Fishing Bay Yacht Club hosted another great Annual Regatta with some good Laser sailing and plenty of wind which is pretty uncharacteristic for FBYC’s annual regatta in the middle of August. 17 of the 114 boats at the regatta were Lasers and 8 were sailing standard rigs. The Lasers were on a course set in the Piankatank River just outside of Fishing Bay along with the Albacores and Windmills.
All of our races were W2s with .7 mile legs on a slightly pin favored line. In the first race I failed to port tack the fleet and ended up fouling Steve Wirt just moments after the start. I had to do a few penalty turns putting me just behind the entire fleet. By the windward mark I caught up to 3rd with boats all around me. I caught a boat on each of the next two legs and held on for the final downwind leg to the finish.
By the second race the wind had built to the upper teens with gusts into the low twenties. The first leg of this race was a drag race upwind between Frank Murphy and I. At the first mark I rounded just ahead of him and shortly after the rounding he death rolled downwind. That was a wake up call for me to sail a little more conservatively and I stayed out front to get a bullet in this race.
By the time we were starting the 3rd race, the outer course with Flying Scots, Front Runners, Hamptons, Typhoons, and San Juans and already been adjourned for the day having only sailed one race. I think the conditions on the outside sailing area were really putting a beating on the sailors and the race committee.
I botched the start of the 3rd race and basically had to park my boat at the pin while I let Brad Squires, who timed the start perfectly, sail by on starboard. Once I got going again I had good speed to get back out front and lead the way around the course. As I was rounding the final windward mark to the finish, I eased the boom out, but my mast didn’t rotate, poping the 3 rivets holding the gooseneck to the mast. I held on to get me through the finish line and the minute I turned to reach into the club, the goosneck popped off. With no more races for the day, I was thankful that if was going to break that it broke when it did.
Back on shore we packed everything, cleaned up and enjoyed some drinks in the pavilion before dinner and later drinks.
On Sunday the first start was a at 10. Lasers were the 3rd start so I left the dock at 9:40 and arrived at the course just before 10. Turns out I was the only Laser that left the dock. When I got to the course the RC told us to go in and that racing was abandoned onshore. All of the other Lasers had been held before launching. They postponed us due to some approaching storms in the area. The storms never did come and the wind was beautiful all morning and late afternoon and we never did get sent back out to race.
With 3 bullets in 3 races I won the FBYC Annual Regatta for the second year in a row. All in all it was a fun regatta and I’m sorry my summer sailing has come to an end for the year.
1st Jon Deutsch (FBYC), 2nd Jeff Moore (SMSA), 3rd Mike Toms (FBYC)
RESULTS
