Having not planned on being in Deltaville this weekend I was a late add to Wavelength for the Moonlight Regatta following my Laser sail in the afternoon.  The weather was perfect for a night race – comfortable temperatures, clear skies and 12-19 knots of wind out of the north east.

We got a pretty reasonable start and were 2nd around the top mark behind Double Eagle.  On the 2nd leg out to mark E, Double Eagle went pretty low and allowed us to slip by while the Tartan 40 Nereid just waterlined us in the chop and was half a length ahead of us to leeward at E.  For some strange reason Nereid went below the mark, we didn’t, but we couldn’t turn right to go to G because they were there.  Eventually it was sorted out and Nereid went back to re-round while we led the fleet to G only to be overrun by Double Eagle once they caught up.  Below is a photo of Nereid (right) going back to the mark, while  Double Eagle tracks us down.

 

From G to J was a close reach up into the Rappahannock River with the current coming right on our nose.  I drove about a mile and a half of the leg before we turned to go back to the Piankatank.   We put the chute up just before F and gybed around it.  We had a bit of a trouble with the jibe before we got settled to head for the finish.  About halfway down the leg to the finish our topping lift broke.  We took down the spinnaker and sailed bare-headed while we got the genoa sorted and hoisted.  We came so close to winning the A fleet… Double Eagle corrected to 34 seconds ahead of us leaving us in 2nd overall.

Below is the course.  The marks as sailed are labeled Moon Start-Moon-E-G-J-B(finish).  The dotted red line is the actual course we sailed.

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Results | Photos

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I spent most of today at Fishing Bay Yacht Club putting the new boat together.  After 4 hours and 3 trips to West Marine and I had it all tricked out like I wanted and ready to sail.

6/14 drilling holes in and tricking out the new boat.

6/14 about to launch the new boat for the first time.

What really surprised me when I was sailing was how much stiffer the mast seemed.  I haven’t sailed many boats and am pretty used to the feel of the old boat.  I’m guessing after 17 years the old mast has been flexed so many times it’s lost a bit of stiffness.  Couple the stiffer mast with control lines that are just a little thinner than I’m used to and I really felt like a wimp trying to crank everything in.  I’m sure it’ll loosen up a bit as I get used to it.  The other difference was the all Holt-Allen fittings which were just a little different than the Harken ones I’m used to.  I’m not sure yet which I prefer, but I’m sure I’ll be able to tell in time.

6/14 first sail in the new boat.

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I was supposed to be on my  way to Cape May New Jersey today for the District 10 Championship Regatta at Wildwood Yacht Club and Corinthian Yacht Club of Cape May.  I was looking forward to visiting with NJ sailors and visiting a new club.  I was also looking to avenge a demon of the last time I was in Cape May and had a run-in with yacht in the harbor.

That wasn’t going to be.  Last night when I was loading the Laser I slipped with it and it fell off the car with the bow hitting with a thud.  It got a small crack in the gunwale and there were several inches of the hull/deck joint that separated where the boat flexed so it was clearly out of commission.  It’s fixable, but it will be a while. Me, the car and the ground made out with out any scratches.

159785 was one of the boats at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, has a great logo on the side of it and was a very well made boat.  I was fortunate that the boat was a spare for that regatta and didn’t get as beat up as the other boats.  We picked it up at the beginning of 1997 and it served me well for the 17 years since. But with any boat sailed that hard for that long – it was beginning to show its age and have little things go wrong with it from time to time.  Almost exactly a year ago I was in NJ and the traveler fairlead pulled out.  I had planned on getting a new boat in the next year anyway so might as well move that up and pick up a new boat to use while the old one is getting fixed.  Eventually, I’ll keep the old boat at the club for local sailing and keep the new boat in Richmond ready for travel events.

The name for this boat will be No Quarter.  That’s the beloved battle cry of my ECU Pirates and loosely means show no mercy, take no prisoners and accept only unconditional surrender.

I ultimately decided I had enough things go wrong for one weekend and didn’t want to temp fate any further by trying to race on a brand new boat… so I thought it best to sit this D10 Championship out and get the boat put together and take it easy this weekend.  I’ll have the boat out for it’s maiden voyage tomorrow.

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I recently got a new Fujifilm FinePix XP200 Waterproof Digital Camera and just gave it to my friends while we were racing.  This is what they took and I’m pretty impressed with the camera and how it came out.

Some video and pictures from Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s One Design Invitational Regatta sailed in Front Runners and San Juan 21.

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Saturday brought beautiful weather for Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s One Design Invitational Regatta.  Sailing were Front Runners and San Juan 21s with another boat sailing Portsmouth handicap.  I sailed a Front Runner and had Alan Williamson crewing with me on his first time sailing.

The wind started out light – which was perfect for us as we found our way around the boat and learned the routines of the maneuvers to get the sails up and down as we went around the course.  Luckily the other boats had some new crew too so we all were getting up to speed at the same time.  As a result the racing was close throughout.

We did 5 races with winds building from 5-11 and staying pretty consistently out of the east.  Our race course as a windward-leeward 1/4 mi legs set just west of the end of Stove Point.

In the first 3 races we were up and down putting up a 3-1-3.  I won the boat a couple times at the start, but never seemed to be able to live there with the other boats below us out-pointing us, so we had to tack out and make more tacks making it harder to catch up.  In the races we did well in, I was closer to the pin and was able to foot and go fast and do less tacks.  We also made sure to setup on the laylines early to give ourselves plenty of time to prepare for the roundings.

Going into the last race we were tied for 1st and it was a longer 3-lap race.  We were close to Matt Lambert all the way around the course and more than once he tried to stick it to us and almost succeeded.  But we were able to get through the turns quickly and use the favored positions to stay just ahead and win the race putting us in 1st overall and 2 points ahead of 2nd.

It was a lot of fun having Alan aboard and getting to show him sailing and racing and the level of athleticism and effort needed to do it well.  He was a quick study and really helped get us around the course fast.

Front Runner 1st: Jon Deutsch/Alan Williamson; 2nd: Andrew Boren/Brad Squires

Thanks to Parker Garrett and the race committee for running the races today!  We could have asked for a better day all the way around.  And thanks Matt Braun for loaning me the boat to sail.

Results | Pictures

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The 3rd and final day of Southen Bay Race Week was 3 windward-leeward courses sailed to the south off of Ocean View.  We had warmer conditions than past days and wind that hovered around 14 in the first race and went down to 8-10 by the last race.

PhotoBoat.com: Double Eagle &emdash; 2014 Southern Bay Race Week E 658

Our first race didn’t start well- we fouled a boat before the start and after doing circles we were almost a minute late at the start.  Upwind in the first part of the beat we made some good moves and caught back up with the fleet.  The rest of the race went well and we were able to pull off a 5th.

PhotoBoat.com: Double Eagle &emdash; 2014 Southern Bay Race Week E 644

The 2nd race of the day was a bit tougher on us and we had to settle for an 8th.  In the final race of the day we had a great start, and got around the course, but couldn’t quite hang with the bigger boats that pulled away and put a few places between us.

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In the end Sea Star and Voodoo 2 got just enough points on us in the final races to tie for 4th place, leaving us just one point behind in 6th.  We came close and had a good race and definitely a fun time.  Thanks Sam Mitchener for having me along.  It was great sailing with you, Mark, Mayo, Bonnie, Melissa, Chris, Mike, Marie, & Jerry.

Results | Pictures | Photoboat Pictures

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Today was distance race day at Southern Bay Race Week.  It over an hour of pounding into waves under motor to reach the starting area just North up the bay from the mouth of the James River.

5/31

The first leg was a beat out and up into the bay.  We picked a pretty good layline from 5 miles out and rounded with the leaders.  Downwind some of the longer boats with bigger downwind sails were able to grind past us and we had to settle for a 7th.

5/31

After racing I wore my best pirate costume and spent a couple hours walking through the Blackbeard Festival going on in Hampton this weekend.  Some of the costumes were pretty amazing and they kept firing cannons all afternoon.

5/31 Jon dressed as a Pirate for the Blackbeard festival

Results | Pictures | Photoboat Pictures

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PhotoBoat.com: Double Eagle &emdash; 2014 Southern Bay Race Week A 328

Southern Bay Race Week started with triangle courses in the James River just outside the Hampton harbor.  We had some good starts and stayed in the fleet and had a good day putting up 4-5-4 in 3 races and were sitting in 4 at the end of the day.

5/30

Results | Pictures | Photoboat Pictures

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This weekend is Southern Bay Race Week in Hampton VA and today I was helping Sam Mitchener deliver Double Eagle to Hampton for us to race on.  We had a cool overcast day with winds out of the Northeast ranging from 10-16.  The 43nm trip in lumpy conditions was otherwise uneventful and we made it in just over 7 hours motoring the entire way.  Tomorrow the rest of the crew joins us for 3 days of racing and hopefully some warmer weather.  I’m looking forward to my first time at Southern Bay Race Week!

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