2024 Stingray Point Regatta
A foot injury kept me sidelined from racing in the 2024 Stingray Point Regatta, but we did get out for a while on Sunday to capture some pictures of the racing on the east course.
2024 ILCA Atlantic Coast Championship
Friday
Having seen the forecast for Friday and good conditions for some afternoon practice, I left for the ILCA Atlantic Coast Championship at Brant Beach on Thursday night and drove to Baltimore enabling me to miss DC traffic the next morning. 🙂
Friday morning I had a relatively easy drive to Brant Beach arriving around noon and going for some practice in the afternoon sea breeze.
We were able to jump into some practice races that one of the coaches were running and it was good to get practice around marks and other boats. In the evening there was a beautiful sunset.
Saturday
Saturday started with breakfast in the clubhouse and a postponement until the wind filled. After about two and 1/2 hours the sea breeze looked like it would fill and they sent us out around noon. I managed to be the very last boat to leave the beach, but had plenty of time to sail 1nm to the course and they postponed on the water for another 15 minutes or so as the wind settled and the course was set. After a general recall we got started under I-flag and I had an okay start by the boat. I went middle right and the folks that went hard left and started at the pin made out. I was mid-fleet and picked off a couple boats on the ensuing legs finishing 22nd.
Race 2 was another start under the I-flag. I had a great start pretty close to the boat and I was able to tack out to the right early and get in clear air. I stayed with the leaders and found myself 6th at the top mark. I didn’t play the reach very well and the fast guys went right around me downwind and I continued to drop back to the mid-20s.
For the final race of the day the wind continue to increase and the waves got sloppier. I didn’t have a great start down by the pin and found myself duking it out and just trying to find a good lane to go fast in. The rest of the race was uneventful and I finished 28th.
That evening we had a cookout in the clubhouse while the sun set behind the island just off the club’s waterfront.
Sunday
Sunday started with another postponement on shore as we waited for the sea breeze to build. This time it was a little earlier and a little stronger when it did come and we were racing by 12:30.
The starts today were a lot more competitive and I didn’t have nearly as clear of starts as I did yesterday. That meant I was tacking more and trying to find clear lanes of wind. So for race 4 I finished 29th.
In race 5 the wind increased into the double digits. I started down by the pin and went left and everyone to the right seemed like they were climbing over us so I worked my way back to the right. At the top mark I was mid fleet and I rounded the offset and tried to duck a stern to go downwind; only I mis-judged it and tapped my bow on the back of the rudder and had to do turns putting me further back in the fleet and I finished 30th.
By race 6 the wind was up to 14-16 and hiking conditions upwind. The sloppy waves from yesterday had returned and we started under U-flag. I started in the middle of the line with Eric and Andrew just below me who just flew right by me and I found myself having to tack behind everyone to look for clear air. 2 legs later we were coming into the leeward gate and I had George overlapped and just outside of me. As we hit the 3 length circle he lost control of his boat and rounded up into me. I rounded up to crash tack and avoid him as he ended up tipping on top of the right gate mark and blocking my path from rounding. I ended up in irons outside of the mark and had to go back upwind to get around him and the mark. Another boat just behind us rounded George and the mark and as they turned upwind, the side of their boat glanced across the top of my rudder leaving a gouge in their boat. I would realize later that my rudder pin was bent on the force of the impact. I would go on to finish 25 in this race and ended up 28th overall.
It was good to be back in the boat and get 3 days of sailing. I have definitely gotten out of sailing shape and have a little work to do there. I appreciate all of the people at Brant Beach who made this event possible – it was very well run and they made it easy to attend.
EVENT WEBSITE | RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO
2024 FBYC ILCA Summer Regatta II
We had nice weather and a 10-boat fleet for the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Summer ILCA Regatta. For the first time Jess came out and sailed our second boat so we were on the course together.
In the first race the boat was favored and I started there and played the middle right up the course. The left ended up getting the shift and the guys that went to the left came out ahead – leaving me 6 or 7 around the top mark. I was able to make up a boat downwind and then picked up a couple more on the 2nd upwind and held that to finish 3rd behind James and Mike M.
In the 2nd race the wind was clearly going hard left and everyone started right down by the pin. I started a little down from the pin just to be away from other boats and have clear air. At the start everyone flipped to port and we were all pretty much laying the mark. I pushed the boat through the waves and the chop and what was 6-8 knots of wind. The clear air paid off and I was able to lead the fleet with a comfortable gap at the weather mark. James closed the gap on the downwind and continued to chip away at it on the upwind until he was just ahead and to my right after the long port tack. When he tacked onto starboard I had to give way and I followed him the rest of the way around the course to a 2nd.
For the 3rd race the RC shifted the course to the left and the new wind. I was slightly late to the start after trying to come in at the boat and everyone else was already there. I immediately tacked to the right and worked my way in clear air on that side of the course. I think the new course location sheltered the left of the course a bit and the boats that went left were sailing in less wind enabling me to lead the fleet at the top mark with Len and James just behind. James got around Len downwind and was just behind me at the turning mark. Upwind James did a better job picking the shifts to the right in more pressure and had gotten around me at by the top mark for another 2nd place finish.
With some threat of thunderstorms on the horizon, the RC called it a day and we went in for snacks and awards. Thanks to Matt, Heather and the Cross family for running our races!
2024 FBYC Moonlight Regatta
This year the moonlight race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club was pushed back to August to coincide with the super moon blue moon occurring a few days afterward and giving us the most light to sail by (if it weren’t for the clouds). We were sailing aboard the J99 Battle Rhythm with Todd, Jen, Terry, Kevin, April, David, Harry and myself. As we left the dock shortly after 6 we could tell that it was blowing pretty good out of the south east. The white caps breaking over the bar at the entrance of Jackson Creek confirmed it as we ventured out into the Piankatank. 12-15 in the river near the start and we’d see as high as 26 when we were out in the bay and clear of Gwynn’s Island.
We were a little late timing the start and followed the fleet to the first mark at the tip of Gwynn’s Island and then we headed upwind southeast into a building current. We had started with a double reef, but quickly went to a single reef when we felt vastly under powered. At times the waves crashed over the bow and soaked the crew on the rail. Kevin and April took the brunt of it and thankfully being August it wasn’t too chilly.
On this upwind leg with winds in the upper teens with gusts into the twenties and the single reef in we were definitely overpowered. We haven’t sailed the boat in these conditions very much and took a while to figure out the groove. After we found it we were doing 7.5-8 knots upwind and making up ground on the fleet. We also took a bit of a high line closer to the wind taking us further south that enabled us to fetch the mark in the current without pinching. This would be clutch as several boats who didn’t fetch the mark would end up having to duck us on port as we came into the weather mark. It was spooky with several boats just behind us in the dark.
The next leg took us on a broad reach to the north west into the mouth of the Rappahannock river and with the prevailing current. None of the boats put up a spinnaker with winds still reaching 26knots. At times we were doing almost 10 knots through the water.
Once we reached the turning mark in the Rappahannock it was time to come back upwind to the mouth of the Piankatank. We went a short ways inshore to Stingray point and then tacked out into the Bay. Some of the boats just behind us went even further inshore and when we crossed them they were just ahead or at least much closer. So we decided to continue the leg by going inshore and away from the current and approach the next mark on the starboard layline. We entered the Piankatank and reached into the finish shaking out the reef as we got back behind Gwynn’s island. We finished 5 minutes behind Nanuq and 2 minutes ahead of Orion, but after the corrected times were calculated, we came out 5 seconds ahead of Excitation for 1st place.
2024 Paris Olympic Sailing NBC Replay Coverage Index
I’ve been trying to go back and watch some of the Olympic sailing as most of it happened during working hours on the east coast. While I can watch the replays that are 6 hours daily – the website is terrible and makes you watch 2-3 minutes of ads every time you skip around. So as I’ve been finding the actual racing events, I’ve kept a list to be able to come back and watch certain events an so I’ve collected them here to share. If you’ve found others, drop a comment and I’ll update this with those notes and with more as I work my way through the replay coverage.
This is from the NBC Olympic Coverage accessed through a cable account. I don’t know if these are the same timings from Peacock, but would assume they would be similar.
The Schedule/Replay links: https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule/sport/sailing
Sunday 7/28
- 2:55:00 men’s skiff
Monday 7/29
- 0:00 women’s skiff race 4
- 1:13:00 women’s skiff race 5
- 1:57:00 women’s skiff race 6
Tuesday 7/30
- 0:34:00 Men’s Windsurfing
- 0:47:00 Women’s Windsurfing
- 0:59:00 Men’s Windsurfing
- 1:13:00 Women’s Windsurfing
- 1:38:00 Men’s Windsurfing
- 2:05:00 Men’s Windsurfing Race 5
- 2:32:00 Men’s Windsurfing
- 3:08:00 Men’s Skiff Race 8 – start at 3:11:00
Wednesday 7/31
- 0:05:00 Women’s Windsurfing
- 3:00:00 Men’s Skiff
- 4:03:00 Men’s Skiff
Thursday 8/1
- Men’s Dinghy – initially postponed; Race 1 starts around 0:52:00
- 2:24:00 Men’s Skiff – start at 2:31:00
- 4:15:00 Men’s Skiff – eventually abandoned
Friday 8/2
- 0:00:00 49er fix medial
- 0:57:00 49er men medal race
Saturday 8/3
- 0:00:00 Windsurf
- 4:00:00 Mixed Dinghy
Sunday 8/4
- 0:00:00 Men’s dinghy – general recall – second start ~10 min later
- 1:36:00 mixed multihull
- mixed multihull race 6?
- 2:17:00 mixed multihull
- 3:06:00 mixed multihull
Monday 8/5
- 02:55:00 Women’s Dinghy Race 9
- 04:21:00 Women’s Dinghy Race 10. (Abandoned at 0:4:35)
Tuesday 8/6
Doesn’t seem to have commercials.
- 0:01:00 Mixed Dinghy 470 Race 7 (Start at 0:12:00)
Wednesday 8/7
- 0:00:30 Women’s Dinghy Medal Race
- 0:32:42 Men’s Dinghy Medal Race – Abandoned at 1:10:00
- 1:56:50 Men’s Dinghy Medal Race
Thursday, 8/8
- 0:00:50 Mixed Dinghy 470 – start at 0:12:45
- 0:42:00 Mixed Multi hull Medal Race – start at 0:52:50
- 3:32:30 Men’s Kite – start 3:40:30
- 4:18:00 Women’s Kite – start at 4:25:30 (finish at 4:32:10 – 6 minutes!?!?!)
- 4:38 Men’s Kite Final – start at 4:40:40
- 5:07:45 Women’s Kite Final – start at 5:13:35
- 5:22:40 Men’s Kite Final – start at 5:29:20
- 5:36:00 Women’s Kite Final – start at 5:41:41
- 5:50:45 Men’s Kite Final – start at at 5:54:40
Friday, 8/9
- 0:00:00 Men’s Kite Final – Race 2
- 1:24:45 Men’s Kite Medal Ceremony
Saturday 8/10
2024 Broad Creek Waterway Tour
Went to check out Broad Creek in Deltaville VA by water this weekend. Was probably the first time I’ve been there by water in almost 25 years. Here’s what it looked like by water in 360 view.
2024 Rescue Regatta
The Rescue Regatta is a one day regatta, party and charity benefit for the Middlesex County Rescue Squad. There’s racing for boats from 20 feet and up and a band and party Saturday night at the Deltaville Maritime Museum.
On the day of the race storms blanketed the area in the morning and start to clear just as we were leaving the dock. By the time the racers were starting there was even some blue sky poking out and the wind was 6-9 out of the south.
The format of this race is a progressive start so each boat gets its own start time and everyone sails the same course to the finish with the faster boats with lower handicaps starting last. First to finish wins. We were sailing the 2nd fastest and lowest rated boat in the fleet – the J99 Battle Rhythm. Only the J109 Afterthought was faster than us and started behind us. So in order for us to win, we’d have to pass every other boat in the fleet and we started 35 minutes behind the slowest boats. The course was a V with a close reach out of the mouth of the Piankatank into the Chesapeake Bay and a broad raeach back up into the mouth of the Rappahannock.
Aboard Battle Rhythm were Todd, Kevin, Jennifer V, Holly and myself. As we crossed the starting line at a our starting time we nailed the timing and quickly put up the A1 and settled into a rhythm sailing as high as we could to fetch the mark ~4 miles away. Afterthought was our closest competitor who started shortly behind us and slowly worked above us and started catching up to us. We quickly rolled past Tradition who started just before us and we continued to pick off a few boats on the way to mark G. It was challenging at times keeping the boat going with the high angle on the spinnaker as well as not sailing into the lee of another boat.
Afterthought and Corryvreckan stayed just ahead of us as we got to the turning mark. They rounded wide and we rounded inside of them to be upwind on the broad reach. From there we stayed just ahead of Afterhthought dodging traffic on a relatively high line while Corryvreckan went low and made some gains in clear air away from the pack. We learned a lot about how close we could get in the lee of the slower boats without having them affect our speed.
Towards the end of the race it became more downwind and we went to the left side of the course so we could come back across the course to the finish on starboard. As we converged at the finish there were two boats clear ahead that had already finished – Afterthought and Shehallion and it was close between us and Corryvreckan. They gybed at the last minute before we would have collided and we had to turn down to avoid them. We immediately protested them and crossed the finished line shortly there after. Shenanigan and Sting were all right behind us at the finish. We ultimately lost the protest on port-starboard, and I was a little disappointed that committee felt Corryvreckan kept clear even though we had to avoid them. Rather than ensuring fair sailing and safety, the protest committee set the precedent that we basically have to hit them to win the protest, which is not what we are going to ever do and not what the rules say. So as a result, the message we got is that we’ll have to give our competitors a wider berth as we can’t rely on the rules ensure fair sailing and we certainly can’t rely on the protest committee without there being contact.
Aside from the ending, it was a fun day of sailing and we finished 3rd overall. We learned a lot about sailing in traffic and had a great day on the water. Thanks Todd for having me along.
2024 FBYC July 4th Long Distance Race
A beautiful 4th of July day greeted nearly 30 boats for the Long Distance Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. I was sailing the ILCA against Melges 15, Flying Scot, San Juan 21 and Wetas in a Portsmouth Handicap race that sailed from Fishing Bay, out of the Piankatank near Stingray Point and back into the river finishing in Fishing Bay. I also used this as an opportunity to try out some new camera positions with the Insta360 X4 on the mast and the insta360 AcePro on a new stern mount (more on that to come).
Out on the water we had about 8 knots out of the south. Approaching the start – with so many boats much bigger than I was, I wanted to be near the boat so I could tack out and keep my air clear. There were several other Melges 15s hanging around the boat as well. In the final minute lead up to the start as I was coming up to the boat, one of the Melges 15s tried to barge in and gybed right in front of me causing me to avoid them. I hailed protest and they sailed away to do turns. Unfortunately, in dealing with that and not having the space I should have had, I got to the boat too early. Knowing I was over early, I sheeted in to go around the boat and restart with about 20 seconds to go. But then I looked back and the new mount for the AcePro on the back of the boat was nowhere to be seen. I slid back to see that the mount had failed and it was now pointed below the water filming the bottom of the boat. Thankfully everyone else was over the line early earning us all a general recall and a chance for me to fix the camera and restart with everyone else.
The second start went a lot better. I was able to win the boat and stay in clear air on the first beat. I arrived at the first weather mark with 3-4 Melges 15s ahead of me and a San Jaun 21 and a Weta just behind me. The second leg was a reach to Piankatank 8 and the boats with asymmetrical spinnakers were able to carry them and cruise by everyone. I did my best despite dropping a couple spots. At Piankatank 8, we headed downwind to the North towards Stingray Point. Another Melges 15 and a couple Flying Scots got past me on this leg.
The next leg started the journey back along the same course we came from. Sailing upwind I favored the right towards Stove Point to stay out of the current. I’m not sure, but I think there was more wind to the Left and Mark W, who was also in an ILCA was further out and made up some ground on me. From Piankatank 8 to 11 was a close reach, thankfully close enough that the spinnaker boats couldn’t deploy them. I rounded 11 to head downwind on the final leg to the finish in Fishing Bay. I was the 12th boat to finish and ended up being 8th on corrected time.
Thanks to Lew and his crew for running the races. It was a great way to spend a Thursday on the 4th of July.
2024 Race to Wolf Trap Light House
We had a small fleet for a summer race to Wolf Trap Light House and back. There were 6 spinnaker boats and the two boats in the PHRF-A fleet were us on the J99 Battle Rhythm and the J109 Afterthought.
We started in the Piankatank just off Gwynns Island and had winds in the low teens out of the SSE and mostly sunny. There was a bit of traffic at the start with all of the boats piling up at the starboard end of the line which happened to be the government mark. We had to dodge a few boats and once we got clear we hung with Afterthought upwind on the way out of the Piankatank.
Once we cleared the river we continued upwind south to Wolf Trap light. With the current going out of the bay it was advantageous to continue on starboard all the way out into the bay. We got to the layline a couple miles from the lighthouse and tacked onto Port. Afterthought had continued to inch further away from us and was about ½ mile ahead of us by the time we got to the light house. And the wind out here was around 6-8 knots.
At Wolf Trap we rounded and set the A2 spinnaker and headed downwind. We sailed this spinnaker for a bit hoping the wind would build into its range, but it didn’t come and we decided to do a spinnaker change to the A1. While Kevin, Len and Carrie got the old spinnaker down, I grabbed the tack and halyard and got it hooked to the new spinnaker and after Kevin wrestled the chute into the hatch and Len hooked up the sheet I jumped the halyard on the mast and we had the new spinnaker flying in just over a minute.
Another new trick for this race was having the chart and instruments on the iPad. We also set up some time graphs with one of them being VMG and so after we changed spinnaker we were able to see from the chart that we were getting at least a tenth more VMG.
We continued North to the Piankatank, saw a huge pod of dolphins and eventually rounded into the river where we went somewhat upwind to the finish off Gywnns Island. On corrected time we would be about 14 minutes behind Afterthought.
All in all it was a good day of racing. Learned a few more tricks on the boat and had fun racing with Kevin, April, Carrie, Todd, Len, and Ann.
