It was the first weekend in December and the plan had been to race in FBYC’s winter series but fog and lack of good weather on future weekends for a delivery to Irvington for a haul out meant today was the day to make the trip.
With the winter series going on, we left the dock and sailed out into the fog in the mouth of the Piankatank where the other boats were racing. We could see maybe a 1/2 mile at time. We sailed by the other boats and then headed out to Stingray Point and around it and into the Rappahannock. The fog was a little denser out there and that was the only run in with another boat when a 25′ center console fishing boat went buzzing across our bow with barely visible lights.
The rest of the trip was smooth and the fog lifted as we closed in on the bridge.
Once in Irvington we pulled the sails off, did a few other clean up items and carpooled back to FBYC.
Allan and Jon starting an ILCA race from the signal boat.
For the 2023 FBYC Frostbite Regatta we were short on RC and so I pulled the short straw to run races. Thankfully Allan, Rick and David volunteered to help. We had 10 ILCA and 5 other double handed boats out there too.
ILCA sailing downwind while Flying Scots and Melges 15 sail upwind.
We didn’t have any wind when we planned on starting so we postponed about an hour. We could see it was coming out of the south and had the fleet out there and got started around 12:15. We ran two different course options and the final race included a 1mi downwind leg to the finish at the FBYC dock.
Rick and David on Marie’s Mink setting the starting pin.
I also go to try out Allan’s big camera with a monster lens and he tried out my mirrorless camera. It was nice to have a chance to finally photograph some sailing from the water with the Nikon Z50 I had gotten a couple months ago. The other innovation we tried out was a starting countdown timer video connected to a Bluetooth speaker telling us on the signal boat when to raise and lower flags so we didn’t have to keep time ourselves. Needs a few tweaks, but worked pretty well.
Great end to the season and while I’m disappointed I didn’t get to sail, it was nice to make it a great event for everyone and I’m looking forward to getting back out there next year.
FBYC closed the regular season with the Closing Day Distance Race. The weather was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful fall foliage – it felt more like September than almost November. Except there wasn’t much wind. Knowing it was a distance race with little prospect of more wind later and oysters to be eaten this afternoon the RC chose to start us on time and let us make the most of what wind there was.
I was sailing on Battle Rhythm, we were the 3rd fastest boat and thus the 3rd to last boat to start. We were just behind Tradition as we came to the line and ended up underneath a bunch of boats who had parked up just above the line. It took us a long time to sail around them and after 35 minutes to the weather mark – we set a spinnaker and headed due east out of the river to the next mark of the course.
We soon passed a few boats that had rounded the first mark ahead of us. With the spinnaker up, we were a little low and eventually had to drop it and go back to a jib as the wind went a little south. By the time we reached the far mark we were around 7-8th place. On the way back to Stove Point we passed two cruising boats leaving only Afterthought, Nanuq and Goin’ ahead of us. We didn’t catch them, but had a good time to get at 4th and learned some things about how to make the light reaching spinnaker work in light wind and close reaching.
Following the race were oysters and we had a great time catching up with a lot of folks for possibly the last time of the year.
I recently digitized some old Laser Masters footage from the 2000 US Laser Masters. I was aboard the Judge boat for most of the event recoding on a Sony Hi-8 camera. It had been a while since I had seen this footage and it was great to be able to reminisce and remember the sailors who were there at the time and what Fishing Bay Yacht Club looked like with the old clubhouse.
As I processed the footage and spliced this together, I was amazed at the improvements to the software to be able to stabilize what was pretty shaky video at the time as well as the ability to clean up some of the audio.
I was also many years from being a master and yet I’m now older than many of the masters-age sailors at the time. Ooof.
Check out the video and the event results can be seen here.
The second day of the FBYC Fall Open featured a distance race to mark located in the Chesapeake Bay just off Gwynn’s Island called 41a but otherwise known to FBYC Sailors as L. The course was an out and back following the same path back to the finish.
In our fleet were 5 boats – Sting, Corryvreckan, Afterthought, Nanuq an Arcona 46 and us on J99 Battle Rhythm. Aboard were Todd, Len, Ron, Anne and Jon.
We started in the mouth of the Piankatank and sailed out into the Bay on a close reach. Around us were the J109 Afterthought and the J105 Corryvreckan. Winds were 12 – 14 and we were sailing with the jib and full main. After rounding one of the entrance marks to the Piankatank we headed south on a broad reach down the bay.
We arrived at Chesapeake 41a otherwise known as FBYC-L just off the southern end of Gwynns Island. At the southern mark, we doused the spinnaker and came back upwind along the same course we had taken out there. The wind had backed to the north north west making this an even more upwind slog back.
We took a few tacks inshore towards Gwynns island to stay out of the current. Once we were back in the Piankatank we close reached to the finish just off Stove Point.
After the handicaps were calculated our race was good enough for 2nd place beating the J109 by just under a minute on corrected time though we were still 5 minutes behind the Acrona.
We had a really nice day for some practice aboard Todd’s J99 Battle Rhythm along with Kevin, Ron, and Ron’s wife Nancy. The wind was out of the NNE from 10 to about 16 while we were out there. We started with some compass and wind angle calibrations and then did some upwind sailing to the mouth of the Rappahannock where we could see all the boats up the river sailing in the Turkey Shoot Regatta while we tried different settings with the jib sheet leads.
When we were off Windmill point it was pretty waving and choppy and as we were setting the chute we took one huge wave over the bow soaking Todd who had gone forward to get the spinnaker ready. We also sailed through a pod of dolphins at one point.
Kevin, Ron, Jon, Todd, Nancy
With the chute up we had some really nice running conditions and got the boat planning a bit hitting over 10 knots a couple of times. As we got close to the Piankatank we did a few gybes and headed in for the day.
Last year at the ILCA US Masters Regatta – I received the Tony Dahlman Trophy which is given to the sailor who finishes in the middle of the fleet that includes full rig lasers. This award has been hanging out at the house and after engraving is now set to be re-united with a friend of Tony’s who helped establish the award in his honor – Richard Leland.
I never had the honor of meeting Tony or crossing tacks with him – he passed away in 2009 – but I appreciate the spirit he had for ILCA sailing and hope to do my best to embody that and pass it on.
Here’s what was posted on the ILCA class website at the time:
Tony Dahlman, a Laser Master sailor from Marysville, California, passed away unexpectedly this past weekend while attending the Laser Masters’ US Championship in Monterey, California. He was sailing the first race of the series when he was stricken. A safety boat immediately came to his aid and rushed him to a waiting ambulance at the Coast Guard pier in the Monterey harbor. He was then transported to the local hospital where he died the next day. All of the sailors at the event as well as the entire Laser Class wish to extend their deepest sympathies to Tony’s wife and family during this difficult time.
laser.org – August 17, 2009
And the deed of gift for the award reads:
DEED OF GIFT TONY DAHLMAN TROPHY
Gift. The undersigned, on behalf of the laser sailors of District 24, hereby gives to the Laser Class Association of North America a perpetual trophy consisting of a half model of a full rig laser mounted on a cherry wood plaque, 18″ by 24″, bearing the sail number 185526, to be known as the “Tony Dahlman Trophy.”
Purpose. The purpose of the Tony Dahlman award is to honor Tony Dahlman, a master laser sailor and member of the Tahoe Yacht Club, renowned for his dedication to laser sailing, and to recognize master sailors who compete for the fun of sailing and the opportunity to improve rather than finishing at the top of the fleet.
Selection Process. The trophy is to be presented to the competitor who finishes in the middle of the fleet of registered overall competitors at the U.S. Masters Championship each year. If the regatta is divided into separately scored fleets the trophy shall go to the competitor who finishes in the middle of the fleet that includes the master full rig lasers. If two sailors are equally close to the middle of the fleet, the trophy shall go to the competitor with the better finish according to the Racing Rules of Sailing. The determination of the winner of the Tony Dahlman Trophy each year shall be made by the regatta chairman whose decision shall be final.
Rededication. In the event of insufficient interest or for any other reason this trophy may be rededicated by the Laser Class Association of North America.
Care of Trophy. The winner of the trophy each year may, at his or her option, retain the trophy until the next U.S. Laser Masters Championship; provided that such winner assumes the duties set out on the attached Assumption of Duties. If the winner does not so elect to take possession of the trophy, the Laser Class Association of North America shall have it shipped to the Association’s offices, or other location specified by the Association, engrave it with the winner’s name and yacht club in Century OSSL font, store it, deliver it to the following year’s U.S. Laser Masters Championship, and at that event give it to the winner determined in the manner described above; provided that the winner assumes the duties set out on the attached Assumption of Duties. If the winner elects not to so take possession of the trophy, the Laser Class Association of North America shall retain it and perform the above duties the next year.
Jon receiving the Tony Dalhman trophy at the 2022 ILCA US Masters
Ready to jump back into a new ‘big’ camera. Having had a D70, D3000, D7000 and then a D300s – I found all of those to be big and impractical to lug around and use; I was still taking 95% of my pictures on my iPhone, so when the iPhone 12 Pro came out, I figured I could do without the big camera.
Now that I’ve got better video editing and capture equipment and am trying to do all video in 4k, I wanted something that would give me a little better control and quality. And now that the mirrorless cameras have matured – I think the Z50 is small enough to not feel like I am lugging something huge around – will take good enough pictures to match or beat the iPhone in quality in many situations, and can make use of bigger zoom lenses when I am photographing sailing and want to use the heavy stuff.
This year we moved the Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship up to a September date to avoid some other masters conflicts in early October so it was a rare treat for the sailors not used to the pool being open to be able to hop in and cool off on a boiling hot Friday afternoon. I spent the afternoon getting things ready for the regatta by alternating between things I could do in the air conditioning and things outside and eventually joined the visiting sailors in the pool and later out to dinner at The Table.
Race 1 Jon (left) following the fleet to the weather offset mark. Photo by Peter Dutnell.
On the Saturday, we arrived to nice weather and much cooler temperatures than the prior few days. There wasn’t much wind to start, but forecast to have some by mid-day and so the 32-boat fleet was sent out. We ended up having a 10-15 minute postponement before getting into a starting sequence. We would go through 2 false starts and finally a successful start under the Z flag. I didn’t have a great position at the start and was blanketed on the first beat. I was deep at the first mark and made up a few boats on the downwind and a couple more on the upwind to the finish on the short course. I would settle for 20th.
Jon (center) ahead of the fleet and heading east on the first downwind leg. Photo by Paul Almany.
The wind continued to be a little shifty, still in the 8-10 range. In this race I had a fantastic start at the boat end with just a couple boats between me and the boat. Soon after the start I tacked and ducked a couple of boats to get out to the right. I continued to play a few shifts in the middle right and found myself out there in clear air with Dave Waiting near me. I would follow Dave into the first mark and on the downwind I went right thinking we were going to have a new breeze from the right. I was really wrong on that and 6 boats past me on the left by the time we got to the bottom mark. On the upwind I stayed to the right (facing upwind) side of the course while most of the boats ahead played the middle left. I got some great shifts and more pressure and by the time we got to the windward mark I had passed everyone and was just ahead of Dave. He has a lot more speed downwind than me and went by in pretty short order. I followed him to finish 2nd with the two of us well ahead of the bunch behind us.
While waiting for the 3rd race the wind started go to light and move around. We postponed on the water and then it became clear there were some storms to the south headed our way and so the fleet was sent in.
Natalie Burls, Alain Vincey, James Jacob, Nancy Vincey, Barbara Jacob, Kat Martin, John Hubbard helping serve dinner.
Alain wasn’t able to sail, but he brought food and the fleet had a good time hanging out and eating while it rained on and off outside.
On Sunday the forecast wasn’t very good and that’s what was delivered. After sending the race committee out to look for wind while the sailors waited on shore, they didn’t find any and with more thunderstorms coming – racing was abandoned for the day.
Congratulations to James Jacob on winning this event for his 7th time. Thanks to David Lee and everyone who helped on RC to make the most of the wind we had.
