Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Offshore Fall Series
It was a cool, light air day for the 3rd installment of the Fall Series for the Offshore Division at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. Without many J/70s on the line and both my boat and Double Eagle short on crew – Andrew and I jumped on Double Eagle and I got to drive the day. All in all it was a fun day and we finished 2nd in both races. Thanks again to the Double Eagle crew for having me along!
Today was quite a breezy day for the 2nd Offshore Fall Series day at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. Rather than get beat up in the cold and wet conditions most of the J/70s decided to bail and crew on bigger boats. I ended up on Mad Hatter.
We sailed two races with winds in the low 20’s that eventually eased off a little bit in the 2nd race. I was mostly in the back of the boat helping trim genoa.
It was a breezy day with light clouds for FBYC‘s first day of the Fall Series. Having not spent a lot of time sailing No Quarter in winds in the upper teens gusting into the low 20’s we certainly had our hands full. Upwind in the first race we found our groove and worked the boat well. Downwind we sailed conservatively and kept the boat in control.
By the 2nd race several boats dropped out and we led the first lap and a half before Full Monty passed just downwind just before the finish.
The final day of Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s offshore fall series started out like it was going to be a nice sailing day, but didn’t last and the wind died before we could complete a race. I was sailing on Steve Q’s Hotty Toddy with Larry and his son. Despite not finishing a race, we still had fun and learned a lot. We’ll be back at it at FBYC’s inaugural J/70 Chesapeake Bay Championship regatta with 20+ boats on the line.
Sunday’s race what was supposed to be the 3rd day in the FBYC Fall Series but due to some light wind some races were missed. I sailed on J/70 Hotty Toddy with Steve Q, Clark D and Carrie R. With 6 other boats out, overcast skies and winds that started in the mid-teens and were under 10 by the 2nd race – we had a really nice day for racing.
With Steve driving the first race and Clark driving the second, we focused on good crew maneuvers and keeping the boat going fast in the right direction. We caught some shifts, missed others but were close enough or in the lead enough times to have some fun with it. Despite some great moments we went 5-4 on the day putting us solidly in 5th.
Top photo courtesy of Lisa Fleck
We had plenty of wind for the first day of the offshore fall series at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and the race committee elected to head inside Fishing Bay to run the races. With winds over 20 at the start of the first race we all had our hands full getting around the course. By the end of the last race the wind was down to 8. We did well and put up a 4-3-4 for 3rd overall out with 3 excellent starts.
After racing we had to deliver a boat from Jackson Creek to Fishing Bay and we timed it to see a gorgeous sunset on Fishing Bay.
Top Photo by Bruce McConnell
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.
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.
Despite the bad weather, I was able to get some pictures of the action that can be seen here.