Tag: Deltaville

Deltavile Virginia

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.

Start of race one
Start of race 1.
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Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Trophy Plate
Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Trophy

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.

Most of the stuff to feed the sailors and Race Committee this weekend. ~35 cubic ft of gear plus me that has to fit in my car of only 90 cubic ft.

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.

Here are a couple videos of the 2000 Masters showing just how things were:

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Another great weekend in Deltaville.  Saturday was probably the last regatta I am going to sail in for the year.  It was the Sail Against SIDS/Indian Summer Regatta and we had 3 lasers out.  I can’t say I sailed very smart, missing things like the number of laps and major wind shifts.  But I made up for it by being fast and won 5 close races.  It was fun sailing with Mike and Steve and I want to thank Allan’s crew for putting up with me always wanting our fleet to sail a different course than the other fleets.

FBYC Fall Series #2 Upwind

Sunday was the Offshore Fall Series #2 at Fishing Bay Yacht Club.  I ran the mark boat with Miles.  With a strong, cool north wind, we sailed the races in Fishing Bay.  Occasional light rain added a little misery. It’s always a sight seeing 15-20 twenty to forty footers racing in the shifty conditions in the Piankatank.

Lining up the marks
My only real responsibility as the mark boat: making sure the marks all line up with the committee boat.

Despite the bad weather, I was able to get some pictures of the action that can be seen here.

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Jon on the Bow of Mr. Roberts at the 2010 USODA Layline NationalsFollowing up on the USODA Layline Nationals – the event went fantastic.  I was out on the water each day for the entire week with one part of the race committee or another.  The social media experiment went very well with a lot of traffic hitting the site, and a lot of people following on twitter and facebook. Being able to quickly post information to the web was great for both the RC and organizing authority to get information out, and for parents/coaches to see the detailed stuff.  At some point I’ll be writing up something of a case study to share what I learned with those who want to replicate some of what I did with this regatta.

Shot of Mr. Roberts at the start of a race on WednesdayMy vantage point with the RC also enabled me to get some incredible photos.  Some of those include a fisheye photo of the start from the bow pulpit, and photos of the start while standing on the goal posts.  And event photographer Dave Hein was nice enough to swap spots with me for a race so I could get a few shots from around the course.

Opti Nationals Start from atop Mr. RobertsI did get some photos of the racing action, but I mostly focused on photos that highlighted the club and community effort to put on the event.  Those photos were rolled into a scrapbook that is now in the club library.  All of the photos that I took can be found here.  These collections are about 93% mine and the rest were contributed by other club members.

For more videos, pictures, results and all of the writing done for the regatta.  Check out the event website which will remain up for some time as an archive.

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This Friday I am embarking on a 10-day odyssey to the 2010 USODA Layline National Championship. Fishing Bay Yacht Club is hosting this National Championship in 8′ sailboats for the top 8-15 year-old sailors from around the country. Deltaville Virginia, a town of only 500-800 full-time residents, will be inundated with over 320 sailors, their siblings, parents and coaches. Three events will take place from Saturday to Saturday to crown the Team, Girls and Fleet National Champions.

Since October, I’ve created and managed the event website at http://optinationals2010.org. During that time it’s evolved as a pretty neat project. The goal of course has been to create a first-rate event website for the sailors, parents and coaches to get information about the event and make their plans. The site will also serve those who may not be making the trip and will be following along from their computers at home. Not only is there a website, but we’ve set up variety of other social media outlets to enable all of our fans and followers to keep up with the regatta in their preferred format. We’ve got everything from the website (including an online shop), twitter, facebook, youTube, flickr, email, webcam, and SMS Text.

To help facilitate this I’ll be the onsite blogger for the duration of the regatta. Throughout the regatta I’ll be writing blog posts, sending tweets, updating the facebook page and getting notices and results posted to the website. During the racing I’ll be stationed aboard the main committee boat with an internet connection where I can connect to the website and upload pictures and information as well as monitor the weather for the race committee.

My role is just one part of the hundreds of volunteers around FBYC and Deltaville who have a hand in putting on this major event. It’s going to be a great week and I’m really looking forward to it. To check out my coverage and see what’s going on, check out the event website at http://optinationals2010.org throughout the week.

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July 4th sparklers

I spent July 4 at the river in Deltaville. It was an incredible sight, just as the sun set, we could see people in all directions setting off their own fireworks along the banks of the Piankatank River.

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FBYC Junior Regatta Start

Photos are posted of the 2010 FBYC Annual Junior Regatta. I had a prime vantage point on the Race Committee boat where I was the scorer. It was also a great opportunity to do a trial run of some new technology I’m getting configured. I’ll soon have the ability to take pictures and beam them via wifi directly from my new camera to a computer or website. More on that once I get it completed.

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Gynn Island Circumnavigation Map

Saturday I sailed the Laser out of Fishing Bay and circumnavigated Gywnn Island. The wind was out of the South-South East from 8-12 knots in the Piankatank to 14-18+ out in the bay. I started with a 2 hour beat upwind heading first east, and then south down the Chesapeake Bay. Out a mile offshore sailing upwind in 15+ in the standard rig was great with steady wind and some good wave action. At the 2 hour mark I entered the channel at the south end of the island and sailed the 1 ½ hour mostly downwind sail back to FBYC. I ended up sailing roughly 20 miles and I could not have asked for a better day of sailing.

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Memorial Day Beach VolleyballThis past weekend was a ton of fun and I’m still in denial that it’s over. I spent almost 5 days living out of my car traveling all over eastern VA and eastern NC. I took off Friday and headed down to Figure 8 Island near Wrightsville Beach to spend time at a beach house with Dan, Lauren, Patrick and a few other Richmond friends. With a full house I ended up spending two nights by the beach in a tent. It was beautiful weather for sleeping outside and I preferred it over the house. Sunday I got to see a beach sunrise which I’m rarely ever up for when I’m at the beach.

Sunday I drove back to Deltaville for two days of practice with the FBYC Campaign for the NYYC Invitational Cup Team. I sailed on the Sonar Sunday afternoon. We had a good wind, but a storm loomed on the horizon and we had to head in early. The storm never came and it was a beautiful afternoon so I got in a little Laser sailing.

Jon helming the SonarOur practice on Monday didn’t start until noon, so Maria, her friend and I took Lasers out in the morning and I sailed until I had to be back for practice. This time I was on one of the Colgate 26s. Despite being similar in size to the Sonar, there are quite a few differences in how the boat is handled. After practice I headed back to Richmond for a cookout before finally arriving home.

This has been one awesome weekend. I got to hang out with a lot of different people and had a blast with all of them. It’s going to be tough to top that weekend this summer.

Side Note: At this point I’ve already put 10,000 miles on my car this year. Compared to this time last year I was closer to 6,000. With trips to Deltaville and beyond planned for almost every weekend through October, I’m going to be doing a lot of driving this year.

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