We had some nice weather and some wind for at least the first half of the Deep Creek Laser Invitational allowing us to get in 4 races on Saturday.  I put up a 3-1-1-2 and finished 1st in the 19-boat Standard fleet. Sunday we went out, spent 25 minutes sailing 2 legs and they abandoned and eventually sent us in without any races having not had any wind all day.

Saturday, we went out at 10:30 in partial fog for our 11am start.  After a brief postponement we got the first race underway.  I had a good start, winning the boat end, but my first two tacks weren’t so good and I found myself 8th at the windward mark.  From there I chipped away at boats and got to 3rd at the finish.

In the 2nd race I had another great start and just picked the shifts up the beat and got a nice lead. Darren Van Hutton and Meredith Hillyer, both on-the-lake sailors, both had great downwind speed and always seemed to catch up to me a bit.  Upwind I seemed to be able to pick the shifts right and would pull back ahead.  As we approached the last downwind mark with just a short beat left to the finish, there was a pontoon boat fishing just 5 feet upwind of the leeward mark.  To make matters worse, he had a line out to the right of the mark and he was reeling in ‘something big’ and was refusing to move.

worst place ever to stop and go fishing

I wound up having to sail 20 feet to the right of the mark to get around his fishing line and just as I was rounding the mark and the boat, I realized he had another line out the other way.  Only this one was in the air for about 40 feet so I couldn’t even attempt to sail over it.  I was really wishing I had a pocket knife with me.  The leader of the Radial fleet who was sailing a shorter course was right next to me with non of his competition in sight, and Meredith was about 10 lengths behind me with the rest of our fleet another 20 lengths behind her.  All 3 of us ended up having to sail about 40-50 feet on starboard on a close reach just to get to where the fishing line hit the water where we could pull our boards up and sneak over it.  Meredith almost caught up to me and I was able to stay about a boat length ahead of her at the finish.

still trying to sail around the fishing line, fishing boat is just behind me.

For the 3rd race, I was going to try to win the boat again, but realized with about a minute and a half left to go that we were likely to get a big lefty at the start.  I made my way down to the pin where I was all alone except for one other boat.  At the gun I was able to tack onto port and built a pretty comfortable lead by the first mark.  By the top mark of the 2nd beat Meredith caught up a bit and rode a nice puff around the mark and downwind on the inside lane putting her just ahead of me.  Eventually that petered out and the wind filled back in from the outside and he angle allowed me to get back just ahead through the finish.

After a lunch break (where I filmed this cool time lapse of the fleet coming in) we went back out for one more race in the afternoon.  At the start it was clear that left was favored so most of the faster boats were starting there.  Right at the gun the wind went left which ended up rafting up 6 of us top of the pin.  We couldn’t tack out because the rest of the fleet was on starboard so we just each took our turn bouncing off the pin, sailing out to the left, doing our turn and heading upwind.  By then we were clear astern of most of the fleet.

tight quarters at the start.

I worked my way up the left and was about 4th at the windward mark.  The lead pack went wide on the downwind leg and sailed into a hole while I headed down the inside with Meredith, Daryl and Margaret Podlich just behind me.  They ended up reeling me in as they rode a puff down and just as Daryl and Margaret were passing me, Daryl death rolled.  Margaret had just enough of an overlap at the mark to take it and I wound up following just behind her the rest of the course to finish 2nd.

With a 3-1-1-2 I was in 1st place in the 19-boat fleet with 2nd place 5 points behind me.  We spent the evening with a nice dinner at the club.

Sunday we were initially postponed on shore and they sent us out once the wind filled in a bit.  After chasing the wind around a few directions they set a course and started us.  I had a pretty abismal start, but picked some shifts up the middle of the course in 2 knots of wind to round the mark in 6th.  As we were at the top mark the wind was in transition and shifting about 100 degrees and a few minutes later the RC abandoned the race.  We sat on the course for 25 minutes waiting for the wind to settle down and the RC sent us in for lunch.  The wind never settled, so they never sent us back out and thus the regatta stood as is.

More pictures, videos and results.

A photo of mine from the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship back in October was selected for the cover of the International Laser Class Association – North American Region newsletter: The Laser Sailor.

Winter 2012 The Laser Sailor Cover

The photo features David Schoene and Keith Davids in a close finish during the 1st race on Saturday.

Pelican Storm iM2075 - Closed Case

I’m planning on doing a lot of sailing this summer and when I’m on bigger boats than my Laser I want to be able to have my Nikon D7000 DSLR close at hand.  I can’t use the camera while I’m actually sailing, but there will be plenty of downtime while aboard when there is no splashing and I could easily pull the camera out if it were handy.  I plan to use the camera for both stills and video so I’ll need to have extra batteries and a Sennheiser MKE400 Shotgun Microphone. To make this work, I need:

  • A hard case that would absolutely protect the camera no matter what was thrown on top of it
  • A waterproof case that could take some splashes, rain or even a little water over the bow
  • A case that is as small and light as possible to save weight and space
  • A case with a handle so it could be tied into the boat or tethered in place

I found the Pelican Storm iM2075 for $45 that was just the right size for Nikon D7000 and a 17-55mm lens without the grip or my side-plate mounted microphone holder.  It’ll fit the camera with the lens hood, plus the microphone, 3 EN-EL15 batteries and a couple of AAA batteries for the microphone.

Completed case with camera and accessories in place:

Pelican Storm iM2075 - Camera and accessories

Basic case with foam:

Pelican Storm iM2075 - Open Case

The case comes with two pieces of foam blocks.  I cut one of them roughly in half to form the bottom of the case that the camera will rest on.

Pelican Storm iM2075 - Cut Foam

Used toothpicks to plot the size of the camera on the foam on the uncut block foam:

Pelican Storm iM2075 - Pinned foam

Remove the 1cm x 1cm foam squares for a custom fit around the camera:

Pelican Storm iM2075 - cut foam

Put 1/2 of the foam in the bottom of the case, and then cut 2 of the 1cm blocks at half of their height so that the AAA batteries are sitting on foam and not the bottom of the case where they’ll clank and make noise:

Pelican Storm iM2075 - AAA batteries

Put the customized piece of foam over the flat piece of foam and put the Camera and batteries in place:

Pelican Storm iM2075 - Camera in place

I then added the strap to the camera and placed the Sennheiser mic alongside the camera:

Pelican Storm iM2075 - Camera and accessories

Now that the year is over I wanted to reflect on my favorite photos from 2011. Here’s the 2010 edition.

Stormy Annapolis Sunset

April 16, 2011 a stormy sunset over Annapolis.  (This was the actual lighting, no processing whatsoever).

Sunset on the sound at Wrightsville Beach NC

April 29, 2011 Sunset over the sound in Wrightsville Beach NC during the 2011 Laser Atlantic Coast Championship.

Racing under the Rappahannock River Bridge

May 28, 2011 Race to Urbanna looking back at the fleet sailing under the Rappahannock River Bridge.

20110709289-XL-500x331.jpg (500×331)

July 8, 2011 Leukemia Cup Regatta Voodoo2, Double Eagle and Afterthought sailing downwind.

Afterthought

August 20, 2011 Smith Point Race – Afterthought passing by a setting sun.

reading by camp light

August 27, 2011 Sitting in the dark while Hurricane Irene pummels VA.

ECU Tailgate tent

October 1, 2011 tailgate tent with the sky behind during the ECU vs. UNC tailgate.

188095 David Schoene, 188702 Roger Link

October 15, 2011 Lasers getting ready to head out on the water at Fishing Bay Yacht Club during the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.

188095 David Schoene, 189794 Keith Davids

October 15, 2011 a close finish at the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.

121384 Mike Schmidt, 187868 Margaret Podlich, 189774 Finn Hassing

October 16, 2011 Fleet start at the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.

199142 Newton Wattis

October 16, 2011 Fleet sailing downwind at the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.

October 16, 2011 Fleet sailing downwind past Mr. Roberts during the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.

10/29/2011 ECU vs. Tulane (Homecoming) - Sunset on Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium

October 29, 2011 Sunset during the ECU vs Tulane game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

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:

188095 David Schoene, 188702 Roger Link

188095 David Schoene, 189794 Keith Davids

121384 Mike Schmidt, 187868 Margaret Podlich, 189774 Finn Hassing

199142 Newton Wattis

I had an awesome weekend in Deltaville.  It started with the Inaugural Deltaville 5k.  With zero training I ran the whole thing and had a respectable finish of 26:07.

Jon at the Deltaville 5k

I took the weekend off from sailing to heal a minor wrist sprain and so  I went right from the 5k to doing race committee at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the offshore Cut Channel Race.  I got a lot of great pictures of the offshore fleet here.

downwind during the Cut Channel Race

Saturday night was 4th of July partying, fireworks and swimming.  For Sunday’s racing we thought it was going to be a bit windy so I jumped on a Front Runner as a 3rd crew member, but halfway through the race the wind died and I sat out the next two light wind races and instead went sailing on a Byte in the afternoon.  Saturday night we again watched Fireworks.

Fireworks as seen from Fishing Bay Yacht Club. On the left is a firework from Stove Point while in the background are fireworks from Matthews County.

Monday was FBYC’s One Design Long Distance Race.  I normally would have sailed my Laser in this, but again I was sitting out to rest my sprained wrist.  I went out for the start and the first two legs to get some photos.  The entire collection is posted here.

Front Runners and a Mobjack sailing downwind in the One Design Long Distance Race