Deltavile Virginia
This evening was our annual Parents Laser Race during Junior Week at FBYC. The goal is to get as many parents as possible, after the kids activities are done for the day, and get out on the water for some fun short-course racing right off the dock. Tonight was a superb evening for it. The wind started around 12 knots when we left the dock at 5:30 and died out around 7:30. We had about 10 boats come out and we got in at least 7 or 8 races.
On Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend I participated in my first Oyster Shell Triathlon. It’s an event that started about 4-5 years ago among a group of friends looking for something to do on Memorial Day Weekend and so they started this race. There were just under 30 participants this year and there have been as many as 40 in the past.
The course is a little nontraditional – it starts with swim which turns into a slog – a combination of running in water and swimming. Then a 2-mile bike ride followed by a swim back to the starting point. The final stretch is a ~1 mile run around the Deltaville Maritime Museum and back to the finish.
No times are kept and it’s all for good fun. Considering I signed up for it about 10pm at a party the night before, I felt pretty good about finishing mid-pack. It was a ton of fun and I look forward to doing it again next year.
At some point I’ll post some video [update: video here]. In the mean time, here are some pictures of the Oyster Shell Triathlon.
The Course:
Sunday was the Salsa Bowl Regatta and I borrowed a Front Runner from Mike Karn to take out and race. My crew was friend of a friend Bri Paxton, a recent William & Mary graduate who was on the sailing team there. Being my first time on a Front Runner since spring of 2010 and Bri’s first time sailing an asymmetrical spinnaker, we were a bit boat-challeneged for first couple races.
By the second two races we had most things running smoothly and were able to sail well upwind and hang with the fleet on the downwinds. We ended up 4th in a fleet of 5 in 4 races. It was a ton of fun and thanks Bri for coming and crewing!
More on-board photos from the day of sailing on the Front Runner can be seen here.
This weekend started with Saturday’s Laser Spring Regatta. We had 11 Lasers and Radials out at FBYC for the first day of club racing this year. The wind was light – in the 4-8 knot range. I continued to have good upwind speed, but terrible downwind speed. We got in 6 races and I finished 2nd.
Check out more photos from the awards and the rest of the weekend here.
Last Sunday for the Offshore Spring Series #4 at FBYC I sailed aboard Wavelength and brought along Lauren and Patrick for the ride. We mounted the GoPro camera to the spreaders and here’s a couple of photos from that. I’ll put together a video in a few weeks.
We’re all set for the District 11 Championship this weekend at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. I got down to the club this afternoon, got everything unloaded and met some of the out-of-towners who were trickling in. A few of us went out for some practice. After sailing 21 of us went out to dinner and then we hung out at the club before calling it a night.
Tomorrow we’ve got overcast skies and 10-15 out of the south east. We should have right around 40 sailors with about 12 or so in the Radial fleet. It’ll be some fun racing tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it.
This has been an awesome weekend both as a regatta organizer and as a competitor. The regatta ran great, we had nice weather, we got in 8 races, we had competitive fleets and David Lee and the race committee did a fantastic job with the on-the-water part of the regatta. Everyone enjoyed Alain’s dinner and we certainly couldn’t have made the regatta work with out the help of the many club members who pitched in – THANK YOU!
As a competitor I can’t say I had been thrilled with the sailing I’ve done this year. I was sailing really well last fall and even though I was going to big time regattas this winter, I just never put together anything more than a mediocre regatta for myself. With this regatta I was determined to put in a respectable showing and get my game back to where it was last fall. What better a place to do it than on my home waters.
Saturday’s racing saw 12-16 knots of wind for the day. That’s at the upper end of the range that I’m competitive in. I set my boat up right and hiked my butt off and managed to have all top-10 finishes except 1 in 5 races putting me into 8th in the 25-boat fleet. In that kind of wind keeping up with the tail end of the lead pack was a good showing for myself.
Saturday night we had 55 people for dinner and had a great time hanging around the club.
Sunday, the wind was right in my sweet spot for speed and out of the south. On the first race I had a great start, picked the shifts and led at the windward mark by a boatlength or two. It was such a thrill to be out ahead of so many great sailors. But I knew they were coming for me and I did my best to stay out ahead of them. Dan Herlihy and I traded for 1st place on the next 2 legs and on the final beat, he just picked the shifts a little better than I did to take the gun leaving me 2nd.
In Sunday’s second race I had a good start, but didn’t have the boat speed to pull ahead of the fleet. As a result I had a tough time going where I wanted, made way too many tacks and ended up really deep at the first windward mark. Luckily about half of the top 6 sailors were back there with me. Through the next 4 legs we picked our way back up to the front and I dug through about 10 boats to get back to 9th.
The 3rd and final race of the day was my best race. At the start there was a big lefty enabling Rob Overton to port tack the fleet at the pin. I had a good start in the middle and used my boat speed to get enough of a lead and clear lanes to start picking some shifts. At the first windward mark it was me and Rob Whittimore. I couldn’t have written it any better to battling for the lead with a good friend and fellow club member. I led Rob by about half a boat length down to the offset. Rob had a great run and jumped ahead of me at the downwind mark. The race committee changed the next weather leg to the left so I immediately went left on the 2nd windward leg and caught some great shifts to pull ahead of Rob and everyone else behind. The next two legs I felt like I had good boat speed, caught the shifts well, and covered the fleet to take the gun. That ended up being the last race of the day and it was such a thrill to sail my best and win a race against such a great group of sailors. That really made my weekend.
After racing we handed out awards, cleaned up and got on the road.
All in all it was a great weekend and I can’t wait to do some more Laser sailing!
Read my write-up on the District 11 Website and check out the results. I hope to have a video up later this week and I’ll link to photos when they are available.
Saturday was my first time back to Deltaville since the Tornado came through last weekend. I was surprised to see how much had already been cleaned up and put back together. With last weeks racing cancelled, this was the first day of offshore sailing and I was aboard Wavelength. It was a bit cloudy, but warm and we saw 15 knots with gusts to 30. It was a bit wild at times with the kite up in winds over 25.
Here’s some video of the damage and some highlights from FBYC’s Offshore Spring Series #2.
This video clip from a day of practice on Saturday aboard Wavelength – a 37′ C&C sailed out of Fishing Bay Yacht Club. About halfway through the video are some clips when a squall came through with gusts of 28knots and hail.
Fishing Bay Yacht Club won US Sailing’s Regatta of the Year award for hosting the 2010 USODA Layline Nationals. A big part of what set us over the top was our online media and promotion of the event. It was a fun event this summer and I’m glad to have played a part in it. Kudos to the rest of the team that made it happen.
From US Sailing’s Press Release:
The Fishing Bay Yacht Club (FBYC) of Deltaville, Va. won the 2010 Regatta Award for the excellence in development, promotion, and management performed by organizers and sponsors of the 2010 USODA (United States Optimist Dinghy Association) Layline Nationals on July 17-25, 2010.
Co-chairs Noel Clinard and Jay Buhl, along with webmaster Jon Deutsch were recognized for demonstrating extraordinary individual creativity and contribution to the year’s most innovative one-design event of national significance. The regatta attracted broad national and international participation of 317 boats through persistent marketing and communication efforts. The small club located in a village maximized their resources through their entrepreneurial promotions, sponsorship development, community involvement, shore activities and creative dissemination of housing, tourism, historical and racing information.
The regatta site conjoined four nearby properties, including the Deltaville Dockyard, Jackson Creek Condominiums, Deltaville Maritime Museum, and Harbor House Community. The regatta consisted of three events: team racing, girls fleet racing, open fleet racing, plus a green fleet for novices. Despite its small size of about 330 family members, FBYC turned out different race committees for these events with over 50 volunteers.
The backbone for marketing the regatta was an effective, user friendly web site at http://optinationals2010.org. The web site was enabled to provide social networking through Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. A detailed media plan included the engagement of two separate video services, t2p.tv and Sailgroove, who provided ample coverage. FBYC facilitated the recruitment of Layline, a marine supplier, as the first ever Platinum level partner for USODA.
Also, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist and US SAILING Team AlphaGraphics member Anna Tunnicliffe was in attendance and gave the keynote address for the opening ceremony.
The 2010 Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship is less than 48 hours away. This is the 29th Annual running of this regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for Laser sailors 35 years of age or older. Since becoming the Laser Fleet captain in 2005 this is the 6th masters regatta I have been event chair for and my 7th laser regatta total.
As of this writing we have 38 boats registered. We’ve reached that number only once in the last 10 years and if we have 2 more boats show up – this will be the largest Laser Masters regatta since we hosted 91 boats for the US Laser Masters in 2000.
It’s amazing to think back at the last 10 years of Laser Masters regattas on how much has changed, yet how some of the traditions have remained the same.
In 2000 we hosted 91 Lasers without all of the new land we have today. We still had the old clubhouse and somehow everyone had a place to rig and eat dinner.
We still have all of the awesome traditions like Alain’s fabulous dinner, excellent race committee, and a fun group of masters sailors who come every year for a great time.
Today was the first day of the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and what a wild windy day it was. Unfortunately it was so windy and so wild that I was unable to get my camera out. With all the spray and having to get in the water to help out tired sailors, I just wasn’t able to get too many shots of the racing.
Read about the day here and check out the first day results. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for less wind and will hopefully enable more photos to be taken.
I want to thank all of the sailors who came out for the 2010 Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club last weekend. We had a record turnout since 2000 and it was by far the best and most fun FBYC Laser Masters regattas that I’ve been a part of. I also wanted to thank the race committee, our fleet members and all of the other volunteers at FBYC who helped make this regatta what it is. All of the competitors enjoyed it and got some great sailing, and that would not have been possible without the help of everyone involved. Congrats to John Bertrand on winning his second straight Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.
The complete write-up of the regatta and results can be read here. With 25+ knot winds on Saturday, the boat I was on was just a little too wet to get the camera out. I was able to get a few good shots from shore and a bunch of great photos on Sunday.
I hope to see everyone back at FBYC for 2 Laser Regattas next year: The District 11 Championship and US Sailing Singlehanded Championship Area C Elimination in late May or early June, and the 2011 Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship in October.