I sailed on Wavelength for the 2010 Southern Bay Leukemia Cup Regatta and not only was our picture featured in a Leukemia Cup Ad in Sailing and Cruising World, but now we’re on the cover of this year’s regatta poster and flier.  Wavelength was the top fundraising boat at last years regatta.  We’re hoping to repeat and would like to ask anyone who would like to make a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to do so via this link.  Thank you!

2011 Leukemia Cup Regatta poster

 

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.

2011 Laser Parent's Night Races

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.

Sailing upwind in a Front Runner

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!

Jon and Bri on the Front Runner

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.

Laser Spring Regatta Podium winners

Check out more photos from the awards and the rest of the weekend here.

Tim Zimmerman is a writer for Sailing World and was a competitor at the 2011 Laser District 11 Championship we hosted a few weeks ago at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and he’s written a nice blog article about his experience at the regatta:

Don’t get me wrong. The regatta itself, the District 11 Laser Championships, was not terrible. In fact, it was fantastic. Hosted by the smoothly-run, beautifully-situated, Fishing Bay Yacht Club down in Deltaville, Va., on the southern Chesapeake Bay, the regatta was blessed with excellent winds, a great crowd of sailors, and a Laser-loving chef, Alain Vincey, who cooked up a spectacular Saturday-evening dinner. Even the camping was nice.

Read the rest of the article on Sailing World’s blog.

Saturday I sailed on Wavelength in FBYC’s Race to Urbanna.  I’ve been a member at FBYC for over 14 years and this is the first time I’ve done the Race to Urbanna.  The fleet of about 22 boats started near the entrance to Jackson Creek and sailed out into the bay while rounding Stingray point and then sailed up the river to Urbanna.  We had a good race that was mostly a reach and managed to finish (results) a little over a minute corrected time over our only competition.

The party was fun.  Rosegill was beautiful and I had a great time.  Here’s a few photos:

Racing under the Rappahannock River Bridge

Panoramic of Rosegill

Rosegill barn just after sunset

More photos from the racing and party can be seen 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.

2011 Offshore Spring Series #4 Spreadercam 1
2011 Offshore Spring Series #4 Spreadercam 2

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.

Start of race 2 at the pin

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.

Leading the fleet in the final race

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.

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.

View from the top of the mast of our practice