I started the day at Hampton Yacht Club where a team from Fishing Bay Yacht Club was invited to a scrimmage Team Racing Sonars. We started with a quick recap/overview/planning in a classroom and then the team of 11 FBYC sailors were split into 3 boats for our team and Hampton took the other 3 boats. We spent a couple hours doing drills and practicing team race maneuvers against the Hampton team. The wind was in the low to mid teens which made boat handling a little more challenging, particularly for the FBYC sailors who hadn’t had a lot of time together nor a lot of time in Sonars. But we still were able to put on a good showing and I think it was a very successful scrimmage for both teams. A big thank you to Gary Bodie and Hampton Yacht Club for having us!
Immediately after getting off the water in Hampton, I got on the road to Deltaville to sail Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s Moonlight Regatta on Wavelength. The start was delayed 30 minutes while some weather approached the area, but never really came near us. Out on the water we had beautiful sailing conditions with mostly clear skies and a steady 12-15 out of the south. None of the overcast and occasional rain we had seen in Hampton earlier in the day.
We started at 8pm and sailed out of the Piankatank with the sun setting behind us just a short time later. I grabbed this shot of Mad Hatter just behind us passing in front of the sunset. Just goes to show that the best pictures don’t necessarily come from the best camera, but from the camera you’ve got. This was a 2-take photo taken with the iphone. Here’s an alternate version of it on Instagram.
The race went pretty well and we had a good group aboard for sailing at night. I was jib grinder for the first 3 legs, spin trimmer downwind, and drove the last 2 legs upwind. We finished around 10:30. While we didn’t make the podium, the ice cream smothered in rum after racing was reward enough.
Results | More photos from today starting here.
Saturday was the final day of racing for the offshore boats at Fishing Bay Yacht Club followed by an oyster roast. The race was a pursuit style race where the slower boats start first and the times are calculated so everyone should finish about the same time. I was aboard Wavelength and for once it was great having boats of all sizes all around us for most of the race. We ended up finishing 9th in the 17-boat fleet while sailing in winds that started around 8 knots and built to as much as 23 knots during the 1 1/2 hour race. On top of that we were short-handed with only 6 on board and flew the spinnaker.
