This weekend Fishing Bay Yacht Club hosted the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship for Laser sailors 35 years of age and old. Since I don’t yet meet the requirements to sail, I’ve been made the event chairman. The event went off without a hitch and 36 sailors participated. The RC did a fabulous job getting 7 races in, including 3 in 20+ knots of wind on Saturday. Alain’s pork Ossobuco was fantastic as all of his meals were. I just want to thank everyone who helped out and all of the sailors who came.
Results and photos have been posted. Here are a few of my favorite photos:
District 11 has a new perpetual trophy to honor the Laser Radial District 11 Champions. It was built around the original Standard Laser District 11 Championship trophy and features the names of the 7 champions we’ve had so far.
Original District 11 Championship Trophy
The original Standard Laser District 11 Championship trophy was built in 1979 by Mike Waters using a relief of a Laser created by his wife, Jane Waters. Over the years this trophy was lost to time and in the mid-1990’s a new Standard Laser District 11 Championship trophy was created. The original trophy was found about 5 years ago and the champions listed on it were used to populate the new trophy going back to 1972.
The original trophy was given to me when I became District Secretary and I thought it was a shame not to put such a nice piece of art to use and to loose a valuable contribution to our District. We’ve started to have a consistent showing of Radials at our District Championship. I thought – why not recognize Laser Radial champions and give Radials a trophy to sail for.
Trophy plan
The new Laser Radial District 11 trophy was designed to use the relief in the original trophy. Since Mike was a boat builder and used the best boat-building adhesives to affix the relief to the original board, it would have been too difficult to separate the relief from the board without breaking it. So the new trophy had to be built around it.
The new trophy would feature the relief in the center, a plaque with the name of the trophy at the top, room for the 7 known Laser Radial District 11 Champions and room for the next 36.
Construction of the trophy began at the end of August. First the old board was cut away around the relief. Then mahogany boards were joined and a hole cut for the relief.
Next a groove was routed around the edge and a frame was added to cover the threshold between the new wood and the old board that the relief was affixed to.
Then the trophy was polyurethaned and the plaques were mounted to it.
The final touch was adding the rope to complete the trophy.
More pictures of the trophy and the build process can be seen here.
I want to thank my father, Stan, for his help and tools. I also want to thank Mike Waters and his wife for creating the original trophy and for the fleets and individuals who have helped fund the materials to build the trophy.
The racing at the Crab Claw Regatta at Severn Sailing Association was marred only by a lack of wind this weekend. On Saturday we had just enough wind to get out to the course and sail 1 shortened race. On Sunday we ‘sailed’ out to the course in almost no wind and after waiting around for 2 hours we abandoned having not sailed a race.
In the one race we did sail, I got a good start on the favored port end and headed out to the left with the leaders. I came right a little too early and was 9th around the top mark. Downwind I picked up a couple boats and then the wind went right for the shortened course upwind to the finish and I was able to pick off one more boat to finish in 6th.
Even thought the sailing wasn’t so great, the weekend was still a fun time hanging out with the Laser sailors and catching up Saturday night with Lud and Blake who were delivering Impulse from Newport to Deltaville.
The weather for Sunday at Fishing Bay Yacht Club started out a little questionable. The wind was blowing 20-25 out of the North at the buoy at the point. There were 5 of us there to sail and we all decided to take radials out. We raced inside Fishing Bay in winds in the teens and the Radial sails made for good close racing without any of us being over powered and having to fight the boat.
Ron Thompson and I traded for the lead throughout the races today. Richard Biggs was not far behind pouncing on any mistakes we made. With shifty winds in Fishing Bay there were plenty of passing lanes by picking the right shifts both upwind and down.
After 5 races in about 2 hours with off-and-on rain we called it day and retired to the clubhouse for chilli. All-in-all it was a fun day of sailing and I had to work hard to finish 1-1-2-1-1. I’m glad this weekend went how it did and I’m even more ready to head up to SSA next weekend for the Crab Claw regatta.
Southern Maryland Sailing Association on Solomon’s Island in Maryland had a Laser regatta this weekend. Despite leaving a little late, I managed to make the first start on time time. I haven’t been in the Laser for 4 weeks now, so it was good to be sailing again. I didn’t quite have my mojo back in the first race and ended up 3rd. Julio Vargas had some great downwind speed and pulled right away from us.
By the second race the wind was blowing 15ish with occasional sprinkles and overcast skies. I had a good start and had my boat speed working. I got to the layline out on the right and just stayed out in front of everyone. For the 3rd race of the day I was in a close heat with Steve Barrett all the way around the course. I followed him until I was able to pass him upwind on the final beat and led to the finish.
The RC tried to start a 4th race, but the Navy was out testing an RC submersible in the area and told us we had to vacate the area. By then the breeze was nearing 20 which made for a fun ride in. With a 3-1-1 it was a fun day on the water and nice to have some close, competitive racing with the Laser sailors at SMSA in preparation for the Crab Claw regatta at SSA next weekend. I’ll miss the second day of the regatta while I sail in FBYC’s Laser Fall series tomorrow.
Saturday was ECU’s home opener against Virginia Tech. It was also our opening home tailgate and we even welcomed a number of VT fans to join us. Our team didn’t get the result on the field we wanted, but we had a fun time anyway.
It’s hard to find good lists of tailgate playlists on the web so here’s mine. It’s been a work in progress over the past few years and it’s been used at many East Carolina University football games.
Labor Day weekend was the opening game of the 2011 college football season and East Carolina took on South Carolina in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte North Carolina.
Jon, Tom, Steve, Erin, Brittany, Kevin, Laura Ashley, Chris, Heather, Warren, Lauren, Staci, Preston, Jen, JG, Stephanie
The weekend began with drinks out at Epicenter with ECU and Richmond friends. Saturday we tailgated, went to the game and then went out after the game. Didn’t get the game result that we wanted, but it was still a ton of fun. Thanks Tom and Laura Ashley for hosting us and showing us around Charlotte!
Hurricane Irene hit this weekend and other than loosing power I’ve escaped with relatively little damage. The storm came through Saturday afternoon and evening and I spent the afternoon getting a couple of projects done (#1 & #2). I lost power at 4 pm and the rest of the evening was spent reading by camp light while watching the trees swaying in the wind. I’d point a flashlight out the window whenever I heard the thump of a branch hit the ground.
In the morning I surveyed the damage and found mostly just sticks and a few good sized limbs down. One limb caught the unused cable line and it’s hanging about 6 ft off the ground. Another branch hit the car and left a little dent on the sill above the driver door handle.
Considering the number of large trees I have I was pretty lucky not to have anything bigger come down. My next-door neighbors weren’t so lucky having a large tree fall into their yard and took down all of the lines to their house and their neighbors to the other side. It even damaged the gas line causing the Fire Department to come out at the height of the storm at 9pm to turn the gas off.
The photo below shows the backyard before and after the hurricane.
As of Sunday night I still don’t have power and Dominion Power has not yet even provided an estimate of when it would be back. So far I’ve gotten the entire front yard cleaned up, but it will probably take a few more days to clean up the much larger back yard.
Southern Maryland Sailing Association on Solomon’s Island in Maryland had a Laser regatta this weekend. Despite leaving a little late, I managed to make the first start on time time. I haven’t been in the Laser for 4 weeks now, so it was good to be sailing again. I didn’t quite have my mojo back in the first race and ended up 3rd. Julio Vargas had some great downwind speed and pulled right away from us.
