19′ boat sailed with 2-3 people. Has a jib and a symmetrical spinnaker.
We had a nice evening and 6 boats out for Friday evening sailing at FBYC. I jumped aboard John’s Flying Scot along with Mary while a couple Melges 15s and a ILCA and Opti were out.
The Canadian Wildfires made it quite hazy and there were storms looming to the west that never quite threatened. We had a pleasant sail in 8-12 knots and got to try out all of the sails despite a spinnaker pole that had a stuck jaw.
I was the PRO for FBYC’s Summer Seabreeze 2 regatta and the racers wanted a Caribbean theme so I changed a few racing rules to ensure the racing fit the theme.
At the skipper’s meeting the wind was blowing, but we knew the forecast was for it to die and so we postponed about an hour. When something did come, we picked the only spot in the middle of Fishing Bay that seemed to have a lane of wind. It was light, but we got 6 short races for the 6 flying Scots before the wind died.
I could not have done this without the help of Britt and Ruthana and huge thanks to them for being there today.
My sister and her husband Dean were in town for the week and so I took them, my parents and Jess to FBYC and we rented the club’s Flying Scot to go sailing for a couple hours. It was hot when we arrived and still barely any breeze. We jumped in the pool and off the dock into the river to cool off. By mid-afternoon the sea breeze started filling in and so we rigged and headed out.
We had a nice sail around Stove Point in the Piankatank River. Back at shore we went for another swim, ate snacks on the waterfront, cleaned up and then went to Merroir for dinner.
On Sunday I got to sail for the first time in 2015 in the first race of the Greater Richmond Sailing Association Frostbite Series. I was sailing with Joe and his son Gabe who are new members at FBYC and were taking their new to them Flying Scot out for the very first time.
The weather started pretty miserably with rain showers. After a little over an hour after the expected start time, the rain let up and it turned into a nice clear light wind day.
I got to join Rob Whittemore on a Flying Scot for the 4th and final day of the Greater Richmond Sailing Association Frostbite Series. We had an absolutely beautiful day with temperatures in the high 60’s and shifty winds from 5-12 knots.
We sailed in the cove right off the shore. To windward, the weather mark is set right below a roadway on a berm which is pretty open, but makes it very hard to see the wind beyond it coming down the course. The starting line was short and with 9 boats the starts were all tight with boats barging the line on every start.
In the puffs the weather leg could be sailed in 2-4 minutes…. in the lulls it could take 5-8 minutes or more. While we were never really able to figure out the exact patterns there were a number of things we used to help gauge which way we thought the wind would go and where we thought we’d find more pressure. These things ranged from the fetch up the lake we could see under the bridge, the flag on the other side of the bridge, the flag at the yacht club and of course the wind on the water in what little fetch there was between the weather mark and the lee shore.
As shifty as it was – we definitely had to be on our toes. Miss a shift – and we learned this the hard way- and we could be passed by a couple boats immediately. We did well to stay in the front of the fleet around the course and our consistency paid off allowing us to recapture first whenever we let it slip and we were able to take 1st in all 5 races today.
Following racing Rob and I were asked to judge the chili cook off.
A big thanks again to GRSA for hosting this frostbite series. All of the FBYC sailors really appreciated being able to get some winter sailing in so close to hope. I’m looking to being back again soon!
On Saturday I had the unplanned opportunity to be the PRO (Principle Race Officer) for Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s Summer Sea Breeze regatta. I was all set to race a Front Runner, but we didn’t end up having a fleet and my crew Stephen Boling came along to help run race committee. Now I’ve been on signal boats and race committees a hundred times for everything from club races to national championships – but this was my first time actually being a PRO. Lucky for me the wind was steady enough not to have to change the course and we were able to get 5 races off for the Flying Scot fleet and all went very well.
Pictures | Results
Following a late night at the Richmond NASCAR race I was off to Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the Stew Pot Regatta to sail on Rob Whittemore’s Flying Scot – Patriot. We had 8 other Flying Scots out with us and 3 Front Runners in 11-15 knots of wind out of the ESE. The first 3 races were 4/5 mi H course and the last two were a W4 and a G. We had good starts, great boat speed and kept to the favored side of the course. John Wake and his wife Sharon were close competition all day, but we managed to snip them at the line a couple of times. All in all it was a fun day sailing with Rob and great to get 5 bullets to win the day.
Top 2 photos by Karen Huddle
The plan was to get out early, get 2 races in to complete the regatta and get out of the heat. The wind didn’t exactly cooperate with that and after going out at 9, starting a race only to abandon it 15 minutes later when the wind died, we were back on shore until the afternoon. With temperatures between 104-106 and a 6-10 knot breeze we headed back out to get our two races in. We had a great start in the first race of the day, were OCS and had to restart in the second race and ultimately put up a 26 and a 24 for 27th overall.
Wednesday was the first day of championship sailing at the Flying Scot North American Championship. We sailed two races in the morning, took a lunch break and sailed another. With the fleets now split the competition got twice as fierce. These may be Flying Scots but there wasn’t an inch given away anywhere on the course from the front of the fleet to the back. Needless to say we were fighting in the back of the fleet in all of the races and are sitting deep.
With very high temperatures forecasted for later this week, the final two races are going to be run on Thursday ending the regatta a day early.
Tuesday was the second day of qualifying for the championship fleet at the 2012 Flying Scot North American Championship. Sitting in 27th we needed a good race to stay in the top 30 and make the championship fleet. The wind started out around 15 as we were heading out and by the time we had started dropped to 12 and continued to drop from there. We were seeing pretty big swings in the wind and knew picking the shifts right would be key.
We had a ok start about a 1/3 of the way down from the boat and worked our way out to the left where we had seen more pressure. We rode a nice shift back to the right and continued to pick our way through the shifts and the slow boats from the fleet ahead of us. At the top mark we rounded in 1st! Downwind we stayed just ahead of Kelly and Heidi Gough and went high riding a puff around over half of the fleet that started 6 minutes ahead of us. At the gate mark, a clump of boats was rounding the favored gate just ahead of us so we bailed to the other gate and had a clean rounding in cleaner air. Upwind we continued to pick the shifts and wound up getting passed by two of the boats in our fleet. We held our position downwind to take a 3rd and put ourselves solidly into the championship fleet.
Since we got off the water well before noon I thought it would be fun to spend the afternoon playing tourist in St. Louis.
I got a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery.
Visited Forest Park and the St. Louis Art Museum.
Had a nice dinner and went up the Gateway Arch.
