Corisca River Yacht Club SignCouldn’t have ask for much better weather for yesterday’s Spring Laser Regatta at Corsica River Yacht Club.  The storms stayed away and we had a puffy 8-12 with temperatures in the 70’s and partly sunny skies.  We sailed just off Ship Point a short sail from the club.

In the first race I had  a great start at the boat and from there I just picked a couple shifts and was leading at the first windward mark by a few lengths.  I extended just a bit around the next lap and a half and got the win.

In the second race I was lining up for the start and with 10 seconds left I pulled the tiller toward me to put the bow down and go for the start and my tiller/extension universal joint snapped.  For years I’ve sailed with a Forespar extension for the very reason that it uses a screw-in speed lock universal joint that can be replaced very easily.  I keep a spare and a pair of pliers in my life-jacket, so 90 second repair later I was off and sailing.  I was able to catch up to the middle of the fleet and finished 7th.

5/11 pre-start of the Corsica River Yacht Club Spring Laser Regatta

In the 3rd race I had a good start, but caught a bad shift on the first beat and was 4th or 5th at the first mark.  Carten Faubel and Nicholas Place just got out ahead of everyone and stayed there for the race.  I slowly pass a couple boats and got up to 3rd.

For the 4th race I had another great start and just worked the shifts rounding the mark in first.  I held off Carsten on the first downwind and subsequent upwind, but he had been so fast all day and he got just ahead of me on the 2nd downwind.  On the last tack of final short beat the finish we dragged race and he got me by about 2 feet.

We started a 5th race in 6-8 knots as the wind began easing off, but a storm passed a little too close for comfort and the race committee abandoned it on the 3rd leg and sent us in.

5/11 Corsica River Yacht Club Spring Regatta Laser Winners: 1 Carsten Faubel, 2 Jon Deutsch, 3 Nicholas Place

With 1-7-3-2 I ended up 2nd behind Carsten and just ahead of Nicholas Place.  CRYC did another great job and it’s always a fun place to sail.  Thanks for putting on the regatta and having the Lasers!

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Lighter winds and cooler temperatures for the final day of the Annapolis NOOD regatta. We gave it what we had, but just weren’t able to improve our score in the final two races.  With winds up and down and forming lanes up and down the course, we just weren’t able to string enough pressure together to keep us moving.  Despite the scores, it was still a fun weekend and I want to thank Craig & Susan Wright on Afterthought for having me along.

2013 Annapolis NOOD: Sunday - Trimming Spin
2013 Annapolis NOOD: Sunday - Looking for wind

Photos above courtesy of Carrie Russell

2013 Annapolis NOOD: Sunday - Watching Fleets start

Photos | Results

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With winds up and down it was a tough day on the water today.  We’re still 3rd on points, but ceded a few points and are tied with several boats very close behind us.  We’ll need a few good results tomorrow to stay on the podium.  All in all our maneuvers went much better than yesterday, but we did find ourselves on the wrong side of some shifts making it hard to  stay in the top spots.

2013 Annapolis NOOD - Saturday - leaving hte harbor

Racing today was in anywhere from 5 knots all the way up into the mid-teens in the last race of the day with mostly sunny skies and temperatures comfortable in the 60-70’s.  I’d have more pictures today, but the camera with all of the shots on it was left in the boat for the night.

2013 Annapolis NOOD: Saturday going downwind

This seemed to be the story of my day… more overrides on the winch in a day of racing than I think I’ve had in years of racing.

2013 Annapolis NOOD: Saturday - Winch override.

Here is a Spinsheet photo of us approaching a mark during racing on Friday (I’m on the low side about to ease the jib):

Results

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2013 Annapolis NOOD - Friday - Jon Trimming Chute

We had as good of conditions as we could have asked for on the first day of racing at the Annapolis NOOD Regatta.  Sailing in the J/109 fleet aboard Afterthought we had a pretty good day going 3-2-5 and ending up 3rd in the 7-boat fleet.  We sailed on the southern-most course by Tolly Point and had winds building through the 10-17+ knot range.

In race one we had a tough start and had to tack out.  We were DFL around the windward mark.  We enjoyed watching that on the big screen at the race party knowing we made some smart moves on the rest of the race to claw our way up to a 3rd.

In the 2nd race we got a great start and picked the first upwind well and just extended the entire race.  Rush was just ahead of us and while we could almost hang with them, we certainly weren’t closing on them.

2013 Annapolis NOOD - Friday - Jon Trimming Jib

For the 3rd race we had another good start and for this race the fleet stayed bunched on the first windward leg.  We were 3 or 4 downwind and then on the 2nd upwind we ended up on the wrong side of a shift and dropped to 6th.  Picked up on boat downwind to finish 5th putting us into 3rd overall – 3 points out of 2nd and 5 points ahead of 4th.

Tomorrow we’re expecting a little lighter winds and a chance to move up a bit.

2013 Annapolis NOOD - Friday - FBYC Sailors

Some of the sailors from Fishing Bay Yacht Club.

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2013 FBYC OD Spring #2_0100

Following a late night at the Richmond NASCAR race I was off to Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the Stew Pot Regatta to sail on Rob Whittemore’s Flying Scot – Patriot.  We had 8 other Flying Scots out with us and 3 Front Runners in 11-15 knots of wind out of the ESE.  The first 3 races were 4/5 mi H course and the last two were a W4 and a G.  We had  good starts, great boat speed and kept to the favored side of the course.  John Wake and his wife Sharon were close competition all day, but we managed to snip them at the line a couple of times.  All in all it was a fun day sailing with Rob and great to get 5 bullets to win the day.

2013 FBYC OD Spring #2_0055

Top 2 photos by Karen Huddle

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This was the 2nd day of the Spring Series at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and I got to helm the J109 Double Eagle to two 2nd place finishes in the 6-boat fleet.  With winds in the low 20’s the fleet was racing a 1.04 mile leg in the Piankatank up into Fishing Bay. Anytime the wind is out of the North in there it’s very shifty which made driving challenging.

2013 FBYC Spring Series #2 Double Eagle Downwind

In the first race we trailed Afterthought all the way around the course.  They were shorthanded and sailed downwind without a shoot, but made good enough VMG that we had to stay in good pressure with a kite up to make up on them.  On the 2nd downwind we picked it right and were able to nip them at the line.  Unfortunately Nanuq was too close behind and was able to correct over us.

In the 2nd race we were a bit late at the start and were just never able to really make up the deficit to challenge Afterthought and wound up with another 2nd.

I just want to thank Sam Mitchener for the opportunity to drive Double Eagle and wish his family the best and am sorry he wasn’t able to sail with us today.

Results: Race 1 | Race 2

Photo courtesy of Carrie Russell.

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Front Runner

Got to sail a Front Runner in the One Design Opening day with Paul as crew.  Started out with winds reaching the low teens and it dropped from there through 3 races.  The first race was mostly getting re-acclimated to the boat.  In  the 2nd and 3rd races we had great starts and got around the course in 2nd.  We just couldn’t seem to catch the speed of David and Rob who had 3 bullets and won the day.

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It was great to get back to sailboat racing this year at Opening Weekend at Fishing Bay Yacht Club.  On Saturday I sailed on Wavelength – a C&C 37 owned by Rob Whittet and Steve Utley.  The course was a middle distance race and the light air and chop was not kind to us.  Even without a great result it was a fun day on the water that ended up with a Opening Day dinner and party at the club.

4/13 FBYC Opening Day: Wavelength:

On Sunday we sailed the first day of the Spring Series.  After waiting around for wind, we had a sea breeze that built until just after the start of the 2nd race.  Both races were nice and long and while we still couldn’t touch the J/109’s, we still sailed well and had fun.

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4/7

Couldn’t have asked for a nicer day of sailing.  The day started with 15-18 and we took out 3 J/70’s for practice.  We spent about 2 hours doing starts and laps around a short course.  This time I was trimming the jib and spinnaker.

Then in the afternoon I spent 3 hours on the Laser just sailing 1mi-1.5mi upwind and downwind legs.  One of the club’s junior sailors – Nina was also out there (pictured).

 

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