Fishing Bay Yacht Club
We had a really nice day on Excitation for the Cut Channel Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. We started out with wind, but it died out in the middle of the bay as we sailed up the channel. By then Afterthought was able to slip away in the wind they had and what filled in behind us was too little, too late.
Tonight was the first night of sailing the J/70 Friday nights. My Dad came down earlier in the day and we were able to go for a sail in between some storms.
This the 3rd annual Open House Regatta which has become one of my favorite events at FBYC given the mix activities, people and sailing being done. A bring-what-you-got progressive start race for boats 10-50+ ft all racing each other. Followed by rafting up and socializing followed by dinner and a great blue grass band.
Given I would be sailing my J/70 in Hampton next weekend, it was packed up yesterday and so today I joined David Hinckle and Tommy Roper aboard David’s J/70 – Air Speed. We had a good start and did well in the light air on the way out. On the way back we picked the wrong side of the course and let Nostalgia sneak by us while we couldn’t quite catch any of the boats ahead and settled for 6th.
After returning the boat to the dock I took a launch out to the raft up already in progress. I managed to go boat-to-boat around the entire circle visiting with folks on each boat. I also got to go up the mast of one of the larger boats to capture an aerial view.
And despite a little crummy weather late in the evening, we still had fun inside.
Started the holiday weekend with a great picnic with the the young adult members (<40) and guests of FBYC on a beautiful night.
Sunday was the Fishing Bay Yacht Club J/70 Spring Regatta with 6 boats racing in 14-16 gusting to 20 out of the West. With Andrew, Evan and Mark on board we had a great crew and were really able to get the boat around the course well in the higher winds. We even kicked it up a gear planning downwind when we could.
We sailed 5 races with some pretty tight finishes with the other boats. In 3 of the races we finished a boat length or less behind someone. The shifty and puffy conditions made it both challenging to stay in phase and hard to keep changing modes to keep the boat going fast.
We finished a consistent 1-3-3-2-2 including having to restart on the final racing having been OCS. Another great day.
The series concludes next Sunday at Spring Series #4.
It took a while to get out on the J/70 for the first time this year and it was a great day for it at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Offshore Spring Series #3. Onboard today were Andrew, Evan and Nathan and there were 3 other J/70s in the fleet among the 20 other boats out racing.
Saturday started light WNW around 6-8 and built to the 10-13 by the end of the 3rd race. We had good boat speed up wind, played most of the shifts well and went 2-1-2. On most of the downwinds Ron Thompson sailing Nostalgia put on a clinic and either pulled ahead if he was ahead or caught up if he was behind. The next day we realized we had the spinnaker rigged wrong and wasn’t getting it to full hoist.
All in all a great first day back in the boat and excited to continue the season this spring.
Following racing we were hanging around the club as it rained and cleared and we were treated to a beautiful rainbow.
Spring cleaning day for the J/70. Test mounted the new mast travel carrier and gave the boat a good scrubbing to be ready for the season!
This weekend should have been Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s Opening Day Race followed by a J/70 clinic on Sunday – but the weather conspired to have it cancelled. With no sailing to do and only a Blessing of the Fleet and party to attend – it became a work weekend and thus the J/70 that was not yet rigged was packed and hauled to Richmond.
While at home it was easy to get a couple projects done:
What a great day to end the sailing season on at Fishing Bay Yacht Club – temperatures that were not too cool and enough wind to make it interesting. I just received the new MkII Laser Standard sail and was eager to try it out.
Having sailed a few races – it definitely felt a bit tweakier than the other sail – as in – it didn’t stretch as much, so you can really see where it needed adjusting, cunningham, vang etc. I had a little trouble figuring out when to adjust various things. All in all it probably wasn’t any faster or slower – but I was definitely slower with the distraction. I’m looking forward to spending a little more time figuring it out. Finished 2nd overall in 7 races.
Following sailing I put a cover on the J/70 and helped Mike arrange 2 more boats in his barn.
It was a very, very light air day for the final day of the Fall Series at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and the final day of sailing for 2015 for J/70 No Quarter. John, Andrew and Dave were aboard for a race that started in light air and over 2 hours later nobody was going to finish, so we ended up bagging it and call it a day. With only 2-3 knots of wind and 1-2 knots of current coming right at us, we just couldn’t make the boat go at times.
Back on shore we dropped the mast and prepared the boat to go into the barn for the winter.
