Tag: Deltaville

Deltavile Virginia

The forecast for the Open House Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club improved as we got closer to Sunday and it ended up be great sailing conditions for the few mile progressive start distance race.  This race featured boats from 14′ all the way up to 48′ and they were all handicapped against each other with the slow boats starting first and having a head start over the faster boats. The first boat over the finish line wins.

I sailed a Front Runner with Alan as crew and were among the 24 boats racing under mostly cloudy skies with the wind out of the ESE at 9-11.  As one of the slower boats we were about the 5th group to start and there were 2 other Front Runners racing with us.  The start was across the Piankatank River near Godfrey Bay and took us east and upwind towards the mouth of the Piankatank River.  Sailing down the river we stuck to the North shore near Fishing Bay and Stove point to stay out of the current.

That ended up being the key to the race as we extended out a lead and were able to get far enough ahead of the faster boats that they weren’t able to catch up.  It also helped us that 1/4 of the race was close reaching rhumb line sailing where putting up a spinnaker didn’t really help any.  On the final leg to the finish the J/70 E.L.E. made a pretty good charge and we edged them out finishing less than 1/2 a minute ahead.

Big thanks to Matt for letting us borrow the boat and for Alan doing a great job crewing in his second race.

RESULTS

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The Laser Frostbite Regatta was the last event of the year at FBYC and we made it quite easy on the RC by setting a course that allowed them to signal it from the dock.  The wind was just the right direction out of the south west where the RC could run the races from the end of the dock.  We used a boat to move the weather mark and pin.   They had a great time and the proximity to shore enabled the sailors make breaks at the club in between races.

10/30 FBYC Laser Frostbite Regatta

The wind was a little light for this one, but we rolled through the races doing short courses with 10 boats.  While I seemed to have good boat speed – I did find myself on the wrong side of some shifts and occasionally out of the top 3.  Charlie Brewer once again sailed incredibly consistently and took the day.  I followed in 2nd with Len close behind.  What a great way to end the season!

RESULTS

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It was the 35th Anniversary of the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship and the regatta is finally old enough to be a competitor.  The color coral commemorates a 35th anniversary and the shirts we designed turned out pretty cool:

Regatta tshirt

The first day saw medium winds just into the double digits with mostly clear skies.  In 5 races we had some close competition up top between Gavin O’Hare and Charlie Brewer who both finished the day tied with 20 points.  Mike Schmidt was close behind in the 41 boat fleet.

Alain and his kitchen crew prepared another fabulous me and a tent city popped up full of sailors.

Sunday started out with no wind and we waited ashore as it began to build about an hour later.  A little lighter than yesterday we ran a little shorter courses and made it through 4 more races.  Charlie and Gavin stayed close and Gavin managed to edge just ahead of Charlie to win the championship.

Thanks to Alain, Rick, Len, Frank and everyone else who helped make this another great Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.  And after 13 years of only being the event chair – I’ll be looking forward to next year where I can both run it and qualify to sail in it!

PICTURES | RESULTS | VIDEO

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Double Eagle sailing upwind.
Double Eagle sailing upwind.

We had a rainy, wet and cold day for the FBYC Fall Series #3 and I jumped on Double Eagle as none of the J70s were going to go out.  We had a good first race, solid crew work, picked the right side of the course and led Nanuq all the way around the course.

The 2nd race didn’t go so great for us – on the second upwind leg we were going through a tack.  As we were switching to the other side and the boat started heeling over, one of the crew who was switching sides over the cabin top, lost their footing and went right under the lifeline and into the water.  I quickly jumped to the back of the boat and threw the heaving line while we stopped the boat.  We pulled the crew in and took them down below to warm up.  That didn’t take too long, but even after a few minutes we were so far behind that we just took a DNF instead of going around the course again.

In the last race of the day we had a little trouble at the start and ended up a couple lengths late at the line.  We weren’t able to recover our time on Nanuq and otherwise sailed a solid race.  Thanks again to Sam and crew for having me along!

RESULTS

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9/25 Indian Summer Regatta

I got to take one of Jess’ college sailing friends Michelle out racing on a Front Runner for the Indian Summer Regatta.  Once again we had a very competitive fleet of 4 boats.  Michelle did great to learn the boat very quickly.  In the first race we even had the spinnaker flying upside down (my fault).  With that sorted we picked shifts well and stayed competitive.

RESULTS

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9/24 FBYC Offshore Fall Series 2

Today started out as a pretty light-air day and the wind quickly built for the 2nd race of the FBYC Offshore Fall Series #2.  We sailed with just 3 of us – Andrew, Nathan and myself and we sailed a good first race, picking the correct side and finishing 1st in the 4-boat fleet.

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As the 2nd race started the wind piped up closer to 20 and two of the teams dropped out and we knew at that point we just needed to finish the race to win the day.  Unfortunately for us we were late at the start having been doing some rig tuning and not being closer enough to the line.  Hotty Toddy had a 10-boat lead at the start, but by the time we got a mile upwind we had caught up and were neck and neck.  We pulled away for another 1st.

IMG_0607

RESULTS

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9/18 FBYC Offshore Fall Series 1

Back racing the J/70 after nearly 2 months we had nice wind and clear skies for the FBYC Offshore Fall Series 1.  We had out Louise, Andrew and Patrick and it was Patrick’s first time on the J/70.  In the starting sequence Louise had a minor family emergency so we transferred her to the Mr. Roberts and had to sail 3 up.  Having practiced 4-up and with no time until the start, we winged it and did our best with only 3 of us.

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We weren’t able to quite keep up with E.L.E. but we did well nonetheless and were able to finish 2nd.  In between races Louise was back and joined us for the 2nd race of the day. In this race all 4 J/70 were a lot closer and we got behind early on the wrong side of the course upwind.  We came back downwind, but weren’t able to get back ahead of Spice to finish 3rd.  All in all a fun day back in the boat.  Thanks Louise, Andrew and Patrick for sailing!

RESULTS

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For the 2016 FBYC Laser Fall Regatta we took a novel approach to running the races: since it was nice weather and light winds and we had no RC helpers – 7 of us took out 6 Lasers and a RIB.  We then took turns on the RIB to run races and I jumped on the boat of whoever was on the RIB.  We did two cycles so everyone missed 2 races and we got in 14 races.

All in all it worked pretty well, everyone had fun and it was good racing.

RESULTS | PICTURES

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The first of the one design fall series I borrowed a Front Runner and took my friend Patrick Conroy for his first sail on a Front Runner.  Save one race we weren’t much of a match for the other very experienced Front Runner sailors, but we had fun and Patrick even got to drive the last race.

After racing we were joined by Jen and Patrick’s wife Lauren for dinner at Merroir.

PICTURES | RESULTS

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