Another beautiful Friday night for some J/70 sailing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. This evening I was sailing with Steve Quiriconi on his new boat Hotty Toddy along with Jerry Latell. Steve and Jerry had been out earlier in the afternoon to get everything setup and tuned and so the three of us got out to the race course a little early to practice some maneuvers.
In the 4 races tonight we did pretty well. The very short line made for very tight and late starts, but the shifty winds meant anyone could catch a shift up the beats. We did well to keep up with the leaders and got through our maneuvers pretty well without any major goofs. We even did some gybe sets and a Mexican take down at one point.
The final race was 2 laps and then the trip up the channel back to the dock. We were the first boat to legally complete the course and a nice way to end the night and the first time out for the boat.
The ace Front Runner team of Matt and A.L. Braun were back for this regatta and swept all 4 races. The Garrett clan of Waddy and Parker sharing the helm with Caroline crewing just seemed to edge us out downwind to take 4 second places on the day. The racing was close and we didn’t make any major mistakes, we just couldn’t hang with the other two boats.
By the last race we had pretty much locked in 3rd place so I handed the tiller to Tommy who got to skipper his first race in a double-handed boat.
We started the July 4 weekend with some J/70 racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. We had 6 boats out in 12-16 knots of wind for a few races. I was on Nostalgia with Blake Kimbrough, Julia Page and Tommy Roper.
This photo was right after we finally got a correct spinnaker set. It only took us 4 laps to get it right. On the plus side we got a lot better at outside gybes.
Such a great time to play some soccer at the end of the day. Literally put blood, sweat and tears into this… after I got hit with a soccer ball while filming and the camera cut my forehead, and tears when I missed the sudden death penalty kick putting my team out of the final. Was a fun video to make and there’s never been a better time for me to start a rap career on the side.
This evening I ran some races for a couple of J/70’s out practicing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. What a beautiful night and a great way to start the weekend!
It was another beautiful day for racing at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the 3rd day of the Offshore Spring Series. I was again on Wavelength for the 3 races on a mostly sunny day with temps in the high 70’s and wind that varied from 19-8.
The first race had the most wind and we started out with the No2 and a reef in the main. We did well at the start by staying away from the faster boats that outpoint us and we were able to make progress upwind albeit a little under powered. On a tack halfway up the beet we shook the reef out. The rest of the way around the course went well, but we couldn’t catch the 3 boats ahead of us and settled for a 4th.
In the 2nd race we lined up next to Voodoo 2 and had to take their bad air off the starting line for a while until we could clear the B boats and tack out. We kept up on the upwind leg, but it was the downwind legs where we shined and made up time on each leg. By the 2nd upwind leg the wind had dipped even more and we put up the #1. We barely missed 2nd place by 15 seconds.
The 3rd race didn’t start so well for us. We were over early and had to park it and let the fleet sail by so we could turn around and restart. Starting so far behind everyone made us get creative on the first beat and we banged the right corner (photo above) while most of the rest of the fleet went left which had been working all day. Sure enough the wind went right and we caught right back up to the fleet. Unfortunately, we would get stuck with the bottom 2 boats trying to cover each other for a position and ended up as collateral damage never being able to break free and chase the boats ahead of us and we settled for 4th.
We’re currently in 2nd place for the series and we got one more race day left next Saturday. With a good result we should be able to hang onto 2nd.
Following racing a storm rolled through throwing a 420 into one of the RIBs onshore and bashing Mad Hatter at the dock. I’ve seen some storms roll through and I’ve been at the club for some pretty serious tropical and nor’easters, but I’ve never seen a storm come up so quickly and with such intensity. Thankfully everyone was ashore and safe.
We had quite a day for the final day of the Annapolis NOOD Regatta – plenty of wind and plenty more excitement. The forecast was for it to start into the low teens building with gusts into the 20s. Only two races were planned.
During the first downwind leg of the first race we had trouble with a gybe and broached. Not fun seeing the cockpit coamings in the water and going sideways while the fleet sails by.
I did learn a few things about J/22s this weekend – particularly how beat up a bow guy gets in a breeze!
Thanks again to Art Silcox for having me on his J/22. It was a pleasure sailing with him and Mike Waters.
