First day of racing for 83 boats at  the Laser Atlantic Coast Championship at Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead MA.  The wind was light and patchy for 3 races for the 44-boat Standard rig fleet.

In the first race I got a good start and worked my way up to the right.  At the top mark I was about 8th and stayed there for the reach.  On the downwind I went way right and I was the 4th or 5th boat through the gate.  Upwind I lost a few more boats and ended up 15th.

The second race started in very little wind and I got a terrible start and just fell behind everyone.  Up the first beat it got even lighter and we continued racing in 3 knots.  I was near the end of the pack until the last upwind where I was able to claw back a few boats to finish 32.

The wind shifted about 40 degrees and picked up a tad for the 3rd race which we started around 4:30pm.  I had an ok race and pretty much hung mid-fleet the entire way around the course.  We finally got back to shore at 6pm having been on the water since 10:30am.

I’m tied for 22nd which puts me just into the top half of the fleet.  We’re expecting another light day tomorrow.

Today was also an experiment with having the phone with me.  I’ve got a waterproof case for it which is tied into my lifejacket.  Between races I was able to take a few pictures and post tweets.  I’ve been posting updates for the ILCA-NA on twitter:@LaserACC.  The case makes it too cumbersome to do anything else other than tweet and take pictures.

Results and a photos from the trip thus far.

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Jon on Laser in front of Wolf Trap Light House

The conditions were perfect on Sunday for a nice long sail to Wolf Trap light house – 27 nautical miles round trip.  At the beginning the wind was out of the SSW at 10-15 which meant after one tack in Fishing Bay by the marinas I was able to lay Wolf Trap 2 hours and 40 minutes later on starboard tack.  As I approached the light house the wind dropped to 5-8 and moved to due South.  On the run home it kicked back up to 10-15.  Total trip time 5 hours 45 minutes.

Sailing to Wolf Trap route
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Rain on Day 1

Not much racing on the first day of the Annapolis NOOD regatta.  The J109 fleet went went out to the course in fog and sat around postponed.  The fog lifted when a thunderstorm came through just south of the racing area.  There was a little wind after the storm and we got to do some sailing, but the race committee never had steady enough wind to set a course and blew off the day by 3:30.

We did get a little video from the top of the mast:

Double Eagle from the top of the mast

Stopped by the party and caught up with some of the other Fishing Bay Yacht Club members at the regatta this weekend.

FBYC Sailors at the Annapolis NOOD Regatta

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Sunday afternoon we made a GoPro mount for the back of a J109 that I’ll be racing in next week at the Annapolis NOOD Regatta.

We took a 8′ white wood curtain rod, fit it in the flag pole and added a GoPro to the top of it.  I have yet to add a safety line and bungee tensioner to help keep it from bouncing around.  Look for video from this next week.

Here’s what it looked like:

Rear view

side view

And here’s the view:

view

 

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4/28 Spring Series #3lining up at the start

Saturday’s Offshore Spring Series #3 at Fishing Bay Yacht Club wasn’t the best weather day.  We did one race in very light wind against a stiff current for the first leg.  The second race was abandoned after the wind died and many boats anchored to hold position on the ‘upwind’.  Still in 3rd for the Series.

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IMG_1898

Saturday was a beautiful day for racing and Wavelength had a great day at Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Offshore Spring Series #2.   We had good boat speed, good crew work and manged to go 3-2-1-4 in 4 races putting us into 3rd overall for the series. Results.

Photo: Andrea Winner

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