Saturday morning we helped Jess’ father put the power boat in the water. This would be the first weekend we truly got to use it without worrying about it taking on water. Jess and I took it out for a cruise to FBYC and then out to the racecourse at the mouth of the Piankatank to watch a start. Racing Pictures.
That evening we had a low country boil back at the river house for some neighbors and friends.
The rest of the weekend was spent helping around the house, paddle boarding, boat rides, crabbing and of course picking them afterward.
FBYC’s Laser Summer Regatta 2 had a great crowd out in some fantastic wind for one of the last race days of the Summer. With winds into the mid-teens and some anchor problems with Mr Roberts delaying our start for an hour we had some attrition in the fleet bringing us down to 10 boats that ended up racing all 4 races.
In all 4 races today, I had great starts usually just a couple boat-lengths down from the boat. I focused on accelerating off the line and keeping a hole for myself and holding my lane before worrying about settings.
With the course in the middle of the Pianakatank just North of the channel and inside Stove point and the wind out of the NNE it was a bit shifty and it was relatively flat given the wind speed. Generally, the left side had better shifts most legs upwind. Often I would head out there sometimes overstanding, but always with James just ahead or behind. Alain, Mike and Greg also had some good upwind legs as well and were usually within striking distance even though it became a 2-boat race between me and James.
The one race left didn’t work was the 3rd race. By this time James had won the first two races and I finished 2nd in both. I was trailing him by a few boat lengths and he rounded and went to the left. When I came around I found myself to be in a header with a lot more wind on the right while James was in a hole. I went right and played the shifts putting myself ahead of James at the windward mark by a few both lengths and was able to hold that to the finish.
Even though James I did a lot of dueling – he had great speed upwind making him hard to pass. Downwind he had another gear I didn’t have – he was playing the angles in the puffs and had great acceleration. My more dead-down approach lost me a few lengths on each leg.
I couldn’t have asked for a better day of racing. I was a great tune-up for the Laser District Championship in Annapolis coming up in a few weeks. Thanks to George Burke for bringing out a novice RC team and doing a fantastic job running races. Congrats to James, Mike, Josh and everyone on a well-sailed regatta.
A little more wind today made it more of my conditions and despite a bad start in the first race I was able to get to the right of the fleet and found pressure to get back ahead. Dave had to compete with his son which allowed me to stay ahead and win the 1st race.
In the 2nd race Dave beat me to the first mark, but I stayed close on the downwind. I was able to get into a position with right away and Dave capsized in his effort to stay clear and I sailed on to win the race.
In the 3rd race Dave tried to port tack the start and I just stayed clear of that, but made sure to give Mike, just to leeward of me, all the room he needed to close the door on Dave at the pin. Mike and I went to the left, got clear and stayed ahead for the rest of the race. Trip had a great race and picked off Mike to finish 2nd while I finished 1st.
In the 4th race I had a poor start and was back in the fleet and had to push hard around the course to make up a few boats and get back to 2nd. Dave was clear ahead and I settled for 2nd.
Going into the final race of the regatta the wind was starting to get light and I knew I was either tied or 1 point behind Dave in the standings. With no drops I’d need to beat him to win the regatta. I ended up taking a bit of a flier out to one side. Dave smartly covered me, the rest of the fleet passed us and he put some boats between us to safely finish ahead of me and win the regatta.
Thanks to Bob Fleck our PRO for the day and his crew who made the best racing they could with the winds we had. Dave, Mike, Trip, Brad and Alain were great to sail with and we all had some fun competition.
We started FBYC’s 80th Annual One Design Regatta with light winds and a 10-boat Laser fleet. We were set up in the middle of the Piankatank and had some current diagonal to the course that made going downwind a little tough. Upwind being generally to the left and definitely in more pressure helped a bunch. We were on the course with San Juan 21’s and staying clear of them was important too.
Dave was just fast all the way around the course and got 3 bullets on the day. Any time I let him get away and didn’t catch my own great shift – he usually just pulled away. Alain had some good racing – especially the 3rd race where he went left and was first to the new pressure and came across the top of all of us. Brad also had a good day and was near the top most races. I finished 3rd in 4 of the 5 races and 2nd in the other to be sitting in 2nd.
I was the PRO for FBYC’s Summer Seabreeze 2 regatta and the racers wanted a Caribbean theme so I changed a few racing rules to ensure the racing fit the theme.
We changed the definition of what constituted a mark so that we could use any inflatable – including a pink flamingo for our starting mark.
We changed the starting line to enable us to use a tiki torch for one end of the line
We required boats over early under I flag to do a Caribbean interpretive dance while only permitting them to clear by rounding the boat end of the line where their dance could be videoed for posterity
We also exempted boats wearing costumes from the clothing weight limits
At the skipper’s meeting the wind was blowing, but we knew the forecast was for it to die and so we postponed about an hour. When something did come, we picked the only spot in the middle of Fishing Bay that seemed to have a lane of wind. It was light, but we got 6 short races for the 6 flying Scots before the wind died.
Jon, Britt & Ruthana
I could not have done this without the help of Britt and Ruthana and huge thanks to them for being there today.
All summer the best wind of the day has been early in the morning, so I was up early to take advantage of it Saturday morning in the Laser. After sailing for a couple hours I headed across the club to sail on Mayo’s Farr-Dickinson 37 Excitation.
Sailing went well and we had a good time against some good competition in the PHRF-A fleet. We wound up 4th in the 7 boat fleet with 4 races over 2 days.
We had a gorgeous night aboard Mike’s new to him j105 Purple Wahoos to sail Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Moonlight Race on June 15. Mike wasn’t able to sail so Clark, Scott, Jenny and I sailed the boat along with two kids. The race was set to start at 7:30 at night and the wind was forecast to pick up overnight and so the RC picked the shorter 14 mile course for all 6 boats sailing. We were in the PHRF-A class against J109 Afterthought. Purple Wahoos is a shoal draft wheel driven J105.
The RC got the race started about 15 minutes late. That was enough time for us to sail over to what would be the finishing mark and get a ping on it allowing us to find it later in the dark. The start was downwind- we approached at the pin and set the chute just after crossing the line. The rest of the legs would end up being somewhere between upwind and reaching. I trimmed jib, navigated, did pit and drove half of a leg.
We had a great race and managed to correct to 1st in our fleet and 2nd overall.
For FBYC’s Long Distance Race Jess and I took out the snipe. After not being able to finish the Open House Regatta earlier this year, we were excited to hold everything together and have a respectable mid-fleet finish.
FBYC was doing a Race Committee training day which made it a great opportunity for Jess and me to get out in Lasers with the rest of the fleet to do some starting practice and very short course racing.
Our friends Holly and Ned got married at Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville and we had a wonderful time celebrating their marriage. From the pretty decorations to the fun party antics – we had a great time. Congrats Holly & Ned!
