2013 Commonwealth of Virginia Junior Championship Regatta
Photographed the Commonwealth of Virginia Junior Championship Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club on Sunday. Here are all of the photos, and here are some of my favorites:
Category: Photography
2012 Favorite Photos
Another year and more of my favorite photos. Here are my favorites from 2012:
LOVE at Grace and Adrien’s wedding February 25.
Laser Frostbiting at Severn Sailing Association March 4th.
Sailing to Wolf Trap Light House on May 13.
Sun setting over the harbor in Marblehead MA behind the Canon at Eastern Yacht Club on May 18 during the Laser Atlantic Coast Championship.
Toronto Canada during the Laser Canadian Nationals at Etobicoke Yacht Club, June 22.
June 30th Sunset on Lake Michigan at Muskegon.
Aboard Wavelength during the Race to Smith Point August 18.
September 19 boats anchored in Fishing Bay at Sunset.
Here’s the Richmond Skyline From Belle Isle on September 25.
Lasers returning to shore at Fishing Bay Yacht Club during the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship on October 14.
ECU’s entrance onto the field before the Houston game at home on November 11.
December 19 on a Richmond Tacky Light Bus Tour.
Cameras
Recalling the many cameras I’ve had over the years.
2012 District 12 Championship
Friday
Arrived at the Columbia Sailing Club this evening and ready to sail the District 12 Championship tomorrow!
Saturday
We had a great first day of the District 12 Championship at Columbia Sailing Club in Columbia South Carolina. We sailed 5 races that at some point in each of the races we had 4 knots and 10 knots. In the lighter winds I did well on the first upwind leg most races and worked hard to hold onto my spot on the downwinds. I put up a 3-2-8-1-2 and am currently 2 points out of first behind John Potter from Beaufort SC. Tomorrow will be another light air day and hopefully I can keep up the top 3 finishes to have a shot at the title.
Provisional Results (the winner in race 3 will be RET and everyone moves up one)
Sunday
The forecast for the last day of the Laser District 12 Championship was for light air and as we were sailing out to the race course we had great wind – 10-12 knots. By our 10am start it had dropped at bit and it continued to go down from there. Today was a basically a two-boat race. Unless I put up two DFLs it would have been hard not to get 2nd place. Once a drop would be factored in, I was effectively 1 point behind John Potter, so it would come down to today’s races as to who won the regatta.
In our first race today I had a crummy start – I just about won the boat, but had no boat speed at the start. John was to leeward of me and was a boat length and a half ahead when I crossed the line. I took a big duck and headed out right while he sailed to the left. Wanting to consolidate I came back to the middle having made up some ground, but John tacked on me and forced me back to the right. On the middle right of the course I had better pressure and got in front of John, but the boats who went left did much better than us putting me around 6th and John several boats behind me by the time we rounded.
Downwind John caught up a few boats and on the 2nd upwind I stuck to the middle of the course while John went to the left. When we got to the top 3rd of the course a 50-degree righty came in and I laid the mark while John out to the left still had to tack to fetch it. At the mark there was one boat between us and downwind I worked to pass one boat on the way to the finish. With two boats between us that put me 1 point ahead of John.
After the race we sat on the course for half an hour with no prospect of wind and the race committee abandoned racing for the rest of the day and I won the District 12 Championship Regatta. Not only was John great competition this weekend, but so were sailors such as Rob Bowden who would have beat both John and I had he not been OCS twice. All in all it was a fun regatta and I got to visit a an awesome club who put on a great and I got meet a lot of new District 12 sailors.
All but the last photo courtesy of Joe Reyes
Richmond Skyline From Belle Isle
Richmond Skyline from Belle Isle yesterday evening.
2012 Deep Creek Laser Invitational
We had some nice weather and some wind for at least the first half of the Deep Creek Laser Invitational allowing us to get in 4 races on Saturday. I put up a 3-1-1-2 and finished 1st in the 19-boat Standard fleet. Sunday we went out, spent 25 minutes sailing 2 legs and they abandoned and eventually sent us in without any races having not had any wind all day.
Saturday, we went out at 10:30 in partial fog for our 11am start. After a brief postponement we got the first race underway. I had a good start, winning the boat end, but my first two tacks weren’t so good and I found myself 8th at the windward mark. From there I chipped away at boats and got to 3rd at the finish.
In the 2nd race I had another great start and just picked the shifts up the beat and got a nice lead. Darren Van Hutton and Meredith Hillyer, both on-the-lake sailors, both had great downwind speed and always seemed to catch up to me a bit. Upwind I seemed to be able to pick the shifts right and would pull back ahead. As we approached the last downwind mark with just a short beat left to the finish, there was a pontoon boat fishing just 5 feet upwind of the leeward mark. To make matters worse, he had a line out to the right of the mark and he was reeling in ‘something big’ and was refusing to move.
I wound up having to sail 20 feet to the right of the mark to get around his fishing line and just as I was rounding the mark and the boat, I realized he had another line out the other way. Only this one was in the air for about 40 feet so I couldn’t even attempt to sail over it. I was really wishing I had a pocket knife with me. The leader of the Radial fleet who was sailing a shorter course was right next to me with non of his competition in sight, and Meredith was about 10 lengths behind me with the rest of our fleet another 20 lengths behind her. All 3 of us ended up having to sail about 40-50 feet on starboard on a close reach just to get to where the fishing line hit the water where we could pull our boards up and sneak over it. Meredith almost caught up to me and I was able to stay about a boat length ahead of her at the finish.
For the 3rd race, I was going to try to win the boat again, but realized with about a minute and a half left to go that we were likely to get a big lefty at the start. I made my way down to the pin where I was all alone except for one other boat. At the gun I was able to tack onto port and built a pretty comfortable lead by the first mark. By the top mark of the 2nd beat Meredith caught up a bit and rode a nice puff around the mark and downwind on the inside lane putting her just ahead of me. Eventually that petered out and the wind filled back in from the outside and he angle allowed me to get back just ahead through the finish.
After a lunch break (where I filmed this cool time lapse of the fleet coming in) we went back out for one more race in the afternoon. At the start it was clear that left was favored so most of the faster boats were starting there. Right at the gun the wind went left which ended up rafting up 6 of us top of the pin. We couldn’t tack out because the rest of the fleet was on starboard so we just each took our turn bouncing off the pin, sailing out to the left, doing our turn and heading upwind. By then we were clear astern of most of the fleet.
I worked my way up the left and was about 4th at the windward mark. The lead pack went wide on the downwind leg and sailed into a hole while I headed down the inside with Meredith, Daryl and Margaret Podlich just behind me. They ended up reeling me in as they rode a puff down and just as Daryl and Margaret were passing me, Daryl death rolled. Margaret had just enough of an overlap at the mark to take it and I wound up following just behind her the rest of the course to finish 2nd.
With a 3-1-1-2 I was in 1st place in the 19-boat fleet with 2nd place 5 points behind me. We spent the evening with a nice dinner at the club.
Sunday we were initially postponed on shore and they sent us out once the wind filled in a bit. After chasing the wind around a few directions they set a course and started us. I had a pretty abismal start, but picked some shifts up the middle of the course in 2 knots of wind to round the mark in 6th. As we were at the top mark the wind was in transition and shifting about 100 degrees and a few minutes later the RC abandoned the race. We sat on the course for 25 minutes waiting for the wind to settle down and the RC sent us in for lunch. The wind never settled, so they never sent us back out and thus the regatta stood as is.
LOVE
Just wanted to get one picture posted from this afternoon’s wedding of Grace and Adrien at the Clover Forest Plantation. Credit to Keith Andes for the idea to do this. Here’s the video.
Cheapeake Laser Masters Photo on Cover of The Laser Sailor
A photo of mine from the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship back in October was selected for the cover of the International Laser Class Association – North American Region newsletter: The Laser Sailor.
The photo features David Schoene and Keith Davids in a close finish during the 1st race on Saturday.
Nikon D7000 Pelican Case
I’m planning on doing a lot of sailing this summer and when I’m on bigger boats than my Laser I want to be able to have my Nikon D7000 DSLR close at hand. I can’t use the camera while I’m actually sailing, but there will be plenty of downtime while aboard when there is no splashing and I could easily pull the camera out if it were handy. I plan to use the camera for both stills and video so I’ll need to have extra batteries and a Sennheiser MKE400 Shotgun Microphone. To make this work, I need:
- A hard case that would absolutely protect the camera no matter what was thrown on top of it
- A waterproof case that could take some splashes, rain or even a little water over the bow
- A case that is as small and light as possible to save weight and space
- A case with a handle so it could be tied into the boat or tethered in place
I found the Pelican Storm iM2075 for $45 that was just the right size for Nikon D7000 and a 17-55mm lens without the grip or my side-plate mounted microphone holder. It’ll fit the camera with the lens hood, plus the microphone, 3 EN-EL15 batteries and a couple of AAA batteries for the microphone.
Completed case with camera and accessories in place:
Basic case with foam:
The case comes with two pieces of foam blocks. I cut one of them roughly in half to form the bottom of the case that the camera will rest on.
Used toothpicks to plot the size of the camera on the foam on the uncut block foam:
Remove the 1cm x 1cm foam squares for a custom fit around the camera:
Put 1/2 of the foam in the bottom of the case, and then cut 2 of the 1cm blocks at half of their height so that the AAA batteries are sitting on foam and not the bottom of the case where they’ll clank and make noise:
Put the customized piece of foam over the flat piece of foam and put the Camera and batteries in place:
I then added the strap to the camera and placed the Sennheiser mic alongside the camera:
2011 Favorite Photos
Now that the year is over I wanted to reflect on my favorite photos from 2011. Here’s the 2010 edition.
April 16, 2011 a stormy sunset over Annapolis. (This was the actual lighting, no processing whatsoever).
April 29, 2011 Sunset over the sound in Wrightsville Beach NC during the 2011 Laser Atlantic Coast Championship.
May 28, 2011 Race to Urbanna looking back at the fleet sailing under the Rappahannock River Bridge.
July 8, 2011 Leukemia Cup Regatta Voodoo2, Double Eagle and Afterthought sailing downwind.
August 20, 2011 Smith Point Race – Afterthought passing by a setting sun.
August 27, 2011 Sitting in the dark while Hurricane Irene pummels VA.
October 1, 2011 tailgate tent with the sky behind during the ECU vs. UNC tailgate.
October 15, 2011 Lasers getting ready to head out on the water at Fishing Bay Yacht Club during the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.
October 15, 2011 a close finish at the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.
October 16, 2011 Fleet start at the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.
October 16, 2011 Fleet sailing downwind at the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.
October 16, 2011 Fleet sailing downwind past Mr. Roberts during the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.
October 29, 2011 Sunset during the ECU vs Tulane game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.