Category: Video

Any posts that contain videos that I’ve created

Wednesday

Welcome Laser Midwinter Sailors

The trip to Clearwater Florida for the 2011 Laser Midwinters East was an easy one.  Ted brought brought my boat down last week when he came for Masters Midwinters and so this afternoon I was able to fly down. Once in town I settled into the hotel, got the boat checked in and went to dinner with Bob, Ted and Adam.

Tomorrow will be the first of 4 days of racing in the standard rig.  The forecast is for lighter winds on Thursday with a little more on Friday and Saturday.  There will be close to 80 other boats with me in the Standard rig fleet and over 200 total at the regatta.  This is my first time at Midwinters and I’m looking forward to a great weekend of sailing.

Thursday

Jon sailing the start of race 2 at Laser midwinters

We had some light winds and chop for the first day of the Laser Midwinters in Clearwater Florida. They split the 78 boat standard rig fleet and I was sailing with the blue fleet with the 3rd start of the day. I was one of the last to arrive at the race course and after a quick postponement they got the fleets started. In the first race I had a bit of a slow start and was in the 30s around the first mark. As I got more comfortable in the boat I clawed back a few spots at a time and came back to 27th. On the last downwind leg I was going downwind on starboard with another boat sailing parallel to me on port. Our masts touched so I protested him. I normally wouldn’t follow through with a protest that doesn’t really affect my finish, but I wasn’t a fan of how the guy handled it on the water so he got tossed later that evening in the protest hearing that he failed to show up to.

We sat on the water for over an hour while the wind clocked around to the right and the course got reset. We started the 2nd race in about 8 knots of breeze. I had a good start and was on the favored side of the course. I had better boat speed than the first race and hung right behind the lead pack. Up until the last two legs I held my place pretty well, but by the last two races I made some positioning mistakes and let some boats sneak inside me and ended up 23rd.

All in all it was a good day of sailing. The weather was comfortable and the water is not too cold. I’m sitting in 50th and if I can put up some solid finishes tomorrow, I might be able to sneak into the top fleet going into the weekend. The forecast tomorrow is for more wind in the 10-15 knot range.

Friday

Laser Midwinters Day 2

For the second race day at Laser Midwinters we had 12-14 knots all day.  I sailed with the leaders all day long … that was the leaders of the fleet behind me.  It was a beautiful day with warm weather and we sailed 3 races.  It wasn’t my best day as I am not competitive in the top end of that range wind range.  I’m getting more experience in that kind of wind and getting my muscles used to hiking again after a few month hiatus.

I was in the back of the pack so I’ll definitely be in the silver fleet.  Looking forward to sailing with the back half of the fleet in what should be some laid back and competitive sailing at more my level.

Saturday

Just after the mark rounding at Laser Midwinters

Light air day in Clearwater for the Laser Midwinters.  To begin the day we were postponed on shore due to lack of wind at the racing area.  There was a nice wind blowing through the sailing center which made it even that much harder to sit around.  I did some sightseeing and walked across the street to see the beach.

Around noon the wind filled in enough at the race course for them to send us off.  We waited around at the course for a bit while the wind settled and the Standard Gold fleet eventually started in 4-6 knots out of the West South West.  Our fleet started under black flag and I had a reasonably good start towards the middle-pin end.  I made my way to my left and kept my tacks to a minimum arriving in at the windward mark just behind the top 10 boats.  I held my speed pretty well with the rest of the fleet and managed to stay  ahead of the scrum of about 15 boats behind me.  With 4 boats ahead of me black flagged, I ended up finishing 10th in the silver fleet.

Tomorrow is the last day at midwinters.  The weather has been great and the sailing has been fun.  We have an earlier start tomorrow and are hoping for a little more wind than we had today.  And as soon as we are off the water tomorrow, Ted and I will start the long drive back to VA/MD.

Sunday

We started the final day of the 2011 Laser Midwinters east a little earlier. We had to check out of the hotel and be out on the water for a 10am first start.  Despite being one of the first to leave the dock, I was one of the few without a coach boat and therefore one of the last to reach the race course.  It wasn’t much of a problem because we were postponed on the water for over an hour before the sea breeze finally came in with 5-10 knots of breeze.

The silver standard rig fleet only got to sail one race before we reached the mid-afternoon time limit.  The first start was recalled and we restarted under black flag.  I had a terrible start and was so far behind so fast I just ended up ducking a couple stragglers and banging the right corner.  It ended up paying off as I was in the 15-20 range at the top mark.  I did pretty well reaching and downwind but lost a few more boats when the right DID NOT pay off on the second beat.  I finished somewhere in the low 20’s.

The sea breeze made it an easy sail in and Ted and I got the boats and car packed up in record time to begin the drive back to Richmond and then on to Annapolis.

I definitely enjoyed my first trip to the Laser Midwinters East Regatta.  I learned a lot, got to sail alongside some great sailors, met some new people, and got back into the boat after a few months off. I’m looking forward to getting a little more practice and going ready to compete at the ACC’s and NAC’s later this spring and summer.

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I used Sunday’s Laser frostbite as an opportunity to get some of the cobwebs out.  Last weeks’ frostbite at Hampton was good for getting the boat together, but with little wind, wasn’t much of an opportunity to do the kind of sailing I’ll be doing at Midwinters in Clearwater Florida in a little over a week.

The temperature on Sunday in Annapolis was in the high 40’s and low 50’s with winds 13-16 knots, overcast skies and a water temperature of 38 degrees.  Generally it was good sailing in wind that I had to hike in and I got some of the feeling back in how to sail the boat and make it go.  With boat handling being my priority, results of the 4 races I sailed in were secondary and the scoreboard was not friendly – finishing 15 out of 17 boats on the line including two DFLs.

All in all it was a good day on the water and I’m glad to have gotten that past me now rather than on the first day of the regatta.  This was also an opportunity for me to practice filming with the GoPro.  I had gotten several mounting locations set up and today I mounted the camera to the bow.  Check out the video:

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Made a trip to the ODU sailing center on Sunday to Frostbite with the Hampton Roads Laser Fleet. This was the first of two frostbite outings to tune up for the Laser Midwinters East Regatta in Clearwater Florida in a couple weeks.

The day was fraught with very little wind and thus we were only able to get in two short races before calling it a day. The video below shows just how light it was. This was also my first experiment mounting the GoPro camera to the Laser. It turned out pretty well and I can’t wait to try another mounting location next week when I’m frostbiting up at SSA in Annapolis.

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Ambulances outside our first flight from RIC>ATL

Day 1: Saturday

We started the week with a bit of a bumpy ride to Key West on Saturday.  John Wake drove, Tal flew out of Texas, and Rob flew AirTran.  All of their trips were pretty uneventfully. Lud, Travis and I were on all of the same flights and we can’t say the same for our trip.  Our first flight out of Richmond was diverted back to the gate while taxing to the runway due to a passenger having a medical emergency.  An hour later we were on our way to Atlanta, but not with enough time to catch our connection to Key West.  We relaxed at the sky lounge and caught the next flight to Key West.  That flight was at the end of the runway about to take off, and they had a computer problem and returned us to the gate to fix it.  An hour later we were on our way not arriving in Key West until about 5:30, 5 hours after we were originally scheduled to be there.

Welcome To Key West

Thankfully the other guys got there on time and were able to register, check into the condos and pick up our rental bikes for the week.  After getting settled we went out to a Brazillion Steak House for dinner and then went out on Duvall street.

Day 2: Sunday

Sunday was our day to get out on the water and practice.  The boat had been brought down and set up earlier in the week, so all we needed to do was some final tuning and go sailing.  We are sharing a slip with another J105, Max Power.  The RC44s are just down the dock from us as well as a few other big racing boats.

After an hour of prep work, we were ready to go.  2 minutes after getting the sails up and starting to sail, I was down below and noticed water above the floorboards.  It turns out there were 2 slow leaks on the boat and the bilge pump had not been turned on.  Turning that on along with a couple minutes of bailing and we got the bilge emptied and went back to sailing.

Practicing downwind on the J105

Our practice went well.  It gave us all a chance to sail together, we made sure all of the systems and equipment were race ready, and we got to spend time practicing some new positions for many of us.  Mid-afternoon we headed back to shore and made a few repairs and got everything cleaned up for racing tomorrow.

We ate a late lunch at Turtle Krawls and Russell Coutts (BMW Oracle) sat down at the table next to us.  Peter Holmgren (Alinghi 2003) was at another table nearby.  In the evening everyone hung out watching the NFL playoffs.  Rob went to the skippers meeting, we checked out the regatta party and after a pretty low-key evening, turned in pretty early.  8:30 dock call tomorrow.

Day 3: Monday

Monday was the first day of racing at Key West Race Week for the J105 Lucky Dog Racing.  Last night a storm rolled through the area which left some lumpy seas around the course for the first part of the day.  The cloudy skies in the morning cleared as the day went on and with them went the wind.

At the race course we did some practice to be sure everything was ship shape and ready to go.  We were a half a boat length late at the start with Max Power above us.  We worked our way out to the middle left of the course on the first beat and were about 6th around the first mark.  We held our own downwind, but had a terrible takedown and lost 10-15 boat lengths at the leeward mark.

Upwind we were fast and clawed our way back a few spots.  We ended up 8th in the 1st race of the day in the 15-boat fleet.

Lucky Dog on Day 2 of Key West Race Week

In the second race of the day the wind and waves had subsided a bit.  Travis did a great job nailing the start and we hit the line on the front row and were able to get out in clear air.  We were right with Ghost, Savasana, Wasabi and Masquerade.  We had good upwind boat speed and led Ghost at the first windward mark by half a boat length.  On the next three legs we had clean maneuvers, good tactics and extended our lead.

On the final leg upwind to the finish, Masquerade, who was in 4~6th place rounded the leeward mark and went way left.  We covered everyone else in the fleet who mostly stayed to the middle right.  Masquerade hit the left corner perfectly and was lifted ahead of us by 5-8 boat lengths.  We continued to gain on the boats behind, but couldn’t catch up to Masqueraded leaving us with a 2nd place finish.

A second and an 8 put us in 4th overall.  Tomorrow’s forecast is for a little lighter winds which will be a bit more challenging for us.

After racing we headed back to the condos and a short time later a storm rolled through the area.  We headed over to Kelley’s for the J105 party and then went out to dinner.

Day 4: Tuesday

The second day of racing at Key West Race Week was a little warmer and had a little lighter wind than yesterday.  We had a great start in the first race.  Unfortunately, it was too great and the race committee called nearly half the fleet over early including boats that were above us and below us.  We realized we were over immediately and were able to bail out and get restarted without loosing a lot of ground.  With so many boats being called over meant many of the leaders were at the back of the pack right at the start.

The lighter wind we today than yesterday meant the racing was a lot more about being in the right spot.  Our boat handling was a lot cleaner and we did a good job getting around the marks without getting into any drama with other boats.  We managed a 6th in the first race.

The second race was light and lumpy which required much better technique going up wind to keep the boat moving.  We were in the lead pack up the first beat, but fell off on the next two legs and ended up 6th when the race was shortened down to 3 laps from the 5 that were planned because of the dying wind.

Jon and Lud at the Southern Most Point

After racing we packed up the boat and headed back to the Condo.  Lud and I went for a bike tour of the western part of the island and rode by places like the Hemmingway House and the Southern Most Point.  Later we all stopped by the regatta party to see the awards given. Following the party we went to the Rum Barrel restaurant and had a nice dinner with some live music.

Tim Wilkes posted some photos of Lucky Dog from the first day of racing here.  Overall results from the first two days of racing are here.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for less wind than today.  We were reminded numerous times while at the party to listen to the 8:30 and 9am announcements to find out if we will be postponed on shore.  Tomorrow could be a good day to be a tourist.

Day 5: Wednesday

Today was a light air day just on the verge of being sailable.  We headed out to course not knowing if we were actually going to race or if we were just going to be sitting out there for a while.  The wind was just strong enough that the Race Committee started us on time on a course with just 1-mile legs.

Lud getting interviewed by T2P.TV

We won the start but ended up on the wrong side of the course when the first shift came down.  We were mid-fleet around the first windward mark and caught a couple boats downwind.  On the next upwind we held our own, but boats that banged the corners came out ahead.  On the final downwind we had clear wind heading downwind and picked up a boat, but got sniped at the line by another boat putting us in 7th.

Travis at the helm just after the start of race 5

By that point the wind was dying and wouldn’t be enough to get another race in so the Race Committee called us off and we were back at shore by 1.

Most of us rested or did some sight-seeing for the rest of the afternoon.  At 6 we headed over to the regatta party tent to see the awards.  Unfortunately for me something I drank didn’t agree with me and I went from feeling fine to feeling like I was going to be pretty sick in just a matter of minutes.  I booked it home and rested up for the rest of the night hoping to be back to normal tomorrow.

Day 6: Thursday

Today was a rough day on the water.  It started out with an intense fog that limited visibility to only a couple hundred feet.  We were postponed on shore for 30 minutes before finally being sent out.  Initially the fog was lifting as we were heading out of the channel, but once out in open water it came in even thicker.  We didn’t have a chart plotter onboard so we ended up using a plotter app on my iPhone using coordinates radioed by the race committee to find their position.  One unlucky Melges 24 ended up several miles away on the Division 3 course.

Fog surrounding the signal boat

The Race Committee postponed us on the water until the fog lifted and then got racing started.  The wind was light in the 6-8 knot range and by the time we were actually racing it was rarely over 6.  At least the water was pretty flat so we weren’t bobbing around.

I can’t say much else about the racing because I didn’t see any of it.  To best position our crew weight while sailing upwind, Lud and I sat down below.  Being out of the sun with a slight breeze was more comfortable than being on deck.  If only we hadn’t tacked so much causing me to switch sides, I could have actually caught some zzz’s.

At the last minute before the mark rounding, Lud and I would spring onto deck and raise the spinnaker.  We’d be on deck until it was doused and then we were back below.  Results-wise it wasn’t the best day for us.  We put up an 8 and a 13 in two races dropping us into 8th.

After racing we did some packing at the condo as many of our crew are hoping on a plane immediately after racing tomorrow.  We hit up the regatta party, grabbed some sea food for dinner and called it a night.

Day 7: Friday

Friday was the final day of racing and having had a day with only 1 race, the race committee bumped up the start time so that we could try and get in 3 races.  Out on the race course the wind was light and out of the same direction as it was on Tuesday.  In the light sloppy stuff we just didn’t have the horsepower to keep up with the fast boats.  By the 3rd race there was weather on the horizon and we played the side we thought the wind would fill in to, but it didn’t come in time and we were hung out there.  We ended up going 9-8-9 for the day putting us into 8th for the week.

After racing we had a few of our crew needing to catch a 5:30 flight so we got the boat completely packed on the water so that we could dock and dash.  Tal and I were the only two left so we caught up with the crew from Solaris and went to the regatta party and dinner.

Day 8: Saturday

With racing complete, I had one final day in Key West for sightseeing before my flight out at the end of the day.  I visited the Hemmingway house and saw the 6-toed cats and the studio where he wrote most of his books.  I also visited the Key West lighthouse and walked up it to see the views of the area.  I made another stop to the shipwreck museum.

Hemmingway House

Key West Light House

My trip to Key West wouldn’t have been complete without more problems with flights.  All week the winds hadn’t been over 10 knots which didn’t make for great race conditions.  But today there were high wind warnings and so the plane flying in to fly me out wasn’t able to land because of it.  My flight was cancelled and Delta didn’t have another seat on a plane out of Key West until Monday.  So they put bunches of us in cabs and drove us 190 miles to Miami where I was put up in 2-room king bed suite at Embassy Suites.  My trip goes on another day…

PICTURES | RESULTS | VIDEO

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Wednesday

Front Runner blown tire

We started out bright and early this morning on our trip to Tampa for the Fireball and Friends midwinter’s. I am sailing a Front Runner along with 7 other boats based in Richmond from Fishing Bay Yacht Club. 5 of us left Richmond at 5:30am in a caravan heading south.

The trip started out fine, but about 150 miles into the trip the tire went on the trailer I was driving. Unfortunately the spare was a dud too, but thankfully Mark came to the rescue and loaned me his spare. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful and we pulled into Davis Island Yacht Club around 7pm.

Most of the other boats in our group arrived around the same time and after unloading the boats we stopped for some pizza before heading out to find our house for the weekend.

Tomorrow, after getting some new tires we’ll set up the boats and get ready to race in the afternoon. The weather is calling for scattered storms and 12-15+.

Thursday

The plan for today had been to get the boat ready, do a practice sail and then a Portsmouth handicap race in the evening, but rain, a tornado warning, flash flood warning and lake wind advisory foiled those plans. Instead I got the tires fixed and joined the group for lunch at Ybor Brewing Company. In the afternoon we relaxed around the house and then Rick and Jen cooked up a great steak, chicken and sausage dinner with salad and baked potatoes. The rest of the evening was spent playing cards and recounting old times sailing at FBYC.

We’ll have to get an early start to the day tomorrow to get the boat setup and ready to sail. We’ve seen a variety of forecasts, but presently we’re expecting lighter winds with a possibility of some rain.

Friday

Rigging Front Runners

Today was supposed to be the first day of racing at the Front Runner Midwinters at Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa Florida, but the weather definitely put a damper on it. We arrived at the club early to get the boats set up and the race committee had already postponed our noon first start. We took refuge in the club house and waited for a break in the weather that came around noon. The weather gave us a window just long enough to get the boats set up before another front came through.

Throughout the day we either had wet and windy or cloudy with no wind. Late in the afternoon a couple of Fireballs did get out on the water. At times they were just sitting there in the drizzling rain. That hardly looked like fun sailing. Our group stayed inside and played cards for most of the afternoon. Late in the afternoon the RC postponed the first race until tomorrow. We’ll have to be up nice and early for a 9:30 first start on Saturday. The weather for the rest of the weekend is supposed to be beautiful.

Saturday

Mellisa, Jon, Sarah, Kevin at Front Runner Midwinters

We arrived at Davis Island Yacht Club on Saturday morning hoping to get in our first day of sailing. The wind was up around 15-18 knots when we arrived and white caps were beginning to appear. By the time we got the boats launched the wind was sustained 18-20.

This was my first time helming a Front Runner and we headed out to the course with the rest of the fleet. A few boats who had gone out ahead of us, passed us going the other way, and I just figured they were doing some upwind practice. Once we made it to the starting area we quickly realized we weren’t going to be able to compete in this wind, and having only been in the boat once before, it was probably going to be best for us not to remain out long. So we headed back for the dock.

Turns out we had good company. The boats I thought were practicing were already rafted up and within 2 minutes we were joined by another boat making 4 out of the 10 boats already at the dock. After we tied up, we went up to the deck at the yacht club where we had a great view of the race course. We watched the carnage as boats were towed back in. The crash boat at DIYC did a great job recovering boats and getting back to the club.

One boat in our group ended up nearly sinking and it ultimately took us 2 hours to drain. 3 boats ended up getting in 3 races. The rest of us hung around the club in the sun and put the boats away for the night.

Tomorrow the forecast is for a little less wind. If it’s the right strength then we’ll make a go of it, otherwise if it ends up being too much, we’ll probably leave a boat behind and triple up on a couple boats.

Sunday

Our group was a little slow getting going this morning. Many of us were up late at the Ybor St. Patrick’s Day parade and the time change didn’t help either. The conditions were finally what we had been wanting all week. 10-15 knots out of the west.

Since three boats sailed in 3 races yesterday and the rest of use had DNSs it wasn’t much of a boat race for the rest of us. Most of us just considered today to be the real race and wanted to finish as well as we could in whatever races we sailed today despite not being able to get on the podium.

We didn’t have much time to tune up before the first race and only got through each maneuver (tack, jibe, hoist, douse) once. The goal at the start was to be conservative and just stay with fleet as it went up the course. My conservative start worked out; in fact we ended up with the best start in the fleet hitting the line right at the gun with clear air and full speed.

I had been told that a Front Runner is ‘just a big Laser.’ Not having much familiarity with larger boats, I didn’t have anything else to go by, so I just sailed it like a big Laser. I focused on some of the basics in a laser like sailing the boat flat, neutralizing the helm and keeping the main sail trimmed as well as I could.

The west wind in the area just south of Davis Island is very similar to the wind on many of the rivers along the Chesapeake. The chop is small and the wind is puffy in phases. It turned out that our boat speed up the first beat was as good as any other boat and by picking the shifts right we found ourselves first around the windward mark with a 2 boat length lead over Mark H’s boat that won all 3 races yesterday.

Downwind I did a terrible job sailing the right angles with the a symmetrical spinnaker, but like a laser, I was able to keep it moving through the waves and even managed to pump the main on some puffs and surf some waves. We held the lead into the leeward mark as we made the turn for the second and final lap. On both legs we continued to match the boat speed of Mark H’s boat and managed a 6 boat length lead at the finish.

It was great feeling to win the first race I ever sailed in a new boat; particularly in such a deep fleet with so many boats. My crew Sue and I were pretty psyched. We took that enthusiasm into the second race and sailed very well to a 2nd place finish. At that point the wind started picking up and a little water had leaked into the boat changing the handling characteristics and it took me a race to relearn how the boat handles.

In the end our finishes were around 1, 2, 7, 5 putting us into 5th place overall. That definitely hits the goal of sailing competitively and sticking with the fleet. And the sailing conditions were great which added a nice ending to a week of difficult and un-sailable conditions.

Even though the sailing wasn’t as good as it could have been, the trip to Florida has been an incredibly fun time. I want to thank the Front Runner crowd – Matt B, Jen, Mark, Melissa, Kevin, Matt L and everyone else for bringing me along as well as Mike K for loaning me the boat. You’ve all been telling me for years how great of a trip this is and now I’m a believer. Thanks for the great time!

Monday

Monday we began the journey back to Richmond from Tampa. We made good time and I happy to report the trip was entirely uneventful. Later this week I’ll post the photos and a video from the trip.

PICTURES | VIDEO

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