one of the two marks was our rounding mark and lost some distance to the leader. The next two legs each had 180 degree shifts in them making it challenging, but it switched swiftly and did little to change the results as we still ended up second.
I got to join Rob Whittemore on a Flying Scot for the 4th and final day of the Greater Richmond Sailing Association Frostbite Series. We had an absolutely beautiful day with temperatures in the high 60’s and shifty winds from 5-12 knots.
We sailed in the cove right off the shore. To windward, the weather mark is set right below a roadway on a berm which is pretty open, but makes it very hard to see the wind beyond it coming down the course. The starting line was short and with 9 boats the starts were all tight with boats barging the line on every start.
In the puffs the weather leg could be sailed in 2-4 minutes…. in the lulls it could take 5-8 minutes or more. While we were never really able to figure out the exact patterns there were a number of things we used to help gauge which way we thought the wind would go and where we thought we’d find more pressure. These things ranged from the fetch up the lake we could see under the bridge, the flag on the other side of the bridge, the flag at the yacht club and of course the wind on the water in what little fetch there was between the weather mark and the lee shore.
As shifty as it was – we definitely had to be on our toes. Miss a shift – and we learned this the hard way- and we could be passed by a couple boats immediately. We did well to stay in the front of the fleet around the course and our consistency paid off allowing us to recapture first whenever we let it slip and we were able to take 1st in all 5 races today.
Following racing Rob and I were asked to judge the chili cook off.
A big thanks again to GRSA for hosting this frostbite series. All of the FBYC sailors really appreciated being able to get some winter sailing in so close to hope. I’m looking to being back again soon!
Saturday I got to sail on a Soling for my first time in SSA’s Soling Frostbite. A Soling is a 27′ 3-person keel boat and I was sailing as the middle crew with skipper Mike Waters and bow Gretchen E. We had a bit of a slow start as we dialed in the boat and got through each of the crew mechanics the first time. We learned, we got better and while our results don’t show it, we were actually pretty competitive.
Today’s weather was perfect for frostbiting. Air temperatures on land in the high 50’s with a water temperature of 38. That created great thermal conditions and we had relatively steady wind that started around 8 and built to about 12 before coming back down to about 10 out of the SSW.
In the first race we had a good start, were 2nd at the windward mark and were the first boat to the leeward mark. Unfortunately for us we couldn’t get the spin halyard down and ended up sailing 1/2 mile past the leeward mark before we were able to free the halyard to retrieve it. We took a DNF in that one.
The 2nd race went much better for us. While we weren’t able to fix the core problem with the spin halyard, at least we knew the problem and could work around it. We ended up leading that race wire to wire. We did a great job picking the shifts on both upwind legs and kept a comfortable cover on the boats around.
For the 3rd race we had another great start, got to the windward mark first, but lost a boat downwind. On the 2nd upwind we got on the wrong side of the course as more pressure came from the other side dropping us back to 5th.
Overall the racing was really tight with only a few points separating the boats, but with our DNF we got the short end of the stick and wound up 5th overall. It was a great learning experience and I’m looking forward to going back in a couple weeks for the next frostbite day.
The final day of the US Sailing Leadership Forum started out with James Clark (founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape) telling us about his j-boat programs and the new 100′ grand prix boat that will be launched later this year.
Later in the day I attended sessions on Adult Lear To Sail Programs, Growing Membership and Increasing Participation, and regatta websites. That was followed by a farewell party by the pool.
I came to this forum having previously only met 3 or 4 people in person out of the more than 600 attendees. It was great to finally meet so many of the people I’ve emailed, conference called or worked with in some way over the years. I’m also incredibly appreciative of all of the prominent sailors and leaders in our sport who I got to speak with for a couple minutes and thankful they attended to provide their insight and guidance.
I have to commend US Sailing on doing such a great job to bring so many people together. It was informative in all the right ways and I got more out of it than I ever expected I would.
And finally – on the ride back into Richmond we came in directly over the city. Thanks Delta for allowing us to use electronic devices during all stages of flight!
This was the 2nd day at the US Sailing Leadership Forum with 1 more day left. It was really a great day of learning and connecting with people and meeting people in the sport I’ve never been able to meet in person. I’d name some highlights, but I can’t name a highlight when just about everything from today was a highlight.
So what did I do today?
Listened to the state of the union on big boat racing. Learned about the rating rules as well as their strengths and weaknesses; the universal measurement rule; keel failures; and the diversity of events.
Went to a seminar on creating sailing opportunities: Diversifying through outreach. Learned about various demographics and opportunities to introduce new demographics to sailing and how to do it.
Learned about building and motivating an organization. This was incredibly relevant for both sailing and my work. Learned about having clarity, empowerment, excitement, respect and ownership; how to be a good leader as well as a good follower.
Found out how the rules apply to the electronic age including how some of the technology used at the America’s Cup for enforcing the rules worked and when it might or might not trickle down to other forms of sailing.
Got to see a variety of new boats up close and on the water and how they may fit as tools to bring new sailors to the sport
Saw Chris Love’s GoPro equipped quad copter and some pretty awesome shots of the beach front activity.
And to top it all off – there was a pretty kick ass party.
The first full day of the US Sailing Leadership Forum was started early by west coast standards. I ran the 1.5mi from my hotel to the beach in front of the event hotel and we got to do a Stand Up Paddle Board fitness class.
After running home and cleaning up we started the forum with presentations by Gary Jobson and Ken Read. It was great hearing their views on sailing as well as it’s challenges and opportunities. I attended sessions on:
Sailing Industry
How to Unleash the Power of Social Media
Lowering the Average age of Your Sailors
Fleet and Club Owned Boat selection
Between the sessions and getting to talk to so many sailors from such a wide background was really a great experience and great way to share ideas and learn from others. I took about 2 pages of notes from each session and after I get home I distill those down and share some of the biggest things I learned this week.
In the evening was the US Sailing Community and One Design Awards Ceremony held at the San Diego Hall of Champions. I got to sit next to the President of US Sailing, Tom Hubbell, on the bus there and talked to him about being/having been sailors on Chautauqua Lake among other things. The Hall of Champions is a great sport museum and as a sailor I loved the full-sized Star boat on display as well as all of the sailing history and America’s Cup history in the rooms of sailing exhibits. I also got to visit with my sister and meet her boyfriend who came down from L.A. for the dinner.
The awards ceremony itself was neat to see and hear about all of the amazing and wonderful things that so many others were doing for the sport of sailing. It was an honor to be among them and it was an even greater honor to receive the 2013 US Sailing One Design Leadership Award presented by my friend Margaret Podlich.
I traveled to San Diego California today to attend the US Sailing Leadership Forum. Getting up at 4am to make my flight made for a long day. Once in San Diego I met a friend, Karen, for lunch and we toured the USS Midway air craft carrier.
In the evening I attended the welcome reception and got to meet a lot of people whom I had heard about or even emailed with, but never met in person.
