2015 FBYC J/70 Friday Night Series – August 28
We had our final night of the J/70 Friday Night Series at FBYC. The wind was light and the sunlight shorter. Made for one of the prettiest nights I was out.
Tag: Deltaville
Deltavile Virginia
2015 Smith Point Race
This year the Smith Point race was a bit of a slog with a 15-20 knot north wind. I sailed on Mad Hatter and this year we didn’t make it to Smith Point light house until around 9:30. But the spinnaker run all the way down the bay back to the Piankatank was quite nice. Arriving at nearly 1am we were one of the last to finish, but still corrected over everyone else out there who sailed the long course. Thanks again to Bob, Lisa and crew for having me along!
2015 FBYC J/70 Friday Night Series – August 21
Another beautiful night of J/70 racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. It was a bit light – but still fun to be out on the water.
2015 FBYC 76th Annual One Design Regatta
We had a windy start for the first day of racing at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club 76th Annual One Design Regatta. Two lasers were unfortunately involved in a collision before the first race that left one boat severely holed and not sea worthy. A broken mast and traveler on other boats rounded out the rest of the carnage.
The second day was much lighter. We hadn’t sailed on the same course as Flying Scots in a while and with 16 of them on the course – it was important to find clear air. In the end I finished 2nd to Charlie Brewer who sailed a great regatta and found a way to win the last race to take the regatta.
2015 FBYC J/70 Friday Night Series – August 7
No racing for me tonight as I was preparing to sail in the 76th Annual One Design Regatta – but I did get out and do some RC on what was a rather windy and entertaining night.
2015 FBYC J70 Summer Regatta II
We had a great day for J/70 racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club in the 2nd J/70 Summer Regatta. With 7 boats and 6-13 knot winds we were able to sail 5 races in the mouth of the Piankatank River with the wind out of the south west.
We started a little slow having not learned our lesson about the current in this part of the Piankatank that we learned during the Laser Atlantic Coast Championship sailed in the same area last spring. And we were also figuring out the boat sailing 3-up with Dave and Andrew. But we got better as we went. The crew work came together and we were able to put the boat where we wanted it. The racing was close with Ron T and Clark/Drake and we wound up 2nd overall.
2015 FBYC Laser Summer Regatta
We had a shifty day of racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the Laser Summer Regatta. With light winds out of the south and a sea breeze trying to come in and take it a little more east there were sometimes swings of up to 50-70 degrees – yet it would keep stabilizing around 170. We had a 10 boat line and a rather ‘competitive’ length line for that number of boats.
I had about 1 good start in 5 races and in the others I was either behind boats, couldn’t accelerate, over early or fouling people and having to stop and turn before I sailed the course. That being said – picking the shifts and staying in pressure was key and with the shifts as big as they were – passing lanes were plenty. It was fun racing with Steve, Brad, Alain, Mike and everyone else who came out. Thanks Mark Stephens and crew for doing RC and Steve Q for the great social following racing.
2015 FBYC J/70 Friday Night Series – July 24
It was another beautiful night for J/70 sailing and Brad, Dave and Ron were aboard for it. There were 3 other boats out and with the lightish wind we were finding our groove and actually holding our own against the other boats. And then the forestay came undone. The spinnaker halyard was quickly lashed to the bow and the sails brought down and we were done for the day. At least we got 3 1/2 races in and didn’t do any real damage.
2015 July 4th FBYC Long Distance Race
We had a beautiful day for racing in the July 4th Long Distance Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. 28 boats ranging from J/70 to S2 7.9 to Flying Scot to Front Runner to Laser to 420 were on the starting line for a Portsmouth Handicap race of about 8 miles. Being short of crew I took the Laser and did my best not to fall too far behind the fleet especially as one of the smaller boats. I could do pretty well on the upwind and downwind legs, but on the reaches – the boats with 2 sails and especially those with asymmetrical spinnakers would just walk away. In the end it was a respectable 13th – just above mid-table.
Following racing there were over 200 people for a cookout followed by a little rain followed by fireworks well into the night.
2015 Leukemia Cup Regatta
The 2015 Southern Chesapeake Bay Leukemia Cup Regatta was another opportunity to have the J/70 out for some racing. Saturday was a 1 race day with thunderstorms approaching and Sunday we got 3 more races in. It was definitely a learning weekend as John, Stuart and Ron got more coordinated in all of the maneuvers – and I had my share of goofs driving. All in all it was a good learning weekend and glad we got some more time in the boat. Here are a few pictures of us in action by Andrea Winner and Ann Gray.
