Tag: Offshore Racing

Offshore sailboat racing.

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.

PICTURES | RESULTS | VIDEO

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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.

RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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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.

PICTURES | RESULTS | VIDEO

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We had a small fleet for a summer race to Wolf Trap Light House and back. There were 6 spinnaker boats and the two boats in the PHRF-A fleet were us on the J99 Battle Rhythm and the J109 Afterthought.

We started in the Piankatank just off Gwynns Island and had winds in the low teens out of the SSE and mostly sunny. There was a bit of traffic at the start with all of the boats piling up at the starboard end of the line which happened to be the government mark. We had to dodge a few boats and once we got clear we hung with Afterthought upwind on the way out of the Piankatank.

Once we cleared the river we continued upwind south to Wolf Trap light. With the current going out of the bay it was advantageous to continue on starboard all the way out into the bay. We got to the layline a couple miles from the lighthouse and tacked onto Port.  Afterthought had continued to inch further away from us and was about ½ mile ahead of us by the time we got to the light house.  And the wind out here was around 6-8 knots.

At Wolf Trap we rounded and set the A2 spinnaker and headed downwind. We sailed this spinnaker for a bit hoping the wind would build into its range, but it didn’t come and we decided to do a spinnaker change to the A1. While Kevin, Len and Carrie got the old spinnaker down, I grabbed the tack and halyard and got it hooked to the new spinnaker and after Kevin wrestled the chute into the hatch and Len hooked up the sheet I jumped the halyard on the mast and we had the new spinnaker flying in just over a minute.

Another new trick for this race was having the chart and instruments on the iPad. We also set up some time graphs with one of them being VMG and so after we changed spinnaker we were able to see from the chart that we were getting at least a tenth more VMG.

We continued North to the Piankatank, saw a huge pod of dolphins  and eventually rounded into the river where we went somewhat upwind to the finish off Gywnns Island. On corrected time we would be about 14 minutes behind Afterthought.

All in all it was a good day of racing. Learned a few more tricks on the boat and had fun racing with Kevin, April, Carrie, Todd, Len, and Ann.

RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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The FBYC Offshore Spring Open consisted of 2 days of racing with the first on Saturday being buoy racing and a distance race on Sunday.

Saturday – Buoy Racing

We arrived to a light drizzle on Saturday. Goin’ couldn’t get the hoist to work, so a couple from their boat joined what was going to be a short-handed crew on Battle Rhythm. Winds were in the 15-17 knot range out of the east as it continued to drizzle.

In the first race we were about a minute late to the start as we thought the other fleets were starting first. We started with 1 reef and were at the first weather mark about the same time as Corryvreckan.

Downwind we didn’t fly the spinnaker and as we sailed down the course we saw the wind dropping and shook the reef out. We finished the race without the spinnaker and finished 6th of 7.

For the second race we had a terrific start right at the boat, right on time, with a nice lane to leeward and we managed to shut the door on two other boats trying to start at the boat-end of the line.

In the 10-13 knots of wind we worked on tuning the boat upwind and got a little more in the groove. We rigged the spinnaker and had to shuffle people around – Todd went from the helm to the bow and Dennis drove downwind while Jon stayed in the pit. We did pretty well and held our position with Afterthought ahead and Sting behind us. We did another lap of the same and although Sting got pretty close to us and we ended up correcting behind Nanuq by only 26 seconds. In the end we finished 6 and 4 putting us in 5 overall after the first day.

Sunday – Distance Race

Sunday was the distance race – which was basically east out of the Piankatank and then North up the bay and then the triangle back to where we started.

The start was from FBYC-A which meant that the boat was on the port end of the line and the starboard end was the government mark. We had a pretty good start on starboard while many of the other boats were on port. We carried starboard to the north to have a better angle on the next mark, while the boats that were already on port were pretty tight upwind to make the first mark.

We rounded the first mark with many of the faster boats very close to us. From there we stayed upwind while many other boats cracked off to a close reach on a coarse for the next mark. Only the current was streaming down the bay and the boats that cracked off quickly found themselves getting swept and having to sail upwind again. The wind was still pretty light and our angle and positioning to the North allowed us to carry much more speed and catch the new wind to the North and rounded the next mark in second with our entire fleet behind us. Mad Hatter in the B fleet played the current even better and beat us to the mark and the C fleet boat Wendas was just behind us.

The next leg took us roughly upwind and up current to the North. There wasn’t much relief from the current but we went to the west side of the course along with Mad Hatter. Afterthought had caught up to us, but split to the east and lost a couple minutes by the time we got to the north.

On what was the final rounding to the finish, we rounded and set the chute. In process of getting the sail set, we lost track of where we were to be heading and spent a few minutes going downwind further than we should have. Had we kept on a tight reach, we would have been able to sail longer on a straighter course to the finish. But because we went low, we had to douse the chute a little earlier and go back to an upwind mode to fetch the finish. At times the wind was barely nothing and the current continued to rip down the bay making it hard for us to get anything in the sails. Eventually the wind filled, but Afterthought would correct to almost 25 minutes ahead of us and Nanuq corrected to 5 minutes ahead of us. We managed to stay enough ahead of Corryvreckan to correct over them by 30-some seconds for 3rd place.

PICTURES | DAY 1 RESULTS | DAY 2 RESULTS | VIDEO

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As was the case in 2022, the club was short a PRO for the first spring series of the year and so I stepped in last minute to be the PRO. We had a small but mighty team and gave the racers the best we could given the weather, volunteers and equipment we had available.

PHRF-BC start with GOIN’ and Mad Hatter

While it wasn’t windy by windy standards- the conditions were still cool, the wind was up and the waves were a bit lumpy from this direction. We were able to set up a 1.5nm weather leg and ran two races for both fleets on that course. The cruising class intended to do a triangle derivative of this, but through some miscommunication to the RC, we sent them on a triangle that was way beyond what they were intending and weren’t finishing even the first lap of that until almost after the other fleets had done two laps and started their next race.

Paula and Jon doing flags at the back of the boat while Cathy calls time.

Thanks to Paula, Cathy, Mary and Paul for their help on RC.

This was also my first chance to try out a new insta360 X4 and here’s the 360 video in 8k of driving the boat out of the Jackson Creek Channel.

VIDEO | PICTURES | RESULTS | EVENT WEBSITE

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This weekend the Battle Rhythm crew joined the Race Committee for the Opening Day race. The 3 fleets did a middle distance race out into the Chesapeake Bay and back. The wind was light and took about 3 hours to do the ~15nm. We had a 4-6 knot breeze in the Piankatank the entire time. The boats out in the bay saw much less than that at times and many of them abandoned when the current started taking them faster than the wind.

Being on Race Committee this was a perfect opportunity to get some video of the boats and try out a borrowed 360 camera.

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FBYC closed the regular season with the Closing Day Distance Race. The weather was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful fall foliage – it felt more like September than almost November. Except there wasn’t much wind. Knowing it was a distance race with little prospect of more wind later and oysters to be eaten this afternoon the RC chose to start us on time and let us make the most of what wind there was.

I was sailing on Battle Rhythm, we were the 3rd fastest boat and thus the 3rd to last boat to start. We were just behind Tradition as we came to the line and ended up underneath a bunch of boats who had parked up just above the line. It took us a long time to sail around them and after 35 minutes to the weather mark – we set a spinnaker and headed due east out of the river to the next mark of the course.

We soon passed a few boats that had rounded the first mark ahead of us. With the spinnaker up, we were a little low and eventually had to drop it and go back to a jib as the wind went a little south. By the time we reached the far mark we were around 7-8th place. On the way back to Stove Point we passed two cruising boats leaving only Afterthought, Nanuq and Goin’ ahead of us. We didn’t catch them, but had a good time to get at 4th and learned some things about how to make the light reaching spinnaker work in light wind and close reaching.

Following the race were oysters and we had a great time catching up with a lot of folks for possibly the last time of the year.

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The second day of the FBYC Fall Open featured a distance race to mark located in the Chesapeake Bay just off Gwynn’s Island called 41a but otherwise known to FBYC Sailors as L. The course was an out and back following the same path back to the finish. 

In our fleet were 5  boats – Sting, Corryvreckan, Afterthought, Nanuq an Arcona 46 and us on J99 Battle Rhythm.  Aboard were Todd, Len, Ron, Anne and Jon.

We started in the mouth of the Piankatank and sailed out into the Bay on a close reach. Around us were the J109 Afterthought and the J105 Corryvreckan. Winds were 12 – 14 and we were sailing with the jib and full main. After rounding one of the entrance marks to the Piankatank we headed south on a broad reach down the bay. 

We arrived at Chesapeake 41a otherwise known as FBYC-L just off the southern end of Gwynns Island.  At the southern mark, we doused the spinnaker and came back upwind along the same course we had taken out there.  The wind had backed to the north north west making this an even more upwind slog back.

We took a few tacks inshore towards Gwynns island to stay out of the current.  Once we were back in the Piankatank we close reached to the finish just off Stove Point.

After the handicaps were calculated our race was good enough for 2nd place beating the J109 by just under a minute on corrected time though we were still 5 minutes behind the Acrona.

PICTURES | VIDEO | RESULTS

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