Tag: Offshore Racing

Offshore sailboat racing.

I’d never sailed this far before. The Annapolis to Newport Race—475 nautical miles from the Chesapeake Bay to Newport, Rhode Island—was the challenge I’d been looking for this summer. Aboard the J/42 DIANTHUS, we were racing in a fleet of 14 boats in the PHRF class, part of a larger group of 71 total entries. We expected the race to take about four days.

Friday – Off to a Light Start

Dianthus at Annapolis City Dock
DIANTHUS at Annapolis City Dock

Our start was one of four that day just outside Annapolis Harbor. Winds were light, 5–7 knots out of the SSE. We executed a clean dip start on the third gun, timing the line perfectly and heading upwind while blocking several port tackers trying to squeeze in at the pin.

Looking down the line at the start of PHRF
Looking down the line at the start of PHRF

We short-tacked around Thomas Point Light and chose to hug the western side of the Bay while many competitors went east. As storms built over the Eastern Shore, we found ourselves with better pressure and less rain. By afternoon, we had 8–12 knots and made solid progress. But by evening, the wind faded again.

Dianthus rounding Thomas Point Light
Dianthus rounding Thomas Point Light

Saturday – Rain, Current, and a Spinnaker Sunset

When I came up for my midnight watch early Saturday morning, the boat had barely moved in the still air under a full moon.

Sunrise brought a fresh breeze as we neared the Potomac. We dodged a fast-moving RoRo ship and short-tacked near Cape Charles to stay out of the adverse current.

Rain returned just 15 miles from the Bay entrance—and with it, a total shutoff in wind. As the storms passed, the breeze filled from behind. Soon we were back under spinnaker in 20 knots of wind with a sunset on one side and a rainbow on the other.

We switched to an asymmetrical kite heading toward Chesapeake Light, then changed to the #1 genoa as the wind died again. We drifted toward the light while listening to VHF chatter from a dredging barge surprised to find a “sailboat party” in his spoil area.

Sunday – Into the Atlantic

By early morning we’d rounded Chesapeake Light and were close-hauled in 6–8 knots, tracking north up the coast. By midday, seas had become confused and choppy. As the wind built into the evening, we changed to a smaller genoa and eventually reefed the main. The maneuvers were tricky in the dark, and a couple of us got seasick in the rougher conditions.

Monday – A Leak, A Lull, and some Light Relief

Morning revealed a bit more water in the bilge than expected—eventually traced to a leaking anchor locker. We bailed, let the bilge pump catch up, and got back to full sail… just in time for the wind to shut off again.

For hours, we bobbed in less than 4 knots of wind. With 130nm to go, our hopes of finishing Tuesday morning faded. Now we were aiming for early Wednesday.

Tuesday – Chasing Breeze and Making Decisions

By noon, a few hours of glorious beam reaching had us pointing straight at Newport at 6 knots—but the breeze didn’t last. Afternoon brought rain and hard choices: how to round Block Island. As night fell, we flew the symmetrical spinnaker heading east.

Wednesday – Rounding Block Island and Finish

Just after midnight, we were east of Block Island under spinnaker in winds near 20 knots and boat speeds pushing double digits. Then – bam – a 50° wind shift hidden in fog and darkness slammed us.

We broached.

The boom dragged in the water, the boat laid over, and we slid sideways toward Block Island just 3.5 miles away. A nearby channel marker was the only visible reference.

After a tense few minutes, we regained control and set up for a spinnaker drop—requiring full crew on deck and a headsail hoist before we could safely douse the kite. We reefed and continued, now beating away from danger.

And then… the wind died again.

With a strong opposing current threatening to push us back into open ocean, we made the hard call to go the long way around Block Island. Boats we’d passed earlier were catching up fast.

Our path around Block Island

By sunrise we’d rounded Block and entered Block Island Sound. We hoisted the spinnaker one last time for the final four hours. At last, we crossed the finish line off Castle Hill just before noon.

Docking in Newport, surrounded by anchored boats and fellow racers, we toasted the end of a long, unforgettable journey. Sure, we would’ve liked less drifting and more breeze—but we made it, boat and crew intact.

Huge thanks to Dave and Carol for preparing DIANTHUS and leading the crew. It was a blast to sail with them, along with Wendy, John, and Mike. For my first offshore race, I couldn’t have asked for a more thrilling, humbling, and rewarding experience.

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We had a classic Chesapeake spring day for the Open House Regatta — cool temperatures, clear skies, and a steady breeze out of the northwest at 6–10 knots. Perfect conditions to spend the day racing on the water.

I sailed aboard the J/99 Battle Rhythm with a solid crew: Chris B, Chris R, Todd, David, April, Jon, and Kevin. This was a pursuit race, which meant the slower boats started first, and the faster boats (like us) started later. We ended up starting near the back of the fleet, side-by-side with Orion, another fast-rated boat.

The course took us from Godfrey Bay into the Piankatank River channel, then out toward Gwynn’s Island. We passed east of Stove Point before turning back upriver and finishing in Fishing Bay. It was a fun, tactical sail — plenty of opportunities to chase down boats ahead and make the most of every shift and puff.

After crossing the finish, the fleet gathered for a raft-up with about a dozen boats tying together — a great chance to relax, catch up with friends, and relive the race. We eventually headed back to the dock and capped off the day with a BBQ dinner at the club.

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Over the weekend, our crew aboard the J/42 DIANTHUS took part in a 20-nautical-mile race that started near Thomas Point Light and finished near Miles River Yacht Club. The course took us southeast past Kent Island before turning into the river for the final leg.

We had six on board: Dave, Carol, Wendy, John, Mike, and Jon D. Conditions were breezy throughout, with steady winds over 20 knots and gusts reaching 27. Whitecaps were visible across the Bay, making for a fast and challenging race.

Our fleet was the fourth start of the day. We managed a well-timed reach at the boat end of the line, staying high and clear of traffic. A few of the faster boats eventually came through below us, but we held a solid position early on.

As we crossed the Bay, the course shifted to another reach into the Miles River. We started passing some of the slower boats ahead of us while faster boats from behind caught up. Many boats were flying symmetrical spinnakers—some handling them well, others less so.

When the course turned to a deeper run, we put up our own spinnaker and stayed in control, even with gusts still hitting 25+ knots. We saw boat speeds up to 10.5 knots. Around us, a few boats wiped out in the breeze, but we managed to keep things clean.

Rather than gybe in those conditions, we chose to drop the spinnaker for the final short leg to the finish.

After the race, we rafted up at the club and checked the results: 4th place, just under a minute out of 2nd on corrected time. A strong finish in heavy air and a good day on the water.

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I joined Battle Rhythm for their first race of the 2025 season—a gusty, northwesterly day that tested our teamwork and shook off some winter rust. We hadn’t sailed together since last fall, and the breeze reminded us of it. On the line with us were Nanuq, Orion, and Corryvreckan. We had a solid crew of nine: Todd, Jennifer, Holly, Lauren, Tina, April, Jon, Chris R., and Dennis.

We got a decent start at the pin, staying low and ahead of the fleet. When Nanuq threatened to roll us, we bailed early and tacked out toward the layline near Stingray Point. Most of the fleet went up the Piankatank, but our gamble to the north paid off. As we approached the weather mark tucked near Jackson Creek, we were less than a minute behind Nanuq, with Orion trailing another minute or two back.

We set the kite and started the long run toward Gwynn’s Island. That’s when things got interesting. During the gybe, strong breeze and rusty coordination wrapped the spinnaker around the forestay—briefly, but enough to throw us off. We got it flying again and pressed on, only to tangle it again as we tried a weather take down at the leeward mark. We then missed the mark, had to re-round, and lost some time.

On the final downwind leg, a northward wind shift made for an awkward angle. A delayed gybe and another wrap left us low on the course, forcing us to luff hard and nearly broach just trying to fetch the finish.

With breeze still pushing into the low 20s and with no injuries or broken gear, we decided we’d had our fill of fun and headed in before race two. It wasn’t flawless, but it felt good to be back on the water shaking out the cobwebs.

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Fishing Bay Yacht Club opened the season with a beautiful race day for a 12.5 nm course. After a flag raising and skippers meeting,  the fleet headed out on the water. The crew from our sailboat was the race committee today and I was on the mark boat to set the start/finish line. I also had a front row seat to the start and finish and got to fly my drone around the boats when the wind subsided enough while most boats were finishing.

The three fleets started in sequence, sailing out into the bay near the Rappahannock’s mouth, then turning south before heading back to the finish line in the Piankatank River.

Though I wasn’t racing, it was rewarding to help run a smooth event and capture the action from a unique perspective.

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Jon sailed in FBYC’s closing day race aboard J99 Battle Rhythm with Kevin, Bill, Holly, Todd, and Jennifer.  As is the tradition for closing day, this is a pursuit race with the times calculated based on the distance and the slower boats start first while the faster boats start later. Being one of the faster boats we started about 47 minutes after the first boats to start and we start at the same time as Orien.

The wind was 11-14 at the start and we sailed around until our time came up.  The course was a bit of an out and back into the bay just shy of 20nm.

We started with Orien and sailed to a very short mark just north of the starting line with Orien just to leeward and behind of us. At the mark we tacked for another close hauled course to the entrance of the Piankatank.  The next leg was a reach to the south. We could see that the current was ebbing south and so we took a high line to the north so-as to not sail any extra distance and let the current carry us down.

When we got to the far mark to the south there was a pack of boats just ahead of us. Since we were coming from above and most of them were struggling to fetch the mark, we rounded inside and went right by them.

On this leg we were heading north and would have to tack to fetch the northern mark 2.8nm away.  By this time we were seeing winds as high as 26 and some decent waves rolling down the bay.  We still had a full main and jib and just did our best to work the boat through the waves despite being a little overpowered. Once at the top mark only Wendas was ahead of us when we turn to reach back into the Piankatank. We probably could have carried a spinnaker at this angle, but with winds into the 20s we didn’t try it and nobody behind us did either.

We quickly got around Wendas and reached under full main and Jib as Sting, Afterthought and the J42 all lined up about 150 yards behind us. We kept a close eye on them as they crept up on us and we focused on saying ahead hitting as high as 12 knots through the water at one point.  Once we were in the lee of Stingray Point the wind came down and the angle went a little behind us and we decided to put up the spinnaker. With winds in the teens it was a challenge to control and we almost spun out once. We got the boat under the spinnaker, but would need to gybe once to fetch the finish.  Other boats were setting spinnakers behind us and some were only 5 lengths behind us.

The gybe didn’t go particularly well and we wrapped the spinnaker around the forestay.  Luckly we were close enough to the line that we just went dead downwind spinnaker wrapped and all for the final minute to finish 1st – just ahead of our competition.

We were mostly unaware at the time other than some radio traffic that we didn’t entirely make sense of, but the Trip 27 GOIN’ had a shroud fitting fail and lost the mast out in the bay in the heavier winds. Orien left the race to help, but the club power boat was there to assist by the time they arrived.  Everyone was ok and they got the boat back ashore with a crinkle in the mast just above the deck line and a ripped main.

It was an exciting race and a fun way to wrap up the ‘regular’ season at FBYC.

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Saturday

Saturday’s weather started with sunny skies, temperatures in the 60 and wind around 14 out of the North. We had a good start near the boat in the first race and quickly tacked to port to clearer air. Rick called a great layline and we found ourselves at the top mark behind only Nanuq and Afterthought. We set the A2 spinnaker downwind and had a good run. At the bottom mark we managed to get a jib sheet on the wrong side of the spinnaker which we didn’t realize until mid-tack so we lost some ground having to abandon the tack. The rest of the race was sailed cleanly to a changed weather mark and only Orion got around leaving us 4th over the line and 4th on corrected.

The second race start was a lot more crowded with Tradition trying a mid-line port start. We were a little late in dodging the traffic, but did well to hold our line between Orion and Excitation as we headed up wind. Other than a hiccup with the second spinnaker set, we sailed pretty cleanly in a very competitive fleet. With boats all around us all race we had to settle for a 6th, and were less than 30 seconds out of 4th on corrected time. Sting (J92s) sailed a great race and was on our tail the whole time and we had a few crosses with them. They would end up having to give us room on the pin at the finish and were 4 seconds behind us, but corrected to 2nd.

By the 3rd race the wind came down a few knots and with all of the boats jammed up at the pin, we got out to the boat end to start. From there we worked our way up the right side of the course staying close to Afterthought just to weather of us. We rounded just behind the pack of boats and worked on hitting our targets and numbers. We also cleaned up the timing of our jibes and got it nice and snappy like I used to do on the J70. We would go ono to finish this race in 6th as well and putting us in 6th overall for the regatta. While the result don’t show it, we sailed very competitively and were 1-2 minutes out of 3rd in every race on corrected time.

Sunday

We returned Sunday for what should have been a distance race. Only there wasn’t any wind nor was there forecast to be. After a brief skippers meeting the signal boat and a couple of sailboats went out to explore. Afterthought tried to so some sailing, but there wasn’t enough to consistently keep the sails full. After about an hour racing was called. We were out there motoring around and returned to the dock to do some work aloft and then called it a day.

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The first of the Fall Series for the Offshore division at Fishing Bay Yacht Club started with a light air forecast. While the forecast had looked better earlier in the week, we arrived Saturday morning for very light winds and maybe some wind mid-afternoon. The RC postponed us ashore for a bit before sending us out to the course to postpone there so we could be ready if/when the wind did come up.

I was sailing aboard the J99 Battle Rhythm with Todd, Jen, Holly, Rick and Ron. We floated around a bit until well after noon. There was some discussion among the fleet of how late in the day to wait for wind. As it neared 1pm the wispers of wind we were seeing were coming from the right direction.  1 knot, then 2 knots and then 4 knots of wind. That was still going to be tough going with anywhere from half a not to a full knot of current in the same direction of the wind, but at least it looked promising.  Soon the wind was continuing to increase and the RC started to set up a course.

As this was happening many of the sailboats were putting mainsails up. We put our main up and decided to do a little upwind practice.  We missed the radio announcement about starting and by the time we heard anything on the radio, it was for the first warning.  By this time we were a few hundred yards up the course. We quickly turn on our engine for a half a minute and shut it off just before the prep signal. We were still well upwind of the start in only a few knots of wind so we put our spinnaker up to get back as quickly as we could. The race started and we dodged the boats coming upwind on starboard as we continued downwind on port to get behind the line.  The fleet had an almost 2 minute head start on us by the time we got back to the line, doused the spin and rounded the pin to start.

Rick and Ron look out from the low side of Battle Rhythm as the fleet sails in the distance
Rick and Ron look out from the low side of Battle Rhythm as the fleet sails in the distance

The port tack was pretty close to directly into the current with a south east breeze. Orion was going this way well ahead of us, but most boats had tacked out to stay in the middle of the course. Knowing we were behind and it would be advantageous to go into the current first and not get swept up the bay we continued this until we thought we’d be on the layline. Even Orion tacked well before we did.  That move paid off, we crossed the entire fleet except for Orion who was easily 2 minutes around the mark ahead of us and Afterthought who was just ahead of us at the mark.  We would have been well on our way downwind, only we mis-judged the current at the mark and hit it as we rounded.  We held off on our spin hoist and by the time we did our turn Nanuq and Excitation were right there rounding the mark. They headed North with the current on starboard and we quickly got our spin on up and gybed to port. That worked well and they fell behind us when they eventually gybed to port. The wind was still light and with shifting winds the RC shortened the course at this mark. We would end up 3rd behind Orion and Afterthought.

We floated around the starting area while the other fleets finished and the course was reset. The wind did fill some more to 6-7 knots and more out of the south. At the start of the second race, most of the 7-boat PHRF-A fleet spread out down the line. That gave us a perfect opening to time the start right at the pin. Excitation was just behind us at the pin. With Orion just below us and Excitation just behind us – both boats who point exceptionally well compared to us upwind, we quickly tacked out before we got sandwiched. This took us mostly into the current towards Gwynn’s island.

Start of Race 2
Start of Race 2

Like the first race we kept our tacks low and worked our way out towards the layline. This time the rest of the fleet didn’t go so hard left, but with the start we had and good speed we crossed most of the fleet. Only we didn’t quite get to the layline and had to do a short tack near the mark and by then we were ducking the other boats on starboard who had been just behind us.  We rounded 4th just behind the other boats and headed downwind.

By now the crew work on Battle Rhythm was working well and we were efficiently getting the spin up and down and not loose any ground to the fleet. We continued the second lap much like the first and finished just behind the pack of 3 boats behind us taking 4th for the race and finishing 3rd overall on the day.

We were glad we all stayed out there as the wind really did fill in to a raceable pressure and it was a gorgeous day. Thanks to Gene and crew for running race and Todd for having me aboard.

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A foot injury kept me sidelined from racing in the 2024 Stingray Point Regatta, but we did get out for a while on Sunday to capture some pictures of the racing on the east course.

A1 Fleet Sailing downwind in the first race on Sunday.
A1 Fleet Sailing downwind in the first race on Sunday.

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This year the moonlight race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club was pushed back to August to coincide with the super moon blue moon occurring a few days afterward and giving us the most light to sail by (if it weren’t for the clouds).  We were sailing aboard the J99 Battle Rhythm with Todd, Jen, Terry, Kevin, April, David, Harry and myself.  As we left the dock shortly after 6 we could tell that it was blowing pretty good out of the south east. The white caps breaking over the bar at the entrance of Jackson Creek confirmed it as we ventured out into the Piankatank. 12-15 in the river near the start and we’d see as high as 26 when we were out in the bay and clear of Gwynn’s Island.

We were a little late timing the start and followed the fleet to the first mark at the tip of Gwynn’s Island and then we headed upwind southeast into a building current.  We had started with a double reef, but quickly went to a single reef when we felt vastly under powered. At times the waves crashed over the bow and soaked the crew on the rail. Kevin and April took the brunt of it and thankfully being August it wasn’t too chilly.

On this upwind leg with winds in the upper teens with gusts into the twenties and the single reef in we were definitely overpowered. We haven’t sailed the boat in these conditions very much and took a while to figure out the groove. After we found it we were doing 7.5-8 knots upwind and making up ground on the fleet. We also took a bit of a high line closer to the wind taking us further south that enabled us to fetch the mark in the current without pinching.  This would be clutch as several boats who didn’t fetch the mark would end up having to duck us on port as we came into the weather mark. It was spooky with several boats just behind us in the dark.

The next leg took us on a broad reach to the north west into the mouth of the Rappahannock river and with the prevailing current. None of the boats put up a spinnaker with winds still reaching 26knots. At times we were doing almost 10 knots through the water.

Once we reached the turning mark in the Rappahannock it was time to come back upwind to the mouth of the Piankatank. We went a short ways inshore to Stingray point and then tacked out into the Bay. Some of the boats just behind us went even further inshore and when we crossed them they were just ahead or at least much closer. So we decided to continue the leg by going inshore and away from the current and approach the next mark on the starboard layline. We entered the Piankatank and reached into the finish shaking out the reef as we got back behind Gwynn’s island. We finished 5 minutes behind Nanuq and 2 minutes ahead of Orion, but after the corrected times were calculated, we came out 5 seconds ahead of Excitation for 1st place.

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