2024 FBYC Winter Series #3 & Irvington Delivery
The final sailing day of the year was a blue-bird day of frigid winter sailing aboard J99 Battle Rhythm at Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Winter Series #3. After the pursuit race against 3 other [crazy] boats we delivered the boat up the Rappahannock to Irvington where it’ll be hauled for the winter.
When I left Richmond in the morning for the trip to Deltaville it was 25 degrees outside. I don’t think I’ve ever scraped ice off a car to go sailing and I’ve never sailed in conditions this cold – not even the limited ILCA/Laser frostbiting that I’ve done. I did come prepared with plenty of layers and all of my heavy weather sailing gear and warm underlayers.
After arriving at the club we all stood in the sun as long as we could before going to boat which sat in the shade given how low the sun is on the horizon at this time. Aboard for the race were 9 of us – Jennifer, Holly, Len, Louise, Abigail, Tina, April, myself and the owner Todd. We had Len at the helm, Todd was up front with April and Abigail and I was in the middle doing tactics and tuning with Holly, Louise and Tina.
The boats we were racing against were Rhapsody, Wendas and Exit Strategy. Being a winter race, there was no race committee so we did a pursuit race around government marks and each boat had their own starting time according to their rating. As the fastest boat of the fleet, we started over 20 minutes after the first boat to start and 10 minutes after the next closest competitor. The first leg was a bit of a broad reach out of the Piankatank – we set the spinnaker just after starting. Once out of the Piankatank we bore off a little bit for more of a run in the NNW wind of 14-18 knots. This was definitely a windier day for what we had sailed the spinnaker in and it took us a little while to settle down with the right trim and angles as well as getting the maneuvers clean.
By the time we got to the far mark to turn upwind we were just behind Exit Strategy and Rhapsody. We tacked early to head inshore out of the current and it wasn’t log before we were ahead of both boats and stretching out. I had taken over at the main so I could constantly adjust trim to keep the boat heel and speed up working with Len on the helm. This leg was a little chillier going into the wind and occasionally having some water on deck. By the time we were approaching the entrance mark to the Piankatank, Wendas was in our sights and still about 1 mile ahead of us when we were at 3 miles to go. The last let was fairly close to the wind and I think we were able to point so much better and held the lay line to the finish. Wendas couldn’t hold the angle we could and got pushed down to Gwynn’s island having to put in a tack to fetch the finish. And with that extra distance we were able to go right around them and finish a few minutes ahead.
Back at the dock we dropped off everyone not doing the delivery and quickly turned around to head up the Rappahannock with Todd, Jen, Holly, April and myself. We did some cleanup/stowing on the way out before we got into the waves and then went around Stingray Point. As we were entering the Rappahannock a tug approached behind us that we needed to avoid by a bit. The rest of the trip was fairly smooth and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset as we approached the route 3 bridge. We cautiously entered Carters Creek in the dark and when we made the turn to the marina we were greeted with a boat Christmas Light Parade. We were at the dock just after 6, unloaded and left the boat for the haul out.
That was definitely one of the coldest sailing experiences I have had and a pretty one with the sunsets and light parade. Thanks to Todd for having me along for the day and looking forward to warmer weather again next year!
