It was another beautiful day for racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the 3rd day of the Offshore Spring Series.  I was again on Wavelength for the 3 races on a mostly sunny day with temps in the high 70’s and wind that varied from 19-8.

5/10 FBYC Offshore Spring Series #2

The first race had the most wind and we started out with the No2 and a reef in the main.  We did well at the start by staying away from the faster boats that outpoint us and we were able to make progress upwind albeit a little under powered.   On a tack halfway up the beet we shook the reef out.  The rest of the way around the course went well, but we couldn’t catch the 3 boats ahead of us and settled for a 4th.

In the 2nd race we lined up next to Voodoo 2 and had to take their bad air off the starting line for a while until we could clear the B boats and tack out.  We kept up on the upwind leg, but it was the downwind legs where we shined and made up time on each leg.  By the 2nd upwind leg the wind had dipped even more and we put up the #1.  We barely missed 2nd place by 15 seconds.

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The 3rd race didn’t start so well for us.  We were over early and had to park it and let the fleet sail by so we could turn around and restart.  Starting so far behind everyone made us get creative on the first beat and we banged the right corner (photo above) while most of the rest of the fleet went left which had been working all day.  Sure enough the wind went right and we caught right back up to the fleet.  Unfortunately, we would get stuck with the bottom 2 boats trying to cover each other for a position and ended up as collateral damage never being able to break free and chase the boats ahead of us and we settled for 4th.

5/10 FBYC Offshore Spring Series #2

We’re currently in 2nd place for the series and we got one more race day left next Saturday.  With a good result we should be able to hang onto 2nd.

Jon’s Pictures | Andrea Zilinski Winner PhotosResults | Video

Following racing a storm rolled through throwing a 420 into one of the RIBs onshore and bashing Mad Hatter at the dock.  I’ve seen some storms roll through and I’ve been at the club for some pretty serious tropical and nor’easters, but I’ve never seen a storm come up so quickly and with such intensity.  Thankfully everyone was ashore and safe.

After yesterday’s Opening Day Race, Fishing Bay Yacht Club started the offshore spring series on Sunday with some buoy racing.  We only had about half of the crew we had yesterday and had several new folks in new positions.  Overall we held our own going 3-2-3 on the day. Results.

3/13 FBYC Offshore Spring Series 1

This weekend Greater Richmond Sailing Association invited Fishing Bay Yacht Club Flying Scots and Lasers to join them for frostbiting out on Swift Creek.  Dan and I were the only two Lasers; there were 10 Flying Scots and 3 Thistles.  The goal for the day was simply get back in the boat and try a few things out.  I tried a new GoPro Camera (Hero 3+) and a new stern mount for it.  I got to try out some new boots and I got to try sailing at a club I had never been at before.  Thanks again to GRSA for inviting us to come sail!

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1/14 GRSA Frostbite
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1/14 GRSA Frostbite
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Photos courtesy of Sharon Wake.

This Columbus Day weekend I got to be in Destin Florida for my college buddy Chris K’s wedding along with a bunch of other college friends.  It was quite a trip covering over 2000 miles with plenty of fun along the way.

We started out Go Karting when we arrived Thursday night.  I had a little incident (video) which would scar my nose for the remainder of the trip.

Friday was the guys hanging out with bachelor activities.  Most of the day was spent lounging on a pontoon boat at Crab Island and exploring parts of the Choctawhatchee Bay and inter-coastal waterway.

Saturday was a rehearsal cookout and watching ECU football.

Sunday was a beautiful beach wedding followed by the reception.

Congratulations Chris and Jaimie! Thanks for having me as part of your special day and what a blast!

Photos | Video

name tags for dinner!

This weekend I was the event chair for Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club.  This is the 9th year I’ve been the event chair and by now I’ve gotten a pretty good gameplan and a great team of volunteers to help execute it.  And of course it could not have gone more smoothly from the food to the race committee to the social activities – everything went off without a hitch for 42 competitors.

A complete wrap-up of the event can be found here including more pictures and results.  I’ll have some videos of the sailing and the paddle board competition later this week.

Some of my favorite pictures:


watching the America’s Cup on the screen I rigged up.

Saturday’s Cut Channel Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club had a bit of everything from the weather.  Light air, heavy air, storms, chop, smooth seas, etc.  Lud Kimbrough, Mike Karn and I sailed the J/70 Nostalgia in the PHRF-B fleet of 6 boats out of 15 total for the race.

The race took us south and east and then due east across the bay before heading north up the shipping channel and back to the Piankatank.  We had a great start and did well on the first upwind and reaching legs.  On the 2nd downwind leg out to the channel we made a bad bet on the weather and fell back into the fleet.

After rounding the channel marker to head North we could see storms in the distance but with being so far out into the bay we didn’t have reliable cell service to check the weather.  We donned our life jackets and battened down the hatch – we really did this – and prepared for some weather.  We were also monitoring VHF 16 instead of the race channel so we could hear ships coming up the channel, etc so we didn’t hear any race announcements that the race was being shortened at the next mark.

Most of the storms stayed away and we could see lightning in the distance.  One frontal system did come through and as the wind hit the boats behind us, we quickly executed our emergency chute down procedure to get it in the boat just before we were hit with a 25-30+ knot gust.  We rode out the rest of the leg under jib and main still making 6 knots and as we approached the mark we saw Mr. Roberts there and saw the race was being shortened.

We didn’t save our time, but we had fun and got to try something different on a boat none of us had ever done a distance race with.  Unfortunately for us, we finished at the farthest point of the course from home, which meant we still needed to sail upwind back home.  We definitely didn’t have enough fuel aboard to motor the whole way, plus the boat goes faster under sail anyway.  2 1/2 hours later and after narrowly dodging another squall line and motoring from about 6 miles offshore once the wind died, we made it back to FBYC.

RESULTS | PHOTOS | VIDEO