On Friday the Annual Down The Bay Race starts in Annapolis, Maryland and races to Hampton, Virginia.  I’ll be aboard Glenn Doncaster’s Sabre 42.6 Nanuq from Fishing Bay Yacht Club.

Here’s the breakdown of the 39 boats that will be taking part.  I’ll be posting updates and pictures as time permits on Twitter: @jondeutsch.

 

4/28 Spring Series #3lining up at the start

Saturday’s Offshore Spring Series #3 at Fishing Bay Yacht Club wasn’t the best weather day.  We did one race in very light wind against a stiff current for the first leg.  The second race was abandoned after the wind died and many boats anchored to hold position on the ‘upwind’.  Still in 3rd for the Series.

IMG_1898

Saturday was a beautiful day for racing and Wavelength had a great day at Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Offshore Spring Series #2.   We had good boat speed, good crew work and manged to go 3-2-1-4 in 4 races putting us into 3rd overall for the series. Results.

Photo: Andrea Winner

4/14 Opening DayJon Deutsch trimming the spinnaker as we go downwind.

Got the sailing season off to a great start on Saturday with the Opening Day Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club sailing aboard the C&C37 Wavelength.  We did one 12.5 mile race out around the channel buoys to the entrance of the Rappahannock River and back.  We did some great sailing which included a spinnaker peel and managed to finish 2nd in some very close racing – only 36 seconds separated the top 4 boats on corrected time.  Results and Pictures.

Saturday I sailed in Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Smith Point Race aboard the Farr 37 Excitation.  It was a 57 mile race out of the Piankatank River, east across the bay and then north near the mouth of the Potomac River and then back to the entrance to Jackson Creek.

It took about 13 hours to sail.  The first 2 1/2 hours were in little to no wind.  From the start most of the fleet continue on starboard towards the mouth of the Rappahannock before tacking towards our mark.  We spent our time in the light wind sailing on port along shore and out of the current.  We picked the layline pretty well from over 10 miles out and were first around the mark.  Being the furthest south and the first to catch the sea breeze certainly helped.

Aboard Excitation
Aboard Excitation

We led for a little while longer, but soon the faster J109, Afterthought, passed us heading downwind as we sailed North up the bay to Smith Point.  It was this leg where the sun set and the wind increased into the mid-teens.  After rounding  Smith Point around 11pm we slogged upwind for another 3 1/2 hours to the finish.

Afterthought
Afterthought passing us downwind as the sun set.

That was the longest offshore race I’ve ever sailed and doing most of the driving upwind was a good experience.  In the end we finished 2nd – only a minute and 43 seconds out of 1st place. We had a good crew, ate well, and we all enjoyed the trip.  Thanks Mayo Tabb for taking me along!

RESULTS

Saturday was my first time back to Deltaville since the Tornado came through last weekend.  I was surprised to see how much had already been cleaned up and put back together.  With last weeks racing cancelled, this was the first day of offshore sailing and I was aboard Wavelength. It was a bit cloudy, but warm and we saw 15 knots with gusts to 30. It was a bit wild at times with the kite up in winds over 25.

Here’s some video of the damage and some highlights from FBYC’s Offshore Spring Series #2.

Another great weekend in Deltaville.  Saturday was probably the last regatta I am going to sail in for the year.  It was the Sail Against SIDS/Indian Summer Regatta and we had 3 lasers out.  I can’t say I sailed very smart, missing things like the number of laps and major wind shifts.  But I made up for it by being fast and won 5 close races.  It was fun sailing with Mike and Steve and I want to thank Allan’s crew for putting up with me always wanting our fleet to sail a different course than the other fleets.

FBYC Fall Series #2 Upwind

Sunday was the Offshore Fall Series #2 at Fishing Bay Yacht Club.  I ran the mark boat with Miles.  With a strong, cool north wind, we sailed the races in Fishing Bay.  Occasional light rain added a little misery. It’s always a sight seeing 15-20 twenty to forty footers racing in the shifty conditions in the Piankatank.

Lining up the marks
My only real responsibility as the mark boat: making sure the marks all line up with the committee boat.

Despite the bad weather, I was able to get some pictures of the action that can be seen here.

Wavelength Crew Leukemia Cup

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.

FBYC Opening Day Flag Raising

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!