Posts containing various videos I’ve produced.
Saturday at the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship started out with the wind too light for sailing. So what did we do with 45 Laser Masters sailors while waiting for the wind to fill?
PADDLE BOARD RACES!
Lucky for us the wind filled a short time later and we got to go racing! Regatta Results | Sailing Video
Tomorrow starts the 2013 Down The Bay Race and I’ll be racing on the Farr-Dickinson 37′ Excitation owned by Mayo Tabb from Fishing Bay Yacht Club. We’ll be sailing with 8 other boats in the A2 fleet among 32 boats sailing the race. They range from 24′ to 52′. Here’s the scratch sheet.
The typical wind for the Chesapeake Bay this time of the year is out of the south, sometimes the west and occasionally the east. When it blows out of the North it’s often not for long. This is a rare year that the wind will be blowing strong out of the North from the start of the race in Annapolis to the finish in Hampton. It’s almost certain that the course record of 13 hours by Running Tide, a 60 foot Sparkman and Stevens design owned by Al van Metre,
will fall this weekend. It’s possible half the A fleet might finish under the record. Either way it’s going to be a wild ride and we are going to have a blast!
Friday morning we set out on Excitation – a Farr-Dickinson 37 for the Down The Bay Race from Annapolis to Hampton in what would be an epic race. The forecast was for north west wind moving north and bringing the wind right down the bay making for a very fast trip south. Sailing the race were 30 boats ranging in size from a 24-foot J-24 to a 52′ TP52.
The race started just after 10am in Annapolis with winds in the mid-20’s and light drizzle. We got underway in the A2 fleet and headed down the bay on a broad reach under full main and #1 (our largest headsail). Many of the boats with asymmetrical spinnakers were able to carry them and they all just took off. Some of the symmetric boats were able to carry them as well. For the early part of the race we just cruised along rarely under 8 knots and with 1-2 knots of favorable current we averaged over 9.5 knots over the ground for the first 3/4 of the race.
Every hour we switched off drivers and main trimmers. They were both working hard keeping the boat moving through the 4′ seas in the early part of the race. We’d surf waves when we could and all competed to see who could drive for the top speed of the day. At first we thought hitting 11 knots was fast. Before long we were getting bored with only hitting 10 knots in a boat that rates 87 PHRF.
About 1/3 of the way into the race the waves stabilized a bit and the wind was down into the low twenties and we tried to put a small kite up. It was a bit squirrely and we just couldn’t keep the boat under the sail. Eventually we lost it, almost broached and wrapped the chute around the head stay a few times. After a few tense minutes trying to unwrap it and get it down we got it on deck and continued under main and the number 1.
By mid-afternoon we were approaching the mouth of the Potomac. The Potomac is a very large river with a lot of current that comes out of it and into the bay. Here we found the most confused seas and with waves now 4-6′ it was a handful to keep the boat going especially with random waves that would occasionally break into the cockpit.
South of the Potomac the waves got a little more regular and the wind stayed in the 25-32 knot range. Occasionally we saw low 20’s and up to 36. Through this part of the course we continued reaching along the rhumb line.
Last year at 5:30 am we were passing the Piankatank River (our normal FBYC sailing area just south of the Rappahannock River). This year we were there by 5:30pm and making fantastic time down the bay. As we got into the lower part of the bay the wind stayed steadier in the 28-32 range and the waves built to 6-8′ and even some 10′ for the final 20 miles down the bay before rounding a channel marker and taking a right turn to sail the last 9 miles into Hampton. It was this downwind stretch that we did some of our fastest sailing. Not because we were trying to push it, we weren’t – we were trying to sail conservative and safe, but because we had to sail the boat entirely by feel with almost no light to see the waves with. It just felt right to go fast.
At one point we just dropped into a 6’+ wave and it felt awesome with a nice trough to our right and I just rode it for all I could. It was just like sailing a dinghy down waves – except this was a 11,000lb 37′ boat. We had hit some 12 knots earlier – but on that wave I hit 13.46 knots through the water. What a rush to have such a big boat slicing across the water like that.
At the final mark to the finish we’d have to go from broad reaching to close reaching. With full main and number 1 genoa up we knew that would be a challenge – and it was. With no way to carry the genoa, let alone the main, we had a very difficult time getting the genoa down so we could finish under main alone.
The course record was around 13 hours set by a 60′ boat back in 1974. We finished at 30 minutes after midnight which was in 14 hours – just one hour off the record. Over 1/3 of the boats sailing finished under the old race record. The new record holder – the TP52 Irie finished in just 7 hours. They were at the bar just after 5:30 pm. That’s an amazing record that’s going to stand for a very long time. Full Results.
We docked shortly after 1 and it was a relief to all be back safe and sound and on dry land. We swapped stories with other sailors in the bar. Only 2 boats wouldn’t finish the race – one after a demasting. Eventually we all just crashed on the boat – exhausted from an epic ride we won’t soon forget. (Update: Watch some video of our trip here)
I’d like to thank owner Mayo Tabb for doing the race this year and having me and to the other crew who did a great job keeping us going in some very difficult conditions.
We had as good of conditions as we could have asked for on the first day of racing at the Annapolis NOOD Regatta. Sailing in the J/109 fleet aboard Afterthought we had a pretty good day going 3-2-5 and ending up 3rd in the 7-boat fleet. We sailed on the southern-most course by Tolly Point and had winds building through the 10-17+ knot range.
In race one we had a tough start and had to tack out. We were DFL around the windward mark. We enjoyed watching that on the big screen at the race party knowing we made some smart moves on the rest of the race to claw our way up to a 3rd.
In the 2nd race we got a great start and picked the first upwind well and just extended the entire race. Rush was just ahead of us and while we could almost hang with them, we certainly weren’t closing on them.
For the 3rd race we had another good start and for this race the fleet stayed bunched on the first windward leg. We were 3 or 4 downwind and then on the 2nd upwind we ended up on the wrong side of a shift and dropped to 6th. Picked up on boat downwind to finish 5th putting us into 3rd overall – 3 points out of 2nd and 5 points ahead of 4th.
Tomorrow we’re expecting a little lighter winds and a chance to move up a bit.
With winds up and down it was a tough day on the water today. We’re still 3rd on points, but ceded a few points and are tied with several boats very close behind us. We’ll need a few good results tomorrow to stay on the podium. All in all our maneuvers went much better than yesterday, but we did find ourselves on the wrong side of some shifts making it hard to stay in the top spots.
Racing today was in anywhere from 5 knots all the way up into the mid-teens in the last race of the day with mostly sunny skies and temperatures comfortable in the 60-70’s. I’d have more pictures today, but the camera with all of the shots on it was left in the boat for the night.
This seemed to be the story of my day… more overrides on the winch in a day of racing than I think I’ve had in years of racing.
Here is a Spinsheet photo of us approaching a mark during racing on Friday (I’m on the low side about to ease the jib):
Lighter winds and cooler temperatures for the final day of the Annapolis NOOD regatta. We gave it what we had, but just weren’t able to improve our score in the final two races. With winds up and down and forming lanes up and down the course, we just weren’t able to string enough pressure together to keep us moving. Despite the scores, it was still a fun weekend and I want to thank Craig & Susan Wright on Afterthought for having me along.
Photos above courtesy of Carrie Russell
Got to sail a Front Runner in the One Design Opening day with Paul as crew. Started out with winds reaching the low teens and it dropped from there through 3 races. The first race was mostly getting re-acclimated to the boat. In the 2nd and 3rd races we had great starts and got around the course in 2nd. We just couldn’t seem to catch the speed of David and Rob who had 3 bullets and won the day.
This morning I got out on the Laser for some practice in a sunny 5-8 knot breeze out of the North in Fishing Bay.
In the afternoon I went out for a sail on the J70 Nostalgia for its Chesapeake Bay debut with Lud, Miles, Den and Durwood.
Part 2 of the Snowshoe Mountain Resort trip: