So Long No Quarter J/70
At the end of June I said goodbye to the J/70. It had been a ton of fun and I’m sorry I didn’t get to sail it more, but with school and all of the other commitments I have coming up it was best to downsize my fleet.
2017 Richmond Kickers vs Tampa Bay Rowdies
We had another great afternoon in June for watching the Richmond Kickers play the Tampa Bay Rowdies with Jess, Laurie, John, Caroline and Iain.
2017 FBYC Open House Regatta
The forecast for the Open House Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club improved as we got closer to Sunday and it ended up be great sailing conditions for the few mile progressive start distance race. This race featured boats from 14′ all the way up to 48′ and they were all handicapped against each other with the slow boats starting first and having a head start over the faster boats. The first boat over the finish line wins.
I sailed a Front Runner with Alan as crew and were among the 24 boats racing under mostly cloudy skies with the wind out of the ESE at 9-11. As one of the slower boats we were about the 5th group to start and there were 2 other Front Runners racing with us. The start was across the Piankatank River near Godfrey Bay and took us east and upwind towards the mouth of the Piankatank River. Sailing down the river we stuck to the North shore near Fishing Bay and Stove point to stay out of the current.
That ended up being the key to the race as we extended out a lead and were able to get far enough ahead of the faster boats that they weren’t able to catch up. It also helped us that 1/4 of the race was close reaching rhumb line sailing where putting up a spinnaker didn’t really help any. On the final leg to the finish the J/70 E.L.E. made a pretty good charge and we edged them out finishing less than 1/2 a minute ahead.
Big thanks to Matt for letting us borrow the boat and for Alan doing a great job crewing in his second race.
2017 Corporate Run
After wanting to run this race for a few years I finally had the opportunity to run the Anthem Corporate Run with 40 of my co-workers and another 1,000 or more runners from around the city. Turned out to be a great night for it and I ran a little over 5k in 24:37 for a 7’46” pace.
2017 May: Dallas
I made another trip to Dallas in May to visit Jess that started out with a few delays getting there. The plane I was scheduled to get on at LaGuardia had gotten hit by another plane on the way to the gate. It was fun watching the commentary on twitter and contributing to it. Fortunately, the damage was minor with no injuries and just an inconvenience for all of the passengers affected.
The damage to the @DeltaAssist plane involved in the @WestJet collision at #Laguardia this morning. pic.twitter.com/IrUT1rNfG9
— Jon Deutsch (@jondeutsch) May 11, 2017
The first night in Dallas Jess and I joined Tim on his Flying Scot and we sailed down the lake near the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden where they were having their Thursday night concert series. We listened to a Michael Jackson tribute band while we relaxed on the water having drinks and eating dinner while we were surrounded by Stand Up Paddle boarders. I had never been to a raft up where the Flying Scot was the ‘big boat’
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT-SQpRhXAS/?taken-by=jondeutsch
On Friday Jess and I went to Fort Worth and had the most Texas date ever – steak dinner followed by a rodeo followed by a honky tonk.
On Saturday I got to sail a snipe for the first time on a very light-air day at Corinthian Sailing Club. Lauren let me sail her boat while Andrew and Jess practiced their light-air boat-handling for Nationals later this summer.
Sunday we relaxed and I made the trip back to Richmond.
Strange Bird Trailer
Late last year I came by a Snipe and began getting it back into sailing shape this year. One element to getting it sailing was to get a road-worthy trailer under it. After trading some cash and an old AppleTV I got a used Laser 2 trailer that would fit the snipe nicely. I replaced some of the hardware, addeda jack and new wiring and lights. The hardest part would be building the bunks and what made it harder was the fact that I’d have to do it while the boat stayed upside down in my backyard.
We made a pattern for the bottom of the hull by using a jig to draw a line on the board that matched the shape of the hull. See the device here.
The shape fit the hull perfectly and just needed to be mounted to the trailer.
And the boat finally upright on the trailer:
More pictures of the trailer build starting here.
2017 Richmond Kickers vs Ottawa Fury FC
We had a beautiful afternoon in April watching Richmond Kickers take on the Ottawa Fury in Richmond City Stadium.
2017 RMYC RG65 Series #1
We had a nice afternoon for the first RG65 race at Richmond Model Yacht Club on Lake Rooty. I was a bit rusty and overpowered in the puffs and managed a 5th overall out of 9 boats in 8 races. It was fun getting back on the water and seeing what happens when I actually got the boat pointed the right way.
2017 Laser Masters Midweek Madness: Wednesday
In an about face in weather from the rest of the week – wind is what we got on Wednesday with winds in the upper teens and gusts into the lower twenties. Slightly overcast skies with temperatures in the lower 70’s. Having sailed in light air all week and most of 2016 – I wasn’t well prepared for these conditions. My goal would be to just get around the course and salvage as much as I could.
In the first race I had an ok but not stellar start. I made my way out to the right of the course and I moved the boat ok, but was a few rows back. Towards the top it was clear the left was coming in better and I was in the back quarter around the top mark. On the reach to the offset I lost my hand hold on the mainsheet and ended up capsizing to windward as what remained of the fleet sailed by.
I continued the race sailing conservative downwind to keep the boat under me and managed to pick off a few boats on the next two legs. At the final jibe mark to the finish I messed up the timing of my duck and thwacked the boom on my head to add a little injury to insult. I’d have a bruise for the next several days.
At that point it was clear I wasn’t competing and I decided to get home and save some time-off for later in the year. And to finish it up – my dolly broke as I recovered the boat on the beach. Thankfully the ride home was uneventful including an overnight stop in Florence SC.