Tag: Offshore Racing

Offshore sailboat racing.

Saturday was FBYC’s Closing Day Regatta – this is usually the traditional end of the season weekend with big boats sailing a pursuit race on Saturday followed by oysters. Then we sail ILCA on Sunday in our final race of the day. With a low pressure off the coast, there is forecast wind all weekend. We ultimately canceled the ILCA regatta for Sunday though it wasn’t enough to cancel the offshore race.

Looking upwind as we sail to the finish

I was sailing with Mike Toms on his J105 Purple Wahoos. Aboard with us were a number of Mike’s friends from college and one other sailor we picked up on the dock. Being a pursuit race and being the 2nd fasted boat by rating, we had a late starting time and didn’t leave the dock until after the rest of the fleet. The race had already been postponed 30 minutes due to wanting to set a new course that would keep us a little more protected in the Piankatank. In the open water of the bay the wind was gusting over 30. Where we ended up sailing we had some gusts into the 20’s but was mostly in the mid to high teens for most of the race. The wind was out of the NNE.

We hit our starting time on a broad reach as we sailed south and then west up the Piankatank. We slowly caught up to boats ahead like GOIN and Morningtide. As we got to the turn around spot up the river the wind was predictably lighter and this is where we encountered most of the rest of the fleet. We eventually got around Mad Hatter and Sting.

The fleet behind us in the Piankatank

As we approached Fishing Bay we slowed a bit to put a reef into the main sail knowing this was the last opportunity we’d have to do this before sailing into more wind and the last leg was going to be relatively upwind. I had done main for most of the race and swapped with Mike and drove the bit of the race after needing a break from all of the sheet adjustments on the main to keep the right heel and speed.

On the final beat we were in 4th with Shenanigan just ahead of us and Corryvrekan and Sting just behind us. We were slowly able to pick off Shenanigan, but Corryvreckan came from behind to finish ahead of us leaving us in 4th overall.

Red dotted line showing the track we took.
Red dotted line showing the track we took.

Given the wind and conditions it was great being on the water and we made the most of what we had. It was a fun way to end the season followed by an Oyster Roast at the club.

PICTURES | RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

Saturday was FBYC’s Cut Channel Race. I would have liked to sail but I needed some time in the ILCA ahead of nationals next weekend. I spent about 2 hours sailing in 15-20 knots with some 3 foot waves in places and a light drizzle of rain.

I also got a few photos of the start of the Cut Channel Race:

At the start only two boats were in position to hit the line on port headed for the next mark of the course. Many boats started on starboard, barely laying the starting line and way down at the boat end and were 10+ boat lengths behind immediately. The weather eventually cleared and they had a nice sail though I was long done and ashore by the time the fleet finished.

PICTURES | RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Photography, Sailing Photography No Comments Tagged with , , , , ,

Day one of the Stingray Point Regatta was a breezy one. This was my first time taking sailing pictures with a new-to-me Nikon D300s and it’s great to have a camera again to take pictures with. We watched the finish of the first race and the start of the 2nd race and got some great shots.

PICTURES

By Posted on Posted in Life, Photography, Sailing Photography No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

All summer the best wind of the day has been early in the morning, so I was up early to take advantage of it Saturday morning in the Laser. After sailing for a couple hours I headed across the club to sail on Mayo’s Farr-Dickinson 37 Excitation.

Sailing went well and we had a good time against some good competition in the PHRF-A fleet. We wound up 4th in the 7 boat fleet with 4 races over 2 days.

RESULTS | PICTURES

By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , , , ,

We had a gorgeous night aboard Mike’s new to him j105 Purple Wahoos to sail Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Moonlight Race on June 15.  Mike wasn’t able to sail so Clark, Scott, Jenny and I sailed the boat along with two kids.  The race was set to start at 7:30 at night and the wind was forecast to pick up overnight and so the RC picked the shorter 14 mile course for all 6 boats sailing. We were in the PHRF-A class against J109 Afterthought. Purple Wahoos is a shoal draft wheel driven J105.

The RC got the race started about 15 minutes late. That was enough time for us to sail over to what would be the finishing mark and get a ping on it allowing us to find it later in the dark. The start was downwind- we approached at the pin and set the chute just after crossing the line. The rest of the legs would end up being somewhere between upwind and reaching. I trimmed jib, navigated, did pit and drove half of a leg.

We had a great race and managed to correct to 1st in our fleet and 2nd overall.

PICTURES | RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , , ,

For Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Offshore Fall Series #4 I was aboard the weather mark boat with Justin running marks for the races. The wind was steady out of the west making it easy to set the course once for both races. With winds in the upper teens and temperatures in the 60’s – there was some spirited racing and it was fun to watch. Definitely interesting to see which boats were trying hard and making mistakes versus the boats that took it a little easier and were less aggressive, but made fewer mistakes.

VIDEO | PICTURES

By Posted on Posted in Life, Sailboat Racing, Video No Comments Tagged with , , , , ,

Excitation

Saturday was the 3rd day in the Fishing bay Yacht Club Offshore Fall Series and I sailed aboard Mayo Tabb’s Farr-Dickenson 37 Excitation. It started out overcast with some occasional drizzle with winds 14-18 out of the SW. We were short handed with only 6 on board precluding use of the spinnaker most of the day. We made the most of it and focused on good upwind legs and made a lot less mistakes than those flying chutes and the short 1-mile legs allowed us to be competitive. All in all it was a fun day of 3 races.

RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , , ,

With all the debris floating down the bay from the dam release a couple weeks ago, today’s Smith Point Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club was moved up to be a morning start so that it could be sailed almost entirely during daylight instead of finishing late at night as it usually does.  I sailed aboard Mayo Tabb’s Farr 37 Excitation and we started out with a nice 8-10 knot breeze. After the first two short legs to get out of the river we put up a reaching chute and followed the J109 and J105 and Nanuq flying an asymmetrical spinnaker up the bay to Smith Point against the current.

Corryvreckan had a great first 2/3 of the leg leading the J109 Afterthought until Afterthought changed to a reaching kite and pulled back ahead.  Excitation was the 4th PRHF-A boat to round and rounded in a little over 3 hours which is very fast for this race.  On the trip back south it started closehauled and after about an hour Excitation was the first to put up a chute again.  This time we put up a big reaching spinnaker.  Nanuq put up their asymmetrical and as the wind died we were able to work around them heading south.

When we got even with Reedville we saw some storms start to pass over Deltaville and the Pianankatank. We took the chute down and put up a heavy #1.  We caught the backside of the storms and saw some gusts up to 20 and spent some time getting light rain. We reefed the main and went upwind very well in the conditions and worked our way around both Nanuq and Corryvreckan.

Back up the Piankatank for the finish we were 12 minutes ahead of Nanuq and a few minutes ahead of Corryvreckan for a 2nd place overall finished. It was fun racing with Bonnie, Mayo, Chad, Carrie, Dennis and Chris. The only casualty on the day was my GoPro camera that got hung up in a line and ripped from the stern pulpit and sent to the bottom of the bay.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmo8Jpmnwas/

RESULTS | PICTURES

Red dotted line shows our track starting about halfway up to Smith Point:

By Posted on Posted in Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

9/1 Stingray Light Distance Race - Mad Hatter

The Stingray Light Distance Race kicks off Labor Day weekend with a distance race as part of the Stingray Point Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. I was sailing on Mad Hatter for the day and we knew the weather was going to deteriorate as the remnants of Hurricane Harvey moved into the area bringing light rain and cooler temperatures.

The course started near Stingray Point and sent us straight out into the bay.  The ENE wind made it a beat out.  We rounded a mark and came back towards Stove Point on a reach under genoa and main.  Goin’ was the closest competitor to us and we mostly were able to hold even and stay ahead until we started reaching more and they were able to plane.  Despite the drizzle it was fun being out and sailing.

RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , , , ,