Aboard Mad Hatter at the start of the Rescue Regatta.
This year Fishing Bay Yacht Club joined up with Stingray Harbor Yacht Club and the Middlesex County Rescue Squad to do a fundraiser regatta in place of what had been FBYC’s Delta Dash race. This year the race would be a 10 mile triangle with a progressive start – ie the slow boats start first and the faster boats start last and first over the finish line wins. It was still broken down by class, but it was fun for a bit to race boat for boat and try to catch the boats ahead.
Sailing downwind with the faster boats just behind and yet to catch us.
I was sailing on Mad Hatter and the wind started out great – in the 10-12 knot range as everyone was gearing up to start. With the wind out of the north the first leg was pretty close hauled. We quickly passed a couple of the boats who started just ahead of us and after a little over 4 miles of sailing there were just a couple boats still ahead of us.
Mad Hatter being passed by Sting and Excitation. Photo by Paul Almany.
The second leg was mostly downwind and the wind started to ease a bit. We put up the symmetrical spinnaker and gybed toward shore hoping for more wind. All the while the fast boats were catching us. After 2 miles of sailing – Sting, Afterthought and Excitation had caught us and rounded just inside the mark. We did a sail change and switched directly from a symmetrical spinnaker to an asymmetrical spinnaker. That worked for a while, but when the wind got really light, that sail didn’t do much and other boats with symmetrical spinnakers started catching up to us. Eventually we went back to the symmetrical, but by then Sting, Excitation and Afterthought were gone and all we could do was hold off Shenanigan and Schiehallion. As we started to get back towards the Piankatank the wind picked up again. We would finish shortly before 3pm which was the time limit for racing. Only 6 boats would finish the race before the time limit expired.
This year I did double duty at the 84th Annual One Design Regatta as both a sailor and as the event chair. I hadn’t planned on doing both, but had a bout 2 months to pull the event together. We had a great team and the biggest surprises were a couple fleets we weren’t expecting, but they were great to have and we made it work and work well and we’ll have it even better for next year.
Melges 15 launching at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Beach
By the time Saturday rolled around most of the hard work of hosting was done – thanks to Doug, Paul, Jess and a number of other volunteers who spent hours and days preparing for the event. I was able to join the ILCA fleet out on the course for some racing. But before I could do that – I had to get to the race course which had been set in Hills Bay ~3+ miles from the launch site very near Gwynn’s island. I missed our first start by 2 minutes. From there it was a matter of playing catch up in the first race and I would settle for a 7th.
In the second race I had a fantastic start with Noah just below me. We went upwind side by side before I eventually split off. I had a good beat and found myself first to the weather mark. Of course Scott would go right by me downwind and then I passed him again upwind and repeat on the downwind. Only on the final beat I would blow it and let Dave by me as well to leave me in 3rd.
The 3rd and 4th races were similar. I didn’t quite have the speed or tactics that Dave and Scott had. I was mixing it up with Natalie, Noah and Mike M putting up a 3 and a 4 and leaving me winning the tiebreaker for 3rd with Mike M.
Sunday stayed true to the forecast and we never really had enough wind to sail and so we called it around mid day and the results stood. Scott sailed a great regatta – he’s so fast down wind I just couldn’t keep up with him.
Jon, Dave, Scott along with PRO Jim at the awards ceremony. Photo by Paul Almany.
All in all the regatta was a success. Certainly some things to improve upon for next year, but most everyone was pretty happy.
We had a nice weekend with perfect wind and weather for a group of women to participate in the Women’s Sailing Clinic at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. Jess helped organize it while also sailing the ILCA. Jon helped rig Jess’s boat, took pictures on the water, launched boats, and do things behind the scenes.
Ten ILCA joined 6 Flying Scots and 7 Melges 15 for an afternoon of sailing. The wind started out light in the 6-8 range and by the third race we had gusts into the mid teens.
In the first race didn’t start where I wanted to, but had a clear lane to tack out when I saw a shift and caught some nice wind before everyone else and had a nice lead for the first lap. On the second upwind, Noah was fast and I parked the boat in some waves right at the top mark while he sailed around me. Meanwhile Scott went around both of us and we finished that way.
ILCA Sailing down wind.
The wind picked up a bit for the second race while also going left making the legs a little one sided. Knowing it was going left I tried to win the pin. I won it a little too much and had to unwrap the board from the anchor line and spin and restart. Once i was clear I went a little bit right to find a clear lane. I was 4th by the top mark but all of the boats ahead of me went to the wrong mark downwind that was well past our turning mark. I was first to round the correct mark and led the rest of the race.
Hitting the mark on the start.
3rd race I went to the left and just didn’t have the consistent pressure as those on the right. Rounded 3rd and mostly stayed there. Wind was up to about 15 at one point in the race and then eased off.
For the 4th and final race I was in 2nd right behind Scott at top mark. He started to inch away downwind until halfway down the leg he flipped and lost of bunch of places. I had the lead the rest of the race and Mike held off Scott at the finish – leaving me and Scott tied with the same points AND the exact same finishes – my 3-1-3-1 to his 1-3-1-3 and so I won the tiebreaker on account of finishing ahead of him in the last race.
It was really fun racing and great mixing it up with Scott, Noah, Mike, William and the rest of the fleet. Thanks Tom R for race committee.
16 boats and nice wind out of the SSW for FBYC’s One Design Long Distance Race. I was sailing the ILCA against 6 Melges 15s, 5 Flying Scots and a few other boats.
The race started in Fishing Bay and we sailed about a mile upwind to Piankatank 11. I had a good start at the boat with Phil just below me and held my lane for a bit. I thought I wanted to be able to tack out to the right to keep my air clear, but turned out to be much less wind over there and boats to the right got left behind a bit. By the time we got to 11, some of the Melges were 5 minutes ahead.
Course sailed for the 2023 FBYC Long Distance Race
From 11 to the red 8 marker was a board reach and the Melges 15s put their asymmetrical spinnakers up and went like rocket ships. A few didn’t stay high enough and had to douse their chutes to fetch the mark, but they were all pretty much gone.
Mark and Georgia on the reach while other in the fleet sail to 11.
The next leg took us on another broad reach North towards the entrance of Jackson Creek and then back upwind to retrace the same course back.
I sailed well to stay ahead of a couple of the Flying Scots along with the other ILCA and after the handicaps were calculated finished 9th overall. This race is always fun to do with so many different boats on the same line and usually an interesting course around the Piankatank. In an ILCA, with the rating it has, I don’t stand a chance. We did use slightly different ratings this year using DPN-2 for all boats to better account for the wind ranges and based on the performance and the course we had, we do feel it did a better job balancing the higher performance boats.
We had a nice evening and 6 boats out for Friday evening sailing at FBYC. I jumped aboard John’s Flying Scot along with Mary while a couple Melges 15s and a ILCA and Opti were out.
The Canadian Wildfires made it quite hazy and there were storms looming to the west that never quite threatened. We had a pleasant sail in 8-12 knots and got to try out all of the sails despite a spinnaker pole that had a stuck jaw.
Jess and I got to spend some time with my family at the outer banks including my sister and her family who flew in from the west coast. We got a fair bit of rain, but made the most of the beach days.
I also go to do some paddle boarding – the first two days on the ocean where I saw dolphins swimming around. The second two days were in Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve on some of the canals and marshes there.
Jon & Jess
On the last day, Jess and I drove down the island, did some shopping and visited Sam & Omies for lunch before the drive home.
Chris T, Mark, Erin, Chad, Mayo, Todd, Jon & Chris aboard Excitation
It had been 10 years since I last sailed the Down the Bay Race, also on Excitation and we were hoping for a little less excitement this time around from the high winds in that edition. We got what we wanted in Annapolis with a light air downwind start. With a storm off the South Carolina coast the wind from this area was being sucked south south. That storm would slowly move north and begin to impact the southern part of the Chesapeake Bay on Saturday.
We were the 2nd class to start in PHRF-A and we had a front row seat to the ORC start 5 minutes ahead of us. Most boats were approaching on port with spinnakers ready or hoisted as they were approaching the line. Nanuq timed it perfectly coming in on Starboard at the pin and jibing just at the start and hoisting. This had the affect of causing their competition to give way and one of the boats already under spinnaker under port tack had to duck behind Nanuq, miss the pin and ultimately douse their spinnaker to get back upwind to the pin to start.
While we had considered a similar move, our much larger fleet would have made that more chaotic and given we were a symmetric boat, we wanted our spinnaker up below everyone else and took the wide open part of the line down by the boat. We had a good start just a few seconds late and had our spinnaker flying before we crossed the line.
We sailed downwind for a couple hours down the bay as the fleet stretched out and boats took different angles and lanes in the deeper or shallower water. We criss-crossed the bay sailing our angles under spinnaker – generally favoring the eastern side and the deeper water. We did 4 spinnaker changes and used all 3 spinnaker as the wind went up and down and we got pretty adept at pulling one spinnaker down, swapping the lines and putting the new one up in about a minute.
Mid afternoon we were still going down the eastern side of the bay and had a close rounding of the Sharp’s island mark. As we went west of it we noticed the boat Allegiant just on the other side of it and we radioed to them that they missed it. Within a few minutes they had their spinnaker down and were going back upwind to round it. Just after that, another boat radioed Raven who was even further east and they had an even longer slog back to the mark. We continued an easterly path down the bay sailing deep under our symmetrical spinnaker and caught up and passed some of the faster boats who had gotten ahead of us, and even one of the faster boats in the class ahead of us who all were much further west sailing asymmetrical spinnaker angles.
By early evening the wind was building and we had switched down to the smallest spinnaker. I was driving and I could see boats a mile or two ahead of us with upwind sails up going nearly the same angle we were headed. We quickly raised a genoa, dropped the spinnaker and soon the wind was dead and we hunted for a few minutes before continuing in the new wind.
By then we were approaching the Potomac and the wind continued to build. Just before dark the wind was starting to get into the teens and we switched down to the number 3 while we had daylight. We all took turns going below to change into our heavy gear for the night and we carried on across the mouth of the Potomac as the seas and wind built.
Another 20-some miles we were off the Piankatank and we retired from the race and turned in for our dock at Fishing Bay. With the storm south already making for winds in the 20-25 and possibly more by the time we got south, the fun factor wasn’t going to be there and risk to breaking something on the boat ahead of a big regatta the following weekend wasn’t worth it. We pulled in to our slip just before 1 and were all in beds at Mayo’s house by 2. In the morning we cleaned up the boat and took some of the crew to Hampton by car to retrieve their vehicles.
Jon trimming spinnaker in light wind while sailing downwind on Saturday.
Saturday in Deltaville started overcast with winds in the 8-15 range out of the NNW as we were starting the first race out in the mouth of the Piankatank. We had a new sail on Excitation and worked on getting it dialed in during the first race. Downwind we sailed well to stay ahead of most of the boats that were faster, sailed a clean race and finished 1st on corrected time.
In the second race of the day, the wind eased off leaving us with 8-10 at the start. On the first beat we were going tack for tack with Nanuq until we got to the last .2 to the weather mark and they lee bowed us near the layline forcing us to tack to clear. By then they laid the mark and the wind died and then they were gone. The next 3 legs would see the wind go down to 2 and Nanuq would go on to finish 50 minutes ahead us us as we drifted around leaving us in 4th.
Excitation about to round the first mark of the distance race on Sunday.
Sunday saw much better wind for a distance race. Heading out to the course we had 13-18 knots of wind and after a short upwind we went on a close hauled reach out into the bay. Next was an upwind followed by another close reach, followed by another upwind and finally a long close reach to the finish. The tight reaching angles didn’t favor us with symmetrical spinnakers. We put up a very flat, small spinnaker and it did well in the reaches, but on the final long leg to the finish as the wind went behind us and start to get light, it just wasn’t enough sail and we weren’t setup for anything other than a bare-headed change. In the end we finished 3rd. It was great to get more time with that sail setup as we prepare for a 120nm distance race down the bay next weekend. We also got some of the instruments better setup to give us the information we’ll need on the longer race.
We had a nice day and 8 boats for FBYC’s ILCA Spring Regatta. We were sailing alongside 5 Flying Scots and 5 Melges 15s. The wind was a little shifty, mostly out of the south at 5-10 with slightly overcast skies. In 4 races I would win 1 of them, the only one that wasn’t really a race and was just single shot to the windward mark and a broad reach back. In the other races I would have a good upwind first leg, a slow downwind and end up following 3 boats around the course for a 4-4-1-4 scoreline – good enough for 3rd overall. A well-sailed event by Reed and Scott.
