Category: Sailboat Racing

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.

RESULTS | PICTURES

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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.

PhotoBoat.com: J70s - David Baxter dBaxter Photography &emdash; DBP_5638

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.

PhotoBoat.com: J70s - David Baxter dBaxter Photography &emdash; DBP_5752

Downwind in the breeze we played it conservative with the spinnaker keeping the boat under us and getting around the course cleanly.

PhotoBoat.com: J70s - David Baxter dBaxter Photography &emdash; DBP_5820

PhotoBoat.com: J70s - David Baxter dBaxter Photography &emdash; DBP_5819

PhotoBoat.com: No Quarter &emdash; 2016 Southern Bay Race Week F_0063

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.

PICTURES | RESULTS | PhotoBoat Pictures

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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.

PhotoBoat.com: J70s - David Baxter dBaxter Photography &emdash; DBP_5050

PICTURES | RESULTS | PhotoBoat Pictures

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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.

PhotoBoat.com: No Quarter &emdash; 2016 Southern Bay Race Week A_0069

PhotoBoat.com: J70s - David Baxter dBaxter Photography &emdash; DBP_4828

PhotoBoat.com: No Quarter &emdash; 2016 Southern Bay Race Week A_0067

 

PhotoBoat.com: No Quarter &emdash; 2016 Southern Bay Race Week A_1280

PICTURES | RESULTS | PhotoBoat Pictures

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This the 3rd annual Open House Regatta which has become one of my favorite events at FBYC given the mix activities, people and sailing being done.  A bring-what-you-got progressive start race for boats 10-50+ ft all racing each other.  Followed by rafting up and socializing followed by dinner and a great blue grass band.

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Given I would be sailing my J/70 in Hampton next weekend, it was packed up yesterday and so today I joined David Hinckle and Tommy Roper aboard David’s J/70 – Air Speed.  We had a good start and did well in the light air on the way out.  On the way back we picked the wrong side of the course and let Nostalgia sneak by us while we couldn’t quite catch any of the boats ahead and settled for 6th.

After returning the boat to the dock I took a launch out to the raft up already in progress.  I managed to go boat-to-boat around the entire circle visiting with folks on each boat.  I also got to go up the mast of one of the larger boats to capture an aerial view.

And despite a little crummy weather late in the evening, we still had fun inside.

RESULTS | PICTURES

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Day 2 at the Lake Norman Yacht Club Spring Lightning Invitational was to see lighter winds – but we were pleasantly surprised with 5-8 knots for our first race.  Steve, Jeff and I had another good start and stayed in the top 5 all the way around the course making gains near the top of the final upwind and finished with a 2nd.  That gave us a few point lead over 2nd place Greg Fisher going into the final race.

As the 2nd race started the wind began to die.  We took a conservative approach up the middle and boats on both sides found more wind and rounded ahead.  We were around 8th at the top mark – picked up a couple boats downwind and then found the wind even lighter and more fickle on the 2nd upwind.  We picked some shifts and caught some boats and even crossed ahead of Greg.  But he found wind on the other side of the course and wound up finishing 3 boats ahead of us and we fell back to 6th as we reached the top mark for a shortened finish.

It wouldn’t be until we were arriving at the awards that we found out that we had tied Greg Fisher for 1st and we won the tiebreaker on account of having won 2 of the races.  A great result for a pick up team in a borrowed boat against some good sailors.  Thanks again Steve and Jeff Hayden for having me along and Bill for all of the hospitality at Lake Norman Yacht Club!

REGATTA WEBSITE | PHOTOS | RESULTS

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A fun sailing opportunity came together for me this weekend while I was going to be in town for Tom & Jamie’s wedding – I was able to sail at Lake Norman Yacht Club at their Spring Lightning Regatta.  Bill Wiggins set me up with Steve and Jeff Hayden who were coming up from Florida and needed a 3rd.

I haven’t sailed a Lightning since sometime in the early 1990’s when I would ride my bike down to Chautauqua Lake Yacht Club and jump on a boat for their Wednesday night series.  Steve and Jeff are great sailors and it was easy to fit right in with them on the boat.  I did the bow and while I probably wasn’t the quickest nor the most graceful gybing the pole – I don’t think I slowed us down any.

In the first race of the day we had a great start right at the line at the gun.  From there we just picked some shifts and found ourselves at the top mark in first- from there we extended around the course.

In the second race we had a reasonable start – but other boats hugged the left even more and we found ourselves around 6-8 at the top mark.  The wind was coming up a little more from the 6-8 in the first race to where we were definitely sitting out to balance the boat.  On the second upwind we picked some good shifts and made it to 3rd through to the finish.

The 3rd race wasn’t as good to us on the start.  We were near the back of the pack at the top mark, but worked on picking off boats on every leg with good boat speed and managed 6th.

For the 4th and final race of the day – we again had a good start.  Got to the top mark in the top 3, held our position downwind and pulled ahead on the next upwind winning the race and putting us solidly in front of the 19-boat fleet on the first day.

REGATTA WEBSITE | PHOTOS | RESULTS

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This weekend should have been Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s Opening Day Race followed by a J/70 clinic on Sunday – but the weather conspired to have it cancelled.  With no sailing to do and only a Blessing of the Fleet and party to attend – it became a work weekend and thus the J/70 that was not yet rigged was packed and hauled to Richmond.

While at home it was easy to get a couple projects done:

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Added another boat to the fleet.  This No Quarter is an RG65 model yacht.  It’s about 25″ long and 60″ tall from the bottom of the keel to the top of the mast.  I got a used boat from a member of the Richmond Model Yacht Club.  After fitting a radio to it and getting a few other things readied, I got to join 6 others today for some practice.  It was a bit light and we only sailed about 30 minutes before we got rained out.  Thanks Rob S for helping get me going and I’m looking forward to some more racing this spring.

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