Fishing Bay Yacht Club
This year I’m the event chair for the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Regatta on October 16-17. This is the 6th year I’ve chaired the Annual Regatta which will be held for its 29th year.
The shirts will be printed on a wicking shirt and the design is a stencil of a photo from last year.
Following 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.
My 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.
I 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.
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.
Last weekend was the 2010 Leukemia Cup Regatta. It was held in Deltaville at Stingray Point Marina/Fishing Bay Yacht Club. Above is a photo of the crew. After abandoning the first race on Saturday in a lightning storm, we only managed 1 race on Sunday before the wind let out. We finished 4th in our 7-boat fleet. We might not have gotten any hardware on the race course, but we were the top fundraiser raising over $11,000 to support cancer research.
This photo is from the 2010 Moonlight Regatta at FBYC last Saturday night. It shows the sun setting on the Rappahannock River as the PHRF A fleet sails east to our second mark. It was taken from aboard the lead boat Double Eagle.
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.
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.
This 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.
Our 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.
I got to do a lot of sailing this weekend; first on Wavelength on Saturday sailing to a 2nd place overall finish in the Spring Series. Saturday evening five of us – mostly Front Runner sailors – went out on Lasers for a nice evening sail. Sunday morning was laser racing against Brad and Maria. And finally Sunday evening we took out the Sonar that we’ll be using for NYYC Invitational Cup Qualifying Series practice for its maiden voyage.
This weekend was Opening Weekend at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. We had two beautiful days of racing with winds between 10-20 knots. Between sailing the past 3 weekends and the unseasonably warm weather we’ve had – it hardly seems like opening weekend for me. It’s not May yet, but it certainly feels like it.
This weekend and the last 2 weekends I have sailed aboard Wavelength, a C&C 37 with ~9 other crew. It’s been fun sailing the same boat for a while and really learning some of the finer points of sail trim and boat handling. Let the sailing season begin!